Murray,

We think these Variegated Meadowhawks were individuals that had
emerged all over the Northwest, at least north into southern BC. They
were heading for California and/or Mexico. These migratory
individuals surely live at least several months, but unlike the
monarchs, it is their offspring that migrate north in the spring,
descendants of the migratory individuals that had bred down there
during the winter. Those spring individuals then breed up here, and
it is their offspring that make the southbound migration. Two
generations per year, each of which does something quite different.
Very neat, and different from both birds and butterflies. The Common
Green Darner, our state insect, has a similar life cycle.

Dennis
----------

On Sep 11, 2007, at 7:41 PM, MurrayH at aol.com wrote:

> I've been lucky enough to see migrating Monarch Butterflies in the
> thousands migrate through Point Pelee but have never seen migrating
> dragonflies-- the butterflies flew over me endlessly; there was an
> absence of sound and the air moving on my face. . . .
> Don't dragonflies have a short life span? Where were they
> coming from and where were they going? It must have been an
> extraordinary sight! Maybe, some day . . . Murray
>
>
> (Mrs.) Murray Hansen
> Graham, WA
> MurrayH at aol.com
>
> -------------
>
> From: "Doug Schonewald" <dschone8 at donobi.net>
> Date: September 10, 2007 7:53:45 PM PDT
> To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Subject: [Tweeters] Ocean Shores/Bottle Beach/Tokeland
>
>
> Hi Tweets,
>
> We spent the weekend on the outer coast (wish we had been here in
> the basin
> for the migrants that appeared over the weekend). Most of the usual
> suspects
> were viewed over the weekend and have been posted already by a
> multitude of
> birders. We did have a few unusual findings.
>
> Saturday we found a Black-legged Kittiwake at the Ocean Shores STP.
> I would
> think this is an unusual location for such a bird. We took some
> reasonable
> photos of the bird and it then flew off into the afternoon sun over
> the bay.
>
> Sunday we searched for the Magnolia and Tennessee at Paulson Road
> but did
> not find either. However it was nice to see such a large group of
> birds that
> we do not often see on the dry, hot eastern side. Our best bird of the
> weekend came at Bottle Beach where we gave up on the incoming tide
> (almost
> no shorebirds) and located a GRASSHOPPER SPARROW near the creek
> crossing
> bridge. We did not realize how good a find this was until we
> arrived home
> today.
>
> The other fabulous sight was a southbound migration of dragonflies at
> Tokeland Sunday that numbered over 20,000 and was still going
> strong when I
> left.
>
> Cheers
>
> Doug Schonewald
> Moses Lake, WA
> --
-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net



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