Going Outside for ‘Flight Season’

Epitheca cynosura (Common Baskettail) / © Bryan Pfeiffer

MY FLIGHT SEASON NOW BEGINS. Baskettail dragonflies, like that Common Baskettail above, are now on the wing here in Vermont. Warbler migration peaks this week — the second season of our Technicolor foliage. The meadows now twinkle with the blue and orange hues of butterfly light.

So now is my own time to retreat from glowing screens for the genuine glow outdoors. I’m pulling the plug and going outside to chase birds and insects as much as possible until September. I’ve written before about this retreat from the e-maelstrom — an aspiration of only moderate success on my part. So I’ll keep trying until I get it right.

Find me this summer in the tropical forests of Costa Rica, where Resplendent Quetzals, among the most elegant birds on Earth, beckon with long, wispy tail plumes.

Or look for me with a net besides a pond in central Pennsylvania, where Comet Darner dragonflies race around like red cruise missiles.

Or from the wetlands of Maine, wherever shocking orange-and-black Baltimore Checkerspot butterflies might be copulating, I’ll be there.

I’ll check email only now and then for urgent or necessary messages, and won’t respond to the horrific email backlog once I return to the routine of the glowing screens sometime in August. My occasional newsletter, Natural Selections, is now on summer vacation.

If you’d like to join me for some of the flight season, I’ll be teaching the dragonfly seminar and a co-teaching the moth and butterfly seminar at Eagle Hill Institute in Maine this summer.

Every so often, I’ll emerge from a cloud forest or meadow or bog to post updates about what I’m finding (or maybe to check the baseball standings). So stop by here at the blog when you get a chance. Or don’t.

But whenever you can, find your own time to unplug and get out onto the long, green path — even for just a few hours.

Maybe I’ll see you out there.

Comet Darner (Anax longipes) and Baltimore Checkerspots (Euphydryas phaeton) making more checkerspots. / © Bryan Pfeiffer