insects that appear aplenty in the summer, flourish where there’s plenty of water, sun and perches for resting their wings.
But, unlike the season’s other crop of insects that bite or buzz in your eyes, dragonflies actually diminish summer’s worst pests — think mosquitoes, gnats, wasps and even stinkbugs — by snacking on them.
Dragonfly enthusiasts prize the four-winged creatures for their beauty and rarity as much as their eating habits, and they say the Chesapeake Bay watershed is as good a place as any to become an enthusiast.
Lost River State Park was almost lost, a near casualty of Colonial era land speculation and Depression era hard times. Thankfully, West Virginia stepped in and bought this beauty in 1934, making it available for all to enjoy.
Today, the 3,712-acre state park in Mathias features 19 trails, including one that reaches Cranny Crow overlook and offers a stunning mountain view. The park also has an outdoor pool, tennis and volleyball courts, and riding stables.
At the edge of the gravel trail, a small, dark-brown salamander with mustard spots is limping off the footpath. It’s a spotted salamander, a member of the mole salamander family, and its tail looks as if a predator took a bite and didn’t like what it tasted (which, in this case, would be poisonous). The salamander is one symbol of the unique ecosystem that Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, VA, has helped preserve for the last 40 years.
When it came to Pennsylvania’s outdoors, there was little Ned Smith didn’t experience. He hiked, hunted and fished.
He filled volumes of loose-leaf binders with notes and drawings of his observations, turning them into magazine columns and, ultimately a book, “Gone for the Day.”
He was an avid photographer and dabbled with archeological digs along the Susquehanna River.