Californians are spotting swarms of dragonflies flitting around parks, chasing mosquitoes in ponds and hunting flies on farms, a phenomenon experts say was likely fueled by unusually warm spring rains.Peter Veilleux, who owns a nursery in Oakland, said he started noticing the dragonflies — at one point spotting about 100 flying together — while walking his dog at a park near his house and around the city’s Lake Merritt.“It’s been amazing to see them,” Veilleux said, adding that he started seeing big groups of dragonflies last month.
A dragonfly rests on a plant at the Lake Merritt Dragonfly Habitat Garden in Oakland, California, on Friday.
He was so awed by the sight that he posted about it on Facebook, asking if anyone else was seeing the formidable predators in such large numbers. Dozens of people commented about their own sightings in the San Francisco Bay Area and elsewhere in California.It is common to see dragonflies during the summer months, when they emerge from freshwater as flying insects. However, this year’s large numbers are probably due to the warm monsoon storms that came through the state in late spring and early summer, said Kathy Biggs, a dragonfly expert and co-author of the book Dragonflies of California.
