While fishing Hardy Pond last week, I took a break on the edge of the impoundment. A fly fisherman always loves to see things emerge, and I witnessed one of the coolest things in nature seen in a while. A green darner nymph crawled out of the water onto a rock. As its skin parched in the sun, it suddenly split open and a very large dragon fly was born.

When I showed an image to some friends, one commented that the dragon looked like “the paint on a new sports car”–this is good description.

Using the time lapse function on the camera, this video was made. It is a very short clip that shows in seconds what happened over the course of 45 minutes:

Kevin Feenstra