In honor of those living in this spectacular spot on earth, the Sugar Hill Improvement Association is sponsoring a talk about one of nature’s spectacular species....dragonflies.

Sugar Hill resident Carl Martland has been a keen observer of nature for years, and has spent hours watching dragonflies, photographing them, and in keeping with his scientific background, cataloguing them and organizing them.

Carl writes:

“Why do I love dragonflies? .....Go to a pond or a stream any sunny day in the summer and you will see dragonflies and damselflies. Some will be posing for a few seconds on rocks, logs, wildflowers, shrubs or anything else that could serve as a perch. Others will just be flying back and forth, seldom if ever landing, in and out along the shoreline or in and around the cattails. Most will be colorful, and some will have astounding patterns or splashes of color on their bodies or their wings. Some will be flying in pairs, some will be laying eggs, some will be hunting for their lunch, and one or two might be caught in a spider web.

I am just an amateur observer of nature, but I have a camera with a powerful zoom, I am patient, I spend a lot of time watching dragonflies, and I take a lot of photos. And I have figured out how to organize my notes and photos so that I can quickly find whatever I am looking for. So, my presentation will be filled with photos of the more than two dozen species of dragonflies that you too could find in the fields and wetlands near wherever you live in the North Country. And I will add some photos of more exotic species that are common in other parts of the country, but, like many other flatlanders, never make it north of the notches.”