As I looked out my window yesterday I saw a dragonfly near wires across the way. It seemed to be struggling with some problem I couldn’t see, but as the sunlight caught it just right I could see it had become entangled in a long single strand of cobweb. The spider-owner was nowhere in sight. It’s rare that a dragonfly stays in one place long enough to be photographed, so thinking this was an unusual opportunity I reached for a camera. Because of the distance,the dragonfly’s size and the limitations of the available camera I was not able to get a clear picture (the photo above from Wikipedia was certainly not the one I took). The photo I might have hoped to get actually comes from fir0002 | flagstaffotos.com.au

I didn’t want to leave my place yesterday. Somehow I felt hanging around to watch would help it in its struggle to become free again. As I watched, first one, then eventually 4 dragonflies, arrived circling around their caught compatriot. I thought they might be wanting to help free it, but from what I read in Wikipedia they might instead have had the intention to help eat it. After spending my afternoon at the beach, I arrived home dreading what I would see as I looked across to where the caught Dragonfly had been. It was gone! I had to imagine what the scenario was that I had missed. I decided that the outcome had been a good one. Its continual struggles had paid off, and it had freed itself. Any spider that might have owned the web would have been in danger of being eaten itself by the Dragonfly if it had come out to attempt to complete its web.