Mayfly Hatch

Last evening at about 6:30 p.m., I spotted from the living room what appeared to be dozens of dragonflies swarming around the northeast corner of Crescent Lake, their wings illuminated by the low-lying sun. When I put my bincoculars on them, I realized that they were not dragonflies, but mayflies, hundreds—perhaps thousands—of them having just emerged from the shallow waters of the lake. This is very exciting, as most species of mayflies are generally quite pollution-sensitive, meaning that their presence in or on a body of water is considered an indication of good water quality.