Jeff, you have got to tell me, how does one go about "capturing" Dragonflies?
Fred,
Remember, you asked... Here goes....
When Cathy and I have worked with orphaned tree swallows in the past we would feed them mostly meal worms and whatever flying bugs we could find. Sadly, we watched helplessly as one by one they would expire suddenly after they seemed to be growing and doing well.
Then, the last time around we found an orphaned runt in a house from which the siblings had fledged. At first I thought he was dead and started to throw him along with the old nest when he moved slightly. Once we realized he was alive we rushed back to the house with him.
Fortunately, Cathy had been following Mary's posts along with others on the PM forums discussing feeding scrambled eggs in bad weather. So we decided to try feeding eggs. For the first feeding we had to force a bit of food since he was so weak he would not eat on his own. Within a matter of hours he had perked up and was eating very well on his own (eating the eggs we offered on the end of a toothpick every two hours). See picture of Peep at http://www.michiganmartins.com/forum/vi ... .php?t=398 .
Fast forward to the dragon flies. As Peep got bigger we wanted to start supplementing the egg diet with natural foods he would need to depend on in the wild. This was more to avoid his developing a dependence on eggs than for dietary reasons, though it makes sense from a dietary point as well I believe. I also wanted him to get an idea of where the natural food comes from since he had no parents (other than Dad - me that is) to show him. So I started carrying him in one hand and walking around the house 'hunting' flying insects. I would hold him out in front of me so that he could observe and when I would catch a small flying insect I would then offer it to him. It was cool to watch how intense his interest was on flying bugs and I hoped he would make the direct connection by catching and feeding them directly to him.
The small flying bugs did not seem to do much for Peep. He would grudgingly eat bugs like lacewings, etc, but not with the gusto he showed for eggs. Peep did not like moths at all. The first (and only) moth we offered him he got less than half way down and then shook his head and spit it out like we had slipped him a habanera pepper.
I had seen references to martins eating dragon flies and we have observed both mother bluebirds and tree swallows feeding them to young in the nesting boxes, so I decided to try that. The first dragon fly I caught using a coffee can after much chasing and cussing. I finally got the can over one landed on a plant and used the plastic top to trap it. I then carefully reached in and grabbed it and offered it to Peep. Frankly, the size of the dragon fly worried me that it would be too large for little Peep to deal with, but I remember that you don't see mama bluebird or tree swallow breaking them up, so I went for it (or rather I let Peep go for it).
I should note here that you need to offer the dragon fly head first since that is the only way it's going to go down. For a moment Peep stared at the dragon fly with what looked like fear, but then he opened his maw wide and I placed the front end of the dragon fly in his mouth. Peep then closed on the wiggling bug and started working on getting it down. About half way Peep stopped for a few moments as if to wonder if this was going to work. Then he started working it again and it was amazing to watch the wings (wider than Peep's tiny girth to start with) hanging from both sides of his mouth. But he continued to work and the wings folded back and the dragon fly disappeared. After that, Peep was hooked and though we still fed him eggs, we increasingly raised the amount of dragon flies, which he would dispatch as fast as we could catch them.
With Peep's new found appetite for dragon flies, Dad had to find a more efficient way to catch them. So I would put the coffee can under my arm, carry Peep in my left hand, and head for an area of our garden where we allow tall wildflowers and grasses to grow (great dragon fly hunting territory). Trying to just snatch dragon flies is an exercise in futility. They are fast and have eyes that can see you from any direction. So I finally settled on a technique relying on mis-direction. This involved moving my left hand (with Peep in it) out in front of the dragon fly. This not only gave Peep a front row seat, but served to capture the dragon fly's attention. The trick here is to keep that hand moving slowly far enough from the dragon fly to avoid scaring it away, while at the same time riveting the bug's attention so that it does not notice the right hand sneaking into striking range behind it. With a lot of practice and good timing I got to the point that I could snatch the dragon flies in my right hand pretty regularly using this technique.
The first several dragon flies that I would catch on each hunt would go directly into Peep. Again, I wanted to let him make the connection between catching bugs and eating them. I really got a kick out of watching his intense observation as I stalked them. After he had eaten four or five of the dragon flies, I would then start filling up the coffee can with them to take to the office for his four feedings during the day at work.
So that's how I go about catching dragon flies. You would be amazed at how Peep could put them away. I now wish that we had shot video of him downing the bugs since it was absolutely hilarious to watch him work them down. The dragon flies obviously agreed with him and he grew unbelievably fast. Before we knew it he was ready to fly and he fledged from my hand out on our deck one afternoon. This was the first swallow that we had successfully raised to fledge and it was a very sad to see him go, but an even happier and rewarding event to watch him fly into the sky. Very Happy
Happy hunting to anyone that decides to go after dragon flies!
Jeff Nelson
. 
. I guess that's where the term 'going buggy' comes from. 