Ego Video Librum Tachopteryx thoreyi, or Gray Petaltails, A Spotter's Guide

The Gray Petaltail is a fairly beefy and impressive-looking ode that hangs out in swamps. Seriously, that's where it lives. People who like odes are somewhat enthused about gray petaltails because they live in swamps and thus are not super-easy to see. (I am not sure why things that are difficult to see are... more fun or whatever, but that's ode enthusiasts for you.) I myself was enthused about Gray Petaltails because I never saw them. I mean, I have a perfectly good swamp nearby and I have lived here almost my entire life and heretofore I had not been seeing a shit-ton of Gray Petaltails. Like two, ever, before this spring, both in flight and the first one because she ran into me. Now, obvs, I am enthused because I am going to tell YOU how to do better at seeing Gray Petaltails, if that is the sort of thing you might like to be doing. One never knows.

( Learning to see, we are everyday learning to see... )