(dragonflies rattling) - [Narrator] It's a midsummer day just outside of Eugene.

It's hot and the air is filled with what looks like tiny pendants of stained glass.

There's red flame skimmers, black saddlebags, green darners.

If a million years of evolution was a plan to get dragonflies noticed, then it worked.

- They're absolutely gorgeous insects.

They've been around for a long, long, long, long time, before birds, before dinosaurs.

They've outlived all of those things, and they're just interesting creatures to watch.

There, it just moved again.

- [Narrator] Steve Gordon and his pal Cary Kerst have a passion for odonates, or dragonflies and damselflies as most people call them.

- [Steve] Right into that dark opening... - [Narrator] They've studied them, written guidebook, and done seminars, but it's their dragonfly walks that are the most popular, especially with kids.

- [Steve] It's another tule bluet, but this one is mature.

So what color is it?

- Blue.

- Blue.

- [Steve] What's your favorite color?

- Blue.

- [Steve] Blue.

(group chuckle) - Green is my also favorite color.

(grass rustling) - [Kid] That was a close one.

- [Cary] We should see quite a bit today, it's a beautiful day for it.

Yesterday, we saw 19 species, so today we should see at least that many.

(grass rustling) - [Narrator] Stroll along with Steve and Cary and you start to see the rivers and ponds of the Willamette Valley as they do, as the Serengeti of dragonfly and damselfly watching in Oregon.

- [Steve] Dragonfly have a more robust abdomen.

The damselflies look like a little flying matchsticks.

- You're always looking for something a little different.

You don't know what you're going to find.

(dragonflies rattling) For instance, Sandpiper Pond, I think I have a list of 33 species of Odonata that I've seen there, of dragonflies and damselflies.

But is it only going to be 33?

I doubt it.

Ugh.

(dragonflies rattling) - [Narrator] Dragonfliers are a lot like birders, keeping lists of what they spot and where.

(dragonflies rattling) And Steve and Cary have been doing this long enough to know the hotspots.

(water sloshing) One of them is Sandpiper Pond just outside of Eugene.

(dragonflies rattling) Of the 88 species found in Oregon, nearly a third can be found right here, where they fill the air eating mosquitoes, mating, or just looking pretty.

- [Steve] Because they're so associated with water and people are so enamored with water, we draw it, we paint it, we photograph it, we boat in it, we fish in it, and that's where the dragonflies are.

So, it'll help you understand the life that goes on in a body water if you better understand dragonflies.

- [Narrator] Sandpiper Pond is part of the West Eugene wetlands, just a few miles from downtown.

It's no wilderness.

In fact, it's adjacent to a light industrial area.

But the muddy, bug-rich waters are ideally suited for these showy predators.

- [Steve] Beautiful, beautiful dragonfly.

She's almost metallic green on the back.

(birds chirping) - [Narrator] Dragonflies in this colorful state are actually in the last few weeks of their lives.

Most of their life, up to a year or more, they spend as larva, attached at submerged logs or underwater vegetation.

They only come out when it's time to mate.

(dragonflies rattling) - [Steve] That's a newly emerged variegated meadowhawk.

It takes them quite a while before they get the wings out, an hour or so.

And then they'll wait for those wings to harden.

- [Narrator] Each dragonfly has its own unique color, shape, and size, but they all share a remarkable design.

- It's the widow skimmer.

Look at it, there all kinds of contraptions, like a Swiss army knife with all the little scoops and hooks.

Some of the males can actually scoop the sperm of another male out of the female's oviduct so that his sperm is the one that's actually used in reproduction.

And then they'll defend the female to keep other males from mating.

- And you want to hold them up here as close as you can to the thorax.

Otherwise, they're liable to bend their wing and break it.

- What really strikes folks is when they can see it up close.

You know, when you see them out there and they're 10 or 15 feet away, and then, all of a sudden, it's in someone's net, and it's right there in your hands, and you can look at it up close, and you can watch them breathing, and watch their abdomens opening up.

And that's when, all of a sudden, everyone crowds around and they want to know everything about it.

- Can I please?

- [Narrator] Kids in particular seem fascinated by dragonflies.

- They like to dip their butts in here.

- You can hold the dragonflies, and touch them, and hold them by their wings, and let them go.

- This is a common green darner.

And it's the biggest dragonfly that we have around here.

Isn't that pretty?

You want to hold it?

It's going to fly away quick.

Oh.

(parent chuckles) - [Narrator] It all looks like so much play, but when it comes to learning, these kids don't miss the details.

- Dragonflies have their wings out, side to side, and damselflies, when they're perched, they have them straight back on their back.

- [Steve] Come back, sit on the finger.

- No way.

- [Steve] I think one of the things that happens when you get older, seem to lose that curiosity we had when we were little.

That's one of the good things about dragonflying, you get a chance to explore again like you're a child.

- See, it was a skimmer.

- [Narrator] This is wildlife watching anyone of any age can do close to home with nothing more fancy than a pair of boots, roll-up pants, and binoculars.

Just head out during the heat of the day, find some water, and look around.

- I think that's it.

- [Parent] I love this stuff too.

So it's a chance for me to be a little boy again with my little boy.

(dragonflies rattling) - Whether you're out bird watching or watching dragonflies, for me, the fascination is to be outdoors, and it's very peaceful.

When you're dragonflying, you get into a whole different world, and it is childlike.

There's a part of it that's really mysterious, and I like all that.

(parent chuckles) - That was pretty neat, huh?

(birds chirping) (no audio)