Many people wouldn’t consider dragonflies strange because they are so common and part of our daily summer lives. I am including them in the Birds of New England ‘stranger things’ series because of their awesomely menacing appearance and otherworldly flying ability.

Dragonflies have only two eyes, but they make up most of the insect’s head and have up to 30,000 ommatidium, or facets (see close-up photos). I’ll post more information about dragonflies in next week’s For the Birds column.