When I was a child, I remember throwing handfuls of sand at these so as to down them.
I now consider the Shadow Darner (this is a male) to be one of the great delights of the late summer. They relentlessly patrol the shoreline for all manner of other flying insects and are voracious when encountering them.
How could anyone (other than a callow youth) not revel in the flight of a darner?
I thought of you as I read this lovely new book:
Dragonflies : magnificent creatures of water, air, and land / Pieter van
Dokkum.