Wildlife experts weighed in Monday after hundreds of thousands of dragonflies swarmed a beach in Rhode Island over the weekend.
The incident happened on Misquamicut Beach on Sunday and was captured on video as beachgoers sought cover from the dragonflies.
Speaking with reporters, dragonfly expert Ginger Brown said this was not a typical migration, saying the insects were likely searching for a new home.
“They’re flying for some reason,” Brown said, “either high population density, or changes in aquatic breeding habitat.”
Normally, dragonfly migration is a one-way process that does not look like what happened Sunday.
With this incident in the history books, Brown said it could be years before New England sees a similar swarm again.
“They certainly came in in vast numbers coming off the ocean,” said Mark Stickney, who saw the dragonflies. “It was just one of those astonishing shows nature puts on once in a while and I …