Late Sightings

This has been a weird year, as we all know, what with the pandemic affecting everything. I haven't gone out dragonflying nearly as much as in normal times, and I haven't been keeping up with this blog as much as I would like to either. I need to get back to doing some of these normal activities.

With that in mind, I've been visiting Little Cranberry Lake recently on nice sunny days. It's late in the season, but there are still three species of dragonflies that are out and active. One is the Autumn Meadowhawk.

The above photo shows a pair of Autumn Meadowhawks in tandem—that is, with the male attached to the female, though they are not in the wheel position. Notice the brighter red color in the male (top), and the tiny appendages at the tip of the female's abdomen (bottom). There are lots of these meadowhawks flying about and landing everywhere—including on people—but I haven't seen any of them laying eggs yet.

The other two dragonfly species are that are out and about are Paddle-tailed Darners and Shadow Darners. They are close cousins to one another, with very similar appearance and behavior. Let's take a look at some of the relevant field marks that help to identify them.

First, let's look at the Paddle-tailed Darner. Here is a male perched in the bushes.

What a beautiful creature. This species, remember, is the Happy-face Dragonfly. A few of the best field marks for this darner are illustrated below:

These field marks are the ones that are easiest to see in a perched individual, and they are quite definitive.

Next, let's take a look at the Shadow Darner. Here is a perched male:

The same field marks for this species are given below:

Notice the direct comparisons between the two species.

There is still a lot of activity going on, including egg laying in the darners, and more sunny days coming up. I look forward to additional days observing dragonflies before the end of the season.

Latest Dragonfly—So Far!

We keep setting new records for the latest flight date of the season. A new record for the Shadow Darner was set just a few days ago, and yesterday a new record for any kind of dragonfly in our area was set with the observation of an Autumn Meadowhawk on December 9, 2019.

The temperature was a fairly mild 42 ˚F, and it was nice and sunny, with just a slight breeze. We checked all the likely spots—the benches, the fence, the face of the dam—but came up empty. It seemed that the recent string of cloudy and rainy days had terminated the dragonfly season in Anacortes. But then I noticed some motion on the trunk of a tree far back from the shore. Looking carefully, I spotted a male (of course) Autumn Meadowhawk basking in the sun. Here's a photo of him:



Getting a bit closer we can see him in detail:



I say 'of course' when referring to the fact that we saw a male, because we haven't seen a female for several weeks. It really seems that at the end of the season the population becomes asymmetric, with males far outnumbering females. This applies not only to the Autumn Meadowhawk, but to the darners we see at Little Cranberry Lake as well.

We returned home and enjoyed a lovely sunset:



The sunset was all the more satisfying knowing one of our friendly dragonflies was still alive and well at Little Cranberry Lake.

A Late Darner—Setting A New Record

I always keep track of the first and last flight dates for the various species in our area. Last week, November 22 to be precise, a Shadow Darner set a new record for the late date for that species. It was a cool day, only 41 ˚F, but nice and sunny. We saw only a single individual, a male, and it was flying near the treetops catching prey, landing for a while, then taking flight and catching more prey, and so on.

A week or so before that we had similar interactions with a Shadow Darner. We were at Little Cranberry Lake on a field trip for my dragonfly class. Here's what the lake looked like that day:



A Shadow Darner was seen perched in the bushes:

Notice the wide front stripes on the thorax, and the black tenth segment on the abdomen. I whispered it onto my finger to share with the group:



It has a bit of a happy-face appearance. In fact, here's one I saw later perched on the dam, giving a good view of its happy face:



Getting back to the one on my finger, as I was holding it Autumn Meadowhawks came in to land on me too:



Everyone had a good time taking pictures of the dragonflies—it was a true "Dragonfly Whisperer" experience for the class!

The Whisperer Speaks!

This coming week, July 14-19, the International Congress of Odonatology meets in Austin Texas. Here's a poster for the event:



Here's an overview of the schedule of events:



The dragonfly whisperer will be there. In fact, I'll be giving two separate talks on Tuesday morning. The talks will focus on the two species seen in the following photo, the Paddle-tailed Darner (right) and the Autumn Meadowhawk (left):



The Paddle-tailed Darner, the Happy-face Dragonfly, is featured in the first talk, Spin-Dry Dragonflies: Nature's Fastest Spinners. This talk explores the splash-dunk/spin-dry suite of behaviors, and includes many slow-motion videos.

The second talk, Egg Laying in Autumn Meadowhawks, describes the unique egg-laying behavior of Autumn Meadowhawks. Again, slow-motion videos show the behavior in full detail.

Stop by and say hello if you're in attendance.

Late, Late Season Dragonflies

After the last post about late season dragonflies, I wasn't sure if there would be any additional dragonflies to report on this year—especially since the weather turned gray and wet for several days after our last visit. I thought that might signal the end of the dragonfly season once and for all. Well, it turns out they're still flying.

We went up to Little Cranberry Lake yesterday at noon. Nothing. It was overcast and 44 ˚F. We went back home and had lunch. Then around 1 pm the clouds cleared and the sun came out. We returned to the lake and immediately saw an Autumn Meadowhawk sitting on the bench by the dam. It flew around some, and perched in various places. It seems that we only saw one individual, but one is a lot more than zero. I hadn't brought my camera with me, so I don't have a picture of that one. I thought I might have missed my opportunity for a last photo of a dragonfly this year.

This morning we awoke to a heavy frost outside that looked like snow covering the ground. We thought maybe that was it, for sure. Even so, we went back up to the lake at noon. It was sunny and calm, but only 40 ˚F.

At first, we saw no activity. Then I thought I saw one zip by behind me, but I couldn't be sure. Then, a few minutes later, I saw one perched on the dam. I brought the camera with me this time, so I took some pictures. Here's the male Autumn Meadowhawk we saw today:



This one flew around to various different perches, then Betsy saw another one, and I saw yet another one after that, so there were at least a few flying on this sunny, cold day. The Autumn Meadowhawk is a hardy soul!

Late Dragonflies

Well, it's still dragonfly season!

Yesterday we went to Little Cranberry Lake here in Anacortes. We weren't expecting much, since it had been rainy the last couple days. But the clouds cleared off by mid morning, and at noon it was a nice sunny day, with a temperature of 52 ˚F, so we decided to check out the lake just in case. I'm glad we did.

First, we saw a Tule Bluet, the first damselfly we've seen at the lake since October 9. Here it is:



Next, we saw Autumn Meadowhawks all over the place, with several tandem pairs laying eggs:



They would lay eggs for a bit, in their typical Autumn Meadowhawk way (see my field guide for more details), then they would land on the shore to rest in the sun. Often, this meant that they would land on me, which is always a treat!



Darners were also present—specifically, Shadow Darners. A female was laying eggs on the shoreline for quite some time, and then a male came along and attached to her. He tried to takeoff with her to mate, but she resisted. You can see the male attaching and attempting to takeoff in the pictures below:





Eventually the male gave up, and they separated. The female then landed on the shore to rest:



All in all, quite an active day, especially for so late in the year.

Sun Mountain Meadowhawks

A few years ago, Betsy and I spent a few days at the Sun Mountain Lodge in Winthrop, WA to enjoy the wonderful Fall colors. That visit was incredible also because of the six different species of meadowhawks we saw.  Here's our report from October 23 and 24, 2013:

Last week, October 23 and 24, Betsy and I went to the Sun Mountain Lodge in Winthrop, WA to enjoy the Fall colors for a couple days.  It was beautiful there, as you can see in these photos:

Sun Mountain Lodge from our room.

The Fall colors were in full effect.

A Golden-crowned Kinglet gave me an opportunity for a quick snapshot.

We went to the Beaver Pond, of course, but weren't expecting that much dragonfly activity.  We would have been happy to see a few.  As it turned out, the activity was very good, with lots of darners patrolling the shore looking for females, and meadowhawks flying in tandem over the water, dipping and laying eggs.  In some areas, each step would flush several meadowhawks from the ground into the air.  It was delightful.  We had a six meadowhawk day, with the following species:

White-faced Meadowhawk
Striped Meadowhawk
Saffron-winged Meadowhawk
Band-winged Meadowhawk
Black Meadowhawk
Autumn Meadowhawk

A six meadow hawk day would be good in the summer, but was especially pleasant to experience this time of year.  The most common species was the Saffron-winged Meadowhawk.  We saw only one White-faced Meadowhawk, and it set a new record late date by 16 days.  Here are pics of the meadowhawks:

White-faced Meadowhawk.

Striped Meadowhawk.  An older individual with frayed wings and faded stripes.

Saffron-winged Meadowhawk on the left, and Band-winged Meadowhawk on the right.

Black Meadowhawk.  We don't see Black Meadowhawks all that often, so this one was a particular treat.

Autumn Meadowhawk.  One of the "field marks" for Autumn Meadowhawks is that they land on you.

As usual, we had a great time at the Sun Mountain Lodge and the Beaver Pond.

Swarming Meadowhawks

The Autumn Meadowhawks are the last dragonflies flying in our area. I thought I would re-post a description of a swarm of Autumn Meadowhawks that I encountered at Cranberry Lake 6 years ago. Here it is:

Recent reports of mass gatherings of dragonflies make it seem there is “something in the air” when it comes to events like these.  Large numbers of baskettails have been observed in Canada, and a large gathering of Striped Meadowhawks was recently seen in Oregon.

In my case, the dragonflies involved were Autumn Meadowhawks.  These friendly dragonflies, which like to land on people, are a common sight at Cranberry Lake in Anacortes, Washington late in the season.

Betsy experiences a red dragonfly on the shoulder, and a second one on her hat.  Both dragonflies are male Autumn Meadowhawks, the friendliest dragonfly we know.

Autumn Meadowhawks are well described by a famous haiku:

Red dragonfly on my shoulder,

Calls me his friend.

Autumn has arrived.

I’ve often had them “on my shoulder,” but last autumn I had them covering my entire body – literally from head to toe.  Here’s what happened.

I went to Cranberry Lake on November 9, 2011 to observe the dragonfly activity.  The weather was sunny and calm, with an air temperature of 57 ˚F.  On other similar days I would observe about a dozen Autumn Meadowhawks and half a dozen Shadow Darners.  On this day, however, I immediately realized something was different – there were so many Autumn Meadowhawks on the gravel walking path that I had to choose my steps carefully to keep from stepping on them.

I walked to some bushes near the shore to see if any darners were perched there, but as soon as I stood still for a moment the meadowhawks began to gather on me.  It felt like a scene from Hitchcock’s movie, The Birds.  They were landing all over me in a frenzy.  I took some pictures showing the ones perched from my waist down, but as I took those pictures I could feel them perched on my arms, my upper body, my head, even on my face.  The pictures show over 30 on my lower body, and I would estimate there were 50 or more on my body as a whole.  I’ve had several Autumn Meadowhawks land on me before, but never anything like this.  

A gathering of Autumn Meadowhawks at Cranberry Lake in Anacortes, Washington on November 9, 2011.

The ones pictured on my lower body are only half the story – they covered me from head to toe.  It felt like a scene out of The Birds.

After taking a few pictures I looked up and saw that the air was just “full” of meadowhawks flying in all directions, hooking up in tandem or attempting to hook up.  It was similar to a mass flight of winged ants or termites.  A few darners were flying too, picking off individual meadowhawks, and also pairs in tandem, and heading for the bushes or trees to enjoy their catch.  It was quite a scene.  It’s hard to estimate the number of meadowhawks, but it must have been in the several hundreds.

I decided to go home and bring Betsy to see this phenomenon.  As I walked back to the car the meadowhawks went along for the ride on my body.  The car was a considerable distance away, and in the shade, but there were still a dozen or more dragonflies on me when I got there.  I had to “shoo” them away to keep them from getting in the car with me – though one managed to do so anyway.

When Betsy and I returned a few minutes later, the activity level was a bit lower, though still intense.  We marveled at the meadowhawks that seemed to be everywhere we looked, including all over us.  Along the shore we observed an egg-laying frenzy, with intense competition for prime sites.  As a result of the competition, many meadowhawks were being knocked into the water where they became stuck.  We ended up rescuing a dozen or more.

As we watched the egg-laying activity, the shadows of the afternoon (it was about 2:00 pm at this point) began to lengthen.  We expected to see the meadowhawks moving along the shore to stay in the sunlit areas, but at one point – quite suddenly – we noticed that the egg laying had ceased, and the air was now clear of meadowhawks.  It was almost as if someone had flipped a switch.  We’re not sure what the signal for stopping was – it wasn’t evident to us – but the meadowhawks seemed to respond en masse.

We returned the next several days, but each time the activity was completely normal again, with just a dozen or so meadowhawks along the shore.  The mass behavior seen on November 9 was a short-lived phenomenon, but one we’re happy to have experienced.

Late Season Observations

Yesterday, Betsy and I went to Cranberry Lake. It was a beautiful, sunny, calm day, with temperatures in the low 50s. It's kind of late to be looking for dragonflies, but we're nothing if not optimistic.

The most common dragonfly we saw was the Autumn Meadowhawk—as one might expect. There were several perched in the sun on the concrete dam. Here's an example:



Notice the hamules under segment 2 of the abdomen, showing that this is a male—which is also quite evident from its bright red color. Here's another view:



We saw one of these guys do a splash-dunk, as well. It will probably be the last splash-dunk of the season.

We also saw a few Shadow Darners, flying along the shore and perched in the bushes. Here's an example of this species:



Notice the broad blue stripe on the top of segment 2 of the abdomen, plus the broad front stripes on the thorax and the lack of blue on segment 10.

You can find more information about both of these species in Common Dragonflies and Damselflies of the Pacific Coast.

Species Spotlight: Autumn Meadowhawk

Next up in our series of Species Spotlights is the Autumn Meadowhawk, the friendliest dragonfly in our area. It is also the subject of a delightful haiku:

Red dragonfly on my shoulder
calls me his friend.
Autumn has arrived.

In general, if a red dragonfly lands on you – especially in the Fall – you can be pretty sure it's an Autumn Meadowhawk.

Here's a photo of a female Autumn Meadowhawk:

She seems to be busy eating something she caught on the wing.  Also, note her yellow legs.  Formerly, this dragonfly was known as the Yellow-legged Meadowhawk, but the legs turn dark with age, and so the name was changed to Autumn Meadowhawk to recognize their late-flying proclivity.

That this individual is a female is clear by the lack of hamules on the underside of the second segment of the abdomen.  This is indicated in the photo below:

You can also see the prominent "egg scoop" near the tip of the abdomen.  The female dips the tip of her abdomen into the water, and collects a droplet of water that is held in place by the scoop – almost like a scoop of ice cream held in place by a cone.  She then lays eggs into the droplet, and finally slams into the shoreline vegetation to dislodge the droplet.  Another view of the egg scoop is shown below:

Here's an illustration of the egg-laying process:

Here are a few photos showing how easy it is to interact with Autumn Meadowhawks:

This is a wonderful dragonfly. I hope you can find them in your area.

It's Still Dragonfly Season!!!

Well, when the sun comes out, so do the dragonflies. Betsy and I went to Cranberry Lake today around noon, and were greeted by a nice group of dragonflies—even though it was quite breezy. The temperature was delightfully mild too; in the mid 60s.

We immediately saw lots of Autumn Meadowhawks. This species has a beautiful red color, and is so friendly that they land on you if you stay put for more than half a minute or so. Here are a couple that visited with us:

We also saw a single Variegated Meadowhawk, which we've never seen at Cranberry Lake before. This species can pop up just about anywhere, just about any time of the year:

We also saw the usual darners for this time of year—the Shadow Darner and the Paddle-tailed Darner. Here's a Paddle-tailed Darner, resting in the bushes, soaking up the sun:

Here's another:

What a lovely day at the lake, made even more so by the presence of our friendly neighborhood dragonflies.