Immature Eight-spotted Skimmer

Here's a look at an immature male Eight-spotted Skimmer at Heart Lake in Anacortes:



Notice that the abdomen isn't pruinose bluish-white, as it is in adult males. In fact, at this age the male looks like a female, except for the white patches in the wing which are not present in the female.

In addition, the front legs are tucked up behind the head. This is a common way for dragonflies to relax when they are perched, and is also common in flying dragonflies.

Eight-spotted Skimmers are featured in my field guide, Common Dragonflies and Damselflies of the Pacific Coast. Check out the spread devoted to these beautiful dragonflies:



You can find the field guide at the following link:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1934199265/ref=s9u_simh_gw_i1?ie=UTF8&fpl=fresh&pd_rd_i=1934199265&pd_rd_r=4Q8FNWQMZKPZ7GYWQB31&pd_rd_w=c79uB&pd_rd_wg=lb3xg&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=&pf_rd_r=038QHD1N13Z2D7NWAP1Q&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=1cf9d009-399c-49e1-901a-7b8786e59436&pf_rd_i=desktop

This species is abundant at Heart Lake, and common at Little Cranberry Lake, as well.

ICO 2019: Five-striped Leaftail

Here's another species we saw on the trip to Texas for the International Congress on Odonatology (ICO) last July that we were not even aware before the trip—the Five-striped Leaftail. This male is perched on his favorite twig near the Guadalupe River in the town of Gonzales, TX:



The five stripes in the name refer to the five dark stripes on the side of the thorax, the fifth one being rather small and hard to see underneath the wings. The next photo shows the five stripes from a different angle:



The leaftail part of the name is more obvious, due to the shape of the tip of the abdomen. In the next picture, we see a male elevating his abdomen and expanding the "leaves" from either side of the abdomen.



Here's a closer look at this feature. Notice that the leaves were hanging downward in the first couple of photos.



This is an impressive dragonfly, especially when you consider that it has "moveable parts" on its abdomen—something you don't often see in dragonflies.

Popular Post

This post, about the Cherry Springs Nature Area, continues to be one of the most popular ones on this blog. Here it is again for those who might have missed it:

Not long ago, I was contacted by naturalist Sheri Covert at the Cherry Springs nature area near Pocatello, Idaho.  She was putting together an interpretive sign to inform visitors about some of the interesting insect life to be found there, and asked if she could use a couple of my dragonfly pictures.  I was happy to help with a project like that, and supplied her with pictures of the species she was looking for.  Here's a rough draft of the sign, which looks very nice.

Here's an enlargement of the dragonfly section:

I look forward to visiting Cherry Springs one of these days.  If any of my intrepid readers gets there first, please take a picture of the sign in place and we'll include it in the blog.

The Whisperer Speaks—This Time In Coupeville

Greetings fellow dragonfly enthusiasts. The Dragonfly Whisperer will speak on September 16, 2019 at 1:30 pm at the Coupeville Library in Coupeville, Washington. Here's a picture of the library:



And here's a picture of the Dragonfly Whisperer, just as a reminder:



I will be signing my book, Common Dragonflies and Damselflies of the Pacific Coast: A Life-Size Field Guide, after the presentation.

Happy Dragonflying!

The Whisperer Speaks—This Time on TV

Last year, Evening Magazine from King5 TV came to Anacortes to do an interview with the Dragonfly Whisperer. It was aired on September 11 at 7:30 pm. I just heard from them, and they plan to air the segment again tomorrow, Tuesday, September 10, 2019 at 7:30 pm.





They were getting some great shots with their video equipment. They could fill the entire frame with small damselflies, and get really nice close ups of dragonflies. Here's the cameraman getting a video of me taking a picture of him (notice the reflection of my hands holding my camera in the video lens):



We filmed at Cranberry Lake, where we took videos of damselflies, and at Heart Lake, where we concentrated on dragonflies. At Heart Lake we had a nice look at a female Cardinal Meadowhawk. They got great video of the dragonfly, as well as video of me taking pictures of it. They will then intersperse some of my still shots, like this one, in the finished segment:



We also saw several Eight-spotted Skimmers, again with the video camera getting great views, as well as shots of me taking pictures of the dragonflies. Some had quite a bit of wear on their wings, like this one:



One even had an entire wing missing. I've seen ragged wings, and wings with sections missing, but this was the first time I had seen a dragonfly with one wing completely gone.



As the cameraman for Evening Magazine said, "It's amazing it doesn't just fly around in circles." That's right, but in fact it was flying pretty much normally.

I think they did a very good job with the segment, and it's always fun to see some dragonflies on TV. If you're not able to see the broadcast, you can view a video of the entire segment at the following link:

https://thedragonflywhisperer.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-dragonfly-whisperer-on-evening.html

More to come soon on dragonflies of the 2019 ICO.

ICO 2019: Eastern Amberwing

Another species we saw on our Texas trip, the Eastern Amberwing, was one we were familiar with from our visits to the east coast. Here's a male from the east coast:



Notice the hamules under the second segment of the abdomen. Also, note the appendages, which are small in this species, but larger in the male than in the female. Here's another look at an east coast male:



Again, take note of the appendages. Also, notice that the wings are basically uniform amber, and the stigmas are red.

For comparison, here's the female of the species from the east coast:





Notice the broad abdomen, the tiny, vestigial appendages, and the splotchy wings. We also see that the stigmas are brownish in the female.

In Texas, we saw only females, and they were all obelisking like crazy in the intense heat. Here's a side view:



Here's another obelisking female, this time from behind:



Note again the broad abdomen, and the tiny appendages.

As I said, we didn't see any males on this trip, and the females were all well away from the water perching in the vegetation.

ICO 2019: Thornbush Dasher

Here's a species whose name we weren't even aware of before running into one of them in Texas. We went to the Southeast Metro Park near the Austin Airport, where there's a nice pond populated with lots of dragonflies. We spotted a small, cute dragonfly, and immediately recognized it as a new species for us.

Heres' the individual we saw:



It looks a lot like an immature male Blue Dasher on the head and thorax, but the abdomen is quite different, with a distinctive row of cream spots, culminating in a pair of large spots on segment 7.

This species is known for drooping its wings and raising its abdomen in an obelisk pose when perched. Here he is taking a look at me from under his dorsal fovea.



This is a small dragonfly, and quite inconspicuous in the brush along the shore.



How nice to find a species we didn't even know existed before!