Splash-Dunk Events For 2013

Well, the dragonfly season for 2013 is drawing to a close.  We're still hoping to see an Autumn Meadowhawk one day, if the Sun comes out, but the darners are long gone, and with them the splash-dunks and spin-drys.

It's time, then, to collect the data for this year.  Below is a chart showing the number of splash-dunk events seen this year as a function of the date of observation.

Notice the roughly "normal" distribution about the peak centered at September.  I knew September was a good month for splash-dunking, but hadn't realized how much it stands out from the other months.

Most of the splash-dunk events were observed at Cranberry Lake, and most involved darners, like the Happy-face Darner (aka the Paddle-tailed Darner) depicted to the right.  This is a "stick figure" I produced from a photo of a Happy-face – so the proportions are correct.  I plan to use this image to illustrate "wing grabbing" when attaching in tandem, as well as other behaviors.