Eclipse Odonata

After the eclipse, which occurred shortly after 10:00 am, we went dragonflying at a pond right next to our hotel. It's in a business park in Salem, OR, and in the past we've seen River Jewelwings there. None were seen this time, but it was a nice place for dragonfly observing in any case.

When we first got there we saw a number of Vivid Dancers. This is a lovely damselfly, with intensely (vivid) blue colors. Here's one that perched for a few photos:



Notice the black "arrowheads" on the side of the abdomen, within the blue bands, that point toward the rear—this is a key field mark for this species. As with other dancers, it holds its folded wings above the abdomen.

We also saw the following species: Variegated Meadowhawk, Black Saddlebag, Flame Skimmer, Widow Skimmer, Blue-eyed Darner, Common Green Darner, Twelve-spotted Skimmer. We even saw a Blue-eyed Darner do two splash-dunks.

A Variegated Meadowhawk perched in a bush near us, posing for pictures, it seemed. Here are a few:



Notice the variegated pattern along the abdomen, and the white stripes on the side of the thorax with a yellow spot at the base. The white will fade with time, leaving just the yellow spots in older individuals.

Here's a closer look:



Lovely lavender colors in the eyes. This fellow is looking directly at us—curious about us, I suppose, like we're curious about him. Notice also the yellow stripe along the length of the legs.

A couple more photos of this attractive individual:



The side view shows the white "portholes" on the side of the abdomen. Notice also the rough surface on the lower side of the abdomen, and the variegated, two-toned, stigmas near the tips of the wings.

The final photo shows details of the structure of the eyes:



You can see the granularity of the compound eyes here, as well as a reflection of the sun—which was past eclipse phase at this time!

One further note: Traffic and crowds were significant, but not totally terrible. We didn't drive home on the 21st, right after the eclipse, so we don't know how the traffic was at that time. We went home on the 22nd after some more birding and dragonflying, and the driving was fine for a few miles.

Then we hit heavy traffic, well before reaching Portland, and were traveling at about 10 to 20 mph for long distances. This continued on and off well into Washington. We stopped at a Rest Area in Washington, and it was packed—every parking spot was filled and people were parking along the side of the road. We continued on, sighting a fire along the side of the road that was being fought by lots of fire trucks. Finally, a bit north of Tacoma, the traffic lightened up for the rest of the trip home. Overall, it took us 9 hours to get home, when it usually takes 6 hours.

We saw some campers along the way that were headed home after the eclipse. One, in fact, had a sign saying "Eclipse Or Bust" on its back window. Another trailer had the following sign on the back: "I go wherever I'm towed to."