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.

Four New Odes Yesterday!

 Yesterday, Betsy and I went to Little Cranberry Lake here in Anacortes to do a bit of dragonflying. There was a problem, however—before we even got to the parking area we saw cars parked along the road, and the lot itself was completely occupied. It was never this crowded during "normal times."

We decided, then, to try Smiley's Bottom near the high school, which we haven't visited for several weeks. I'm glad we did, because we encountered a surprising surfeit of odes there—and four of them were new for the year. 

Here they are, in the order in which we encountered them.

The first was a darner patrolling near the ditches, which we immediately recognized, even from a distance, as a Paddle-tailed Darner. So nice to see the happy-face dragonfly once again. There were lots of them. We never saw one perch; they were hovering and patrolling their territories constantly. 

Here are some shots of Paddle-tailed Darners hovering:

Next, we were looking at the ditches to see if there were any meadowhawks out and about. I said this was about the time we would expect to see Striped Meadowhawks—sure enough, a minute later we spotted one on his favorite perch in the ditch. Here he is:

A few moments later, Betsy spotted a Spotted Spreadwing. This is a lovely, elegant damselfly, with wonderful blue eyes.

At this point, quite surprisingly, we had three new odes for the year. I said, wouldn't it be nice if we could get a fourth, but what would it be? Then I saw something red flashing around, interacting with a Paddle-tailed Darner. I wondered for a moment if it could be a Western Red Damsel. 

Then I got a look at it when it perched—it was a meadowhawk. I checked it out with my binoculars, and was surprised to discover that it was a White-faced Meadowhawk—the first we had ever seen in Anacortes. It's a beautiful dragonfly, similar to the Striped Meadowhawk, but without stripes on the thorax, and with a chalk-white face. Here it is:

So, four new odes for the year, and a new ode for Anacortes. This is probably a good time to update the list of ode species seen in Anacortes. Here it is:

Pacific Forktail

Western Forktail

Northern/Boreal Bluet

Tule Bluet

Spotted Sprteadwing

Common Green Darner

California Darner

Blue-eyed Darner

Paddle-tailed Darner

Shadow Darner

Variable Darner

Four-spotted Skimmer

Eight-spotted Skimmer

Beaverpond Baskettail

Cardinal Meadowhawk

Red-veined Meadowhawk

Striped Meadowhawk

White-faced Meadowhawk

Autumn Meadowhawk

Dot-tailed Whiteface

American Emerald

Western Pondhawk

Not a bad list for our small little town.

First Of The Year: The Odonates Are Back!

We saw our first odonates of the year today at Little Cranberry Lake here in Anacortes. We had been looking for them for the last couple weeks, but today, quite suddenly, they were here in numbers.

Our first sighting was a female Pacific Forktail resting on a twig away from the shore, soaking up the sun:





A few minutes later we found another one on a fern leaf not far away:



Notice that the female has only a single blue segment at the tip of the abdomen. In addition, she often has a stripe on top of the thorax rather than spots as in the male. The stripe may break off in the middle, however, as in the first individual.

A short time later we saw a male on a floating twig near the shore:



The male has nice distinct spots on top of the thorax, two blue segments at the tip of the abdomen, and hamules under segment 2 of the abdomen. He was at the water waiting for a female to mate with; the females were away from the shore where they can rest and feed.

We also saw a couple female California Darners flying back and forth along the shore, and occasionally perching on the ground—as is their want:





Notice the lack of front stripes on the thorax, as expected for a California Darner. The fact that these are females is attested to by the wide segment 3 of the abdomen, flat segment 2 on the underside (where the male's hamules would be found), ovipositor on the underside near the tip of the abdomen, and cerci only (upper appendages) with no lower appendage.

We'll keep checking from day to day now that we have a thriving population to investigate.

Happy New Year, 2020!

Well, it's here—2020—the start of a new year and a new decade. Here's wishing you and yours a healthy and fulfilling New Year.



I hope 2020 provides you with many delightful (and happy) dragonfly experiences.