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.

Ship Harbor Interpretive Sign

A couple days ago we went to the Ship Harbor Interpretive Preserve, which is here in Anacortes, near the ferry terminal.  Here's the location on a map of Anacortes:



When you get to the preserve you see this welcoming sign:



It's a very nice little park, with extensive boardwalks through the wetlands.  It also has nice views of Mount Baker and the ferries coming and going:



Lots of birds can be found in the wetlands:





In addition, Ship Harbor is home to a good-sized colony of Purple Martins nesting in boxes that have been provided for them.  The boxes are located on pilings in the water that are left over from a cannery that was at this site many years ago:



The martins are very active this time of year.  We saw several females coming to the beach to get grass stems for their nests.  In addition, we saw lots of interaction between the birds in flight:





Of particular interest to us were the interpretive signs along the trail, pointing out interesting plants and animals that can be seen in the preserve.  Here's a group of three such signs that was especially interesting to us:



If you look carefully, you may notice that the top sign looks a bit familiar.  Here's a closer view of these signs:



Now you can see the focus of our attention – the Happy-face Dragonfly.  Here's a closer look at the sign:



It's nice to know that people visiting the preserve, many of them taking a quick walk as they wait for the ferry, will have the opportunity to learn about the Happy-face Dragonfly.

Species Spotlight: American Emerald

One of the more elusive dragonflies in Anacortes is the American Emerald.  So far, we've only seen this species in June and July, and then it's usually just one or two observations.

The American Emerald is an easy dragonfly to ID.  Here's a shot showing the main field marks:



Of course, the most striking field mark for this species is the intense, emerald-green color of the eyes.  Overall, this dragonfly looks black in flight, but when it turns toward you the eyes flash a brilliant green.



The second distinguishing field mark is the white ring at the base of the abdomen.  This can be seen clearly below:



The similar-looking Ringed Emerald has a white ring at the base of each segment of the abdomen.

This is a beautiful and intriguing dragonfly.  It's always a special treat to see one of them flying around Cranberry Lake.

Halloween 2015

We only had about a dozen trick-or-treaters this year, even though the rain held off.  Still, we had our jack-o-lanterns out as usual.  Here they are in the front yard:

The top one is the connection with this post – it's inspired by the Happy-face Dragonfly.  The bottom one is a more typical halloween ghoul.

Here's a closer look at the Happy-face jack-o-lantern:

Here's a closer look at the ghoulish one:

Dragonfly Sign for the SHIP Harbor Interpretive Trail in Anacortes

The SHIP Harbor Interpretive Trail is a very nice new park in Anacortes right down by the ferry docks.  The park includes trails and boardwalks through the wetlands, and a nice paved trail along the shoreline to Lovric's Marina.

I'm working on an interpretive sign for the park to introduce people to the dragonflies that are common in the area. Here's a mock up for the sign:

The large photo shows the Paddle-tailed Darner (aka the Happy-face Dragonfly) in flight, which is how you usually see them at SHIP Harbor.  The inset shows the incredible face of these delightful insects.

I hope the sign can follow the mock-up closely, but it would also be possible to omit the inset or make other adjustments.  Here are some other possible images for the sign:

A good friend, and excellent artist, is working on a drawing of the Happy-face Dragonfly (Paddle-tailed Darner), so here are some photos he may find useful.  First, a cropped version of the Happy-face would be fine in itself:

The happy-face is the main thing that is so special about this dragonfly, so just his face with most of the body cropped would be very nice.

For a more full-body look, here are some additional photos:

This photo shows the entire body and wings, as well as the happy face.  Here's another one a bit closer showing the happy-face a bit better:

Finally, here's a shot that shows the entire body from above.

I used one like this to produce my "Vitruvian Dragonfly" seen here:

I hope this will provide plenty of material for a fun drawing.

Anacortes Field Trip: Saturday, September 13

Greetings Dragonfly Enthusiasts!

I can hardly believe how favorable the forecast is for this Saturday, September 13.  The weather's great, the dragonflies are out, and all systems are go!

Here are some details:

Field Trip Plans

1).  Start around 11:00 am at Heart Lake in Anacortes.  Heart Lake is right next to the road that takes you up to the top of Mt. Erie.  Meet in the southeast corner of the parking lot, which is the area farthest from the boat launch.

2).  Go to Smiley's Bottom around noon for a lunch break and to use the facilities there.  We will carpool at that location and proceed to Cranberry Lake.

3).  Arrive at Cranberry Lake around 1:00 pm.  This is where we hope to see some splash-dunking and spin-drying.  We'll probably finish up and return to Smiley's Bottom around 2:00 or 2:30 pm, depending on the activity level.

Here's a map showing the relevant locations:

To help you prepare for the field trip, here are photos of the damselflies and dragonflies most likely to be seen Saturday:

Clockwise from upper left: Spotted Spreadwing, Tule Bluet, Northern/Boreal Bluet, Pacific Forktail.

Clockwise from upper left: Paddle-tailed Darner, Paddle-tailed Darner (Mr. Happy-face), Shadow Darner, Blue-eyed Darner.

Clockwise from upper left: Cardinal Meadowhawk, Autumn Meadowhawk, Four-spotted Skimmer, Eight-spotted Skimmer.

Clockwise from upper left: Blue Dasher (male), Blue Dasher (female), Western Pondhawk (female), Western Pondhawk (male).

We look forward to seeing you this Saturday!

I Heart Heart Lake

We had a great time at Heart Lake a few days ago.  The lake gets its name from its very rough heart shape, as can be seen in the following map:

Heart Lake (center, bottom) in relation to downtown Anacortes.

In addition to the numerous Western Pondhawks that were there a couple days ago (see this post), we also observed a number of other dragonflies, including Blue Dashers and Eight-spotted Skimmers.

Perhaps most striking was the Cardinal Meadowhawk, with its intense red colors showing off nicely in the bright sun.  Here's an example of one of the males:

Male Cardinal Meadowhawk at Heart Lake.

In this next view you can see what I regard as its best field mark, the intense concentration of red color near the wing bases.

Male cardinal Meadowhawk.  Notice the dark red, opaque regions in the wings near the base.  An excellent field mark.

This field mark is completely diagnostic, and visible from almost any angle.  I'm always surprised field guides don't make a bigger deal of it.

Notice also the intense red color on the abdomen.  It almost over saturates the eyes.

The Cardinal Meadowhawks were also laying eggs, which they do while attached in tandem.  Here's an example:

Cardinal Meadowhawks laying eggs in tandem.  The female dips the tip of her abdomen in the water to deposit her eggs.

While this pair was laying eggs, a lone male was trying to break them apart so he could replace the current male, as can be seen below.  It didn't work, though he was pretty persistent.

A lone male Cardinal Meadowhawk unsuccessfully attempting to break apart an egg-laying pair.

Cap Sante Hilltopping

In my hometown of Anacortes, there's a nice park on a hill called Cap Sante.  Looking to the west from the summit of Cap Sante you get a great view of downtown Anacortes and the Cap Sante marina, as shown below.  The marina services both pleasure boats and commercial fishing boats, many of which fish for crabs and salmon in Alaska.

Downtown Anacortes as seen from Cap Sante.

Cap Sante is also a great location for watching sunsets:

Sunset from Cap Sante, in Anacortes, WA.

In addition, if you look to the east from Cap Sante, you get a magnificent view of Mount Baker, a 10,781 ft high volcano in the Cascade Mountain range.  Here's Mount Baker as seen from Cap Sante:

Mount Baker in the North Cascades, as seen from Cap Sante Park in Anacortes, WA.

What does Cap Sante and its wonderful views have to do with dragonflies?  Well, Cap Sante is a good place to observe hilltopping – a behavior where a group of dragonflies (or other insects) gather in considerable numbers above a prominent feature in the landscape.  In some cases, hilltopping is said to be a reproductive behavior – a way for insects to find mates.  In the case of the dragonflies at Cap Sante, it appears to be a gathering of immature individuals who are feeding together in a loose swarm.

The dragonflies at Cap Sante are mosaic darners, and they are clearly feeding as they fly back and forth over the top of the hill.  The darners really don't interact with one another – they seem focussed on feeding and maturing, before going back to a lake or pond to find a mate.

Here's a compilation of some slow-motion videos showing darners hilltopping over Cap Sante with Mount Baker in the background.  The dragonflies fly and soar almost like hawks.  Notice the interesting flight maneuver at about 18 s, where a darner snags a meal.