Sun Mountain Meadowhawks

A few years ago, Betsy and I spent a few days at the Sun Mountain Lodge in Winthrop, WA to enjoy the wonderful Fall colors. That visit was incredible also because of the six different species of meadowhawks we saw.  Here's our report from October 23 and 24, 2013:

Last week, October 23 and 24, Betsy and I went to the Sun Mountain Lodge in Winthrop, WA to enjoy the Fall colors for a couple days.  It was beautiful there, as you can see in these photos:

Sun Mountain Lodge from our room.

The Fall colors were in full effect.

A Golden-crowned Kinglet gave me an opportunity for a quick snapshot.

We went to the Beaver Pond, of course, but weren't expecting that much dragonfly activity.  We would have been happy to see a few.  As it turned out, the activity was very good, with lots of darners patrolling the shore looking for females, and meadowhawks flying in tandem over the water, dipping and laying eggs.  In some areas, each step would flush several meadowhawks from the ground into the air.  It was delightful.  We had a six meadowhawk day, with the following species:

White-faced Meadowhawk
Striped Meadowhawk
Saffron-winged Meadowhawk
Band-winged Meadowhawk
Black Meadowhawk
Autumn Meadowhawk

A six meadow hawk day would be good in the summer, but was especially pleasant to experience this time of year.  The most common species was the Saffron-winged Meadowhawk.  We saw only one White-faced Meadowhawk, and it set a new record late date by 16 days.  Here are pics of the meadowhawks:

White-faced Meadowhawk.

Striped Meadowhawk.  An older individual with frayed wings and faded stripes.

Saffron-winged Meadowhawk on the left, and Band-winged Meadowhawk on the right.

Black Meadowhawk.  We don't see Black Meadowhawks all that often, so this one was a particular treat.

Autumn Meadowhawk.  One of the "field marks" for Autumn Meadowhawks is that they land on you.

As usual, we had a great time at the Sun Mountain Lodge and the Beaver Pond.

Double Seams

On a recent trip to Magnuson Park in Seattle, I took a few pictures of a young Cardinal Meadowhawk.  When I looked at the photos later it seemed like I was seeing double.  Here's an example of what I mean:

Notice the double images along the abdomen, specifically at the seams between the segments.  I wondered if I had jiggled the camera somehow, or had a smudge on the lens, but the double images were in all the photos.

I had never noticed before that the seams are doubled, but it turns out that it's easier to see the effect in young individuals, when the abdomen is light colored.  The double seams are still present in a mature adult, but they're not as prominent, as can be seen in the following photo:

I decided to check other meadowhawks, and have found that Striped Meadowhawks also have these unusual double seams.  Here's an example:

I haven't found this effect in other meadowhawks yet, like the Autumn Meadowhawk in the next photo.  I'll keep checking, though.

Unexpected Pleasures of Dragonflying: San Juan Surprise

Last September, Betsy and I took a short ferry ride from our home in Anacortes, WA to San Juan Island, in the heart of the San Juan archipelago of northern Puget Sound.  In the photo below, we're coming into Friday Harbor, where the ferry terminal is located.  After disembarking, we spent the day exploring the island by car – with an eye out for interesting dragonflies, of course.  We weren't disappointed.

Pulling into Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.

One of our first stops was Roche Harbor, where we had a nice lunch on the pier.  Lots boats anchor in this harbor, and you can see many of their shore boats docked in the photo below.  The name of the large boat in the foreground pretty well sums up the feeling of the place.

I went into an old Mom-and-Pop general store with wooden floors, crab traps, fishing gear, as well as groceries and snacks.  I picked up a delicious ice cream bar for us.  It was wonderful on a pleasant day like this.

Roche Harbor, on San Juan Island, WA.

After lunch we headed for Lime Kiln Park on the western shore of the island.  The land you see in the distance is Canada's Vancouver Island.  The passage of water between the islands is the Haro Strait, known for frequent visits by pods of killer whales.  We saw groups of porpoises, but no whales this time.

A lighthouse overlooking Haro Strait on the west shore of San Juan Island.

Next, we dropped by a small pond that looked like good dragonfly habitat.  Sure enough, we saw lots of Cardinal Meadowhawks, a few Striped Meadowhawks, and some Spotted Spreadwings.  The activity level was quite good.

The pond was in the middle of a large sculpture garden.  The photo below shows a dragonfly sculpture we found there.  It was quite detailed, even in the wings and the eyes.  It put one in mind of the large dragonflies that flew during the Carboniferous period.

Dragonfly sculpture on San Juan Island.

This dragonfly was a bit large to hold in one's hand, but worth the try anyway.

"Nice dragonfly."

This wasn't the only large dragonfly seen at this pond.  More on that later.

Common Dragonflies of Anacortes: The Three Amigos!

Anacortes is a great place to dragonfly.  It's where the Happy-face Darner was discovered – at Cranberry Lake on October 22, 2006 – and where splash-dunking was first filmed.  In addition, the previously-unknown phenomenon of spin-drying was also discovered at Cranberry Lake.  All told, something like 25 species of dragonflies and damselflies have been seen in Anacortes.

If you see a red dragonfly in Anacortes, you know for sure that you've just seen a meadowhawk.  Similarly, a yellow dragonfly is a freshly-emerged – that is, a teneral – meadowhawk.  To summarize:

red dragonfly = meadowhawk

       yellow dragonfly = teneral meadowhawk

There are three meadowhawks that are most common in Anacortes – the three amigos.  They are, in order of flight date, the Cardinal Meadowhawk, the Striped Meadowhawk, and the Autumn Meadowhawk.  The meadowhawks and their flight seasons are shown below:

The above histograms show the flight season of each meadowhawk in terms of the percentage of observations.  For example, roughly 40% of all observations of Cardinal Meadowhawks occur in July, and about 20% occur in August.

From these histograms, you can conclude that if you happen to see a red dragonfly in May, it is a Cardinal Meadowhawk.  A red dragonfly in June is almost certainly a Cardinal Meadowhawk.  In July and August, a red dragonfly could be either a Cardinal Meadowhawk or a Striped Meadowhawk.  In October and November, red dragonflies are almost certainly Autumn Meadowhawks.  In general, the shift in flight season is quite apparent from the shift in the peaks of the histograms.

There is a similar shift in the range maps of these species as well.  This can be seen in the maps shown below:

Notice that the Cardinal Meadowhawks are primarily a western species.  The Striped Meadowhawk go roughly from the west coast to the Rockies.  On the other hand, the Autumn Meadowhawk is primarily as eastern species, with just a relatively small enclave on the west coast.

A Six Meadowhawk Day

Last week, October 23 and 24, Betsy and I went to the Sun Mountain Lodge in Winthrop, WA to enjoy the Fall colors for a couple days.  It was beautiful there, as you can see in these photos:

Sun Mountain Lodge from our room.

The Fall colors were in full effect.

A Golden-crowned Kinglet gave me an opportunity for a quick snapshot.

We went to the Beaver Pond, of course, but weren't expecting that much dragonfly activity.  We would have been happy to see a few.  As it turned out, the activity was very good, with lots of darners patrolling the shore looking for females, and meadowhawks flying in tandem over the water, dipping and laying eggs.  In some areas, each step would flush several meadowhawks from the ground into the air.  It was delightful.  We had a six meadowhawk day, with the following species:

White-faced Meadowhawk
Striped Meadowhawk
Saffron-winged Meadowhawk
Band-winged Meadowhawk
Black Meadowhawk
Autumn Meadowhawk

A six meadow hawk day would be good in the summer, but was especially pleasant to experience this time of year.  The most common species was the Saffron-winged Meadowhawk.  We saw only one White-faced Meadowhawk, and it set a new record late date by 16 days.  Here are pics of the meadowhawks:

White-faced Meadowhawk.

Striped Meadowhawk.  An older individual with frayed wings and faded stripes.

Saffron-winged Meadowhawk on the left, and Band-winged Meadowhawk on the right.

Black Meadowhawk.  We don't see Black Meadowhawks all that often, so this one was a particular treat.

Autumn Meadowhawk.  One of the "field marks" for Autumn Meadowhawks is that they land on you.

As usual, we had a great time at the Sun Mountain Lodge and the Beaver Pond.