Anacortes – The New Emerald City?

It's well known that Seattle goes by the nickname "The Emerald City," but yesterday Anacortes had reason to use that name as well.  It was home to at least two American Emeralds, a small dark dragonfly with beautiful green eyes.  Here are a couple photos:

American Emerald, male.  Notice the single white ring hear the base of the abdomen.  Ringed Emeralds have white rings at the base of each segment along the abdomen, and Mountain Emeralds have no white rings at all.

American Emerald, male.  Notice the shape of the abdomen – it starts narrow, widens out, and then narrows again near the tip.

The emeralds were at Cranberry Lake, where I saw my first dragonflies in Washington State this year.  In addition to the emeralds, there were several Four-spotted Skimmers, and a dozen or more California Darners.

The emeralds are about the same size as Four-spotted Skimmers, but they are much darker and skinnier in flight.  Also, they look "deep chested" – that is, the thorax seems oversized in comparison with the rest of the body.  When they fly toward you their eyes give an unmistakable flash of green.

The common emeralds in our area are the American Emerald, the Ringed Emerald, and the Mountain Emerald.  The American Emerald is distinguished by having a single white ring near the base of the abdomen, as you can see in the photos above, whereas the Ringed Emerald has white rings at the base of each segment of the abdomen.  See the following link for a look at a Ringed Emerald:

http://thedragonflywhisperer.blogspot.com/2012/01/dragonflying-at-mount-shuksun.html

In contrast, the Mountain Emerald has no white rings on the abdomen, but instead has golden stripes on the sides of the thorax.

As you can see in these photos, American Emeralds like to perch on the ground.  They have a rather low perching index (perhaps around 50%), but with patience you can follow them until they land and get a great view.  Seeing those eyes close up is worth the wait.

Dragonflying at Mount Shuksun

On October 17, 2011, Betsy and I went to Picture Lake near Mount Baker.  Picture Lake is just before you get to the Mount Baker ski area, and it provides an incredible reflected view of Mount Shuksun.  A little later in the season the fall colors would be more prominent, yielding an even more impressive view.

Betsy, with Picture Lake and Mount Shuksun in the background.  This picture was taken shortly after we arrived, when there was still a bit of fog near the summit of Shuksun.  The temperature at this point was a brisk 46 ˚F, but the sun and lack of a breeze made it feel quite comfortable.  It warmed up during the time we were there, and by lunchtime it was 64 ˚F.

This is me at Picture Lake a little while later after the fog had burned off.  When we first arrived we didn't see any dragonflies to whisper to, but shortly thereafter the activity was pretty good.

The greatest activity that day was provided by the Ringed Emeralds.  The first one we saw was this dead male found along the shoreline.  A darner helped us find it by stopping on his patrol of the shoreline to check it out more carefully – in case it might happen to be a female darner.  The Ringed Emerald has an iridescent green thorax, green eyes, and thin white rings at the base of each abdominal segment.

We saw a few darners at the lake.  All that we could see well were Paddle-tailed Darners – Mr. Happy Face.  

The Ringed Emeralds were plentiful as the air warmed up a few degrees.  You could see them everywhere along the shoreline: pairs flying in tandem; males chasing females and other males; females laying eggs with males hovering nearby for protection.  Here a female dips her abdomen into the water to deposit eggs (water temperature was 46 ˚F).  

The water was so clear that I spent some time looking to see if I could spot the eggs the female was laying.  With a little practice I could.  The eggs came out in a small mucus string of maybe 6 or 8 greenish eggs, a lot like miniature frog eggs.  Strings start out in a tight ball, but then twist and straighten out as they drift slowly to the bottom.