Species Seen:

• Common Baskettail
• Eastern Forktail
• Sedge Sprite
• Variable Dancer
• Twelve-spotted Skimmer
• Common Whitetail
• Frosted Whiteface
• Prince Baskettail
• Lancet Clubtail (I think)
• Calico Pennant
• Widow Skimmer

Baskettails can be tricky to ID.

 
This is a male.

For Baskettails, you must examine the shape of the terminal appendage – from a side view!  This shape matches the picture in the field guide for the Common Baskettail.

Comments:
Sure wish those clubtails would let me close enough to catch one and verify the species!

Species Seen:

• Baskettail
• Common Green Darner
• Eastern Forktail
• A couple of other pond damsels – not sure which kind

Comments:

I’ve been co-leading an afterschool program for 4th graders.  We’ve dipped in the ponds, turned over logs, checked bird boxes…  We’ve been waiting for the weather to be warm enough and sunny enough to hunt dragons.  There were a few flying, and many emerging today.  Before the group arrived, I caught a Baskettail, which I photographed and released.  I might have kept it for an hour, if I had known it would be the only dragon capture we would have all day.  The kids caught plenty of damsels, though.

Species Seen:

• Beaverpond Baskettail

Comments:
I’ve been seeing Common Green Darners which I assume are returning migrants, and emerging forktails by the droves near the ponds at Audubon.  This is the first stout-bodied dragon I’ve seen this spring.  It was a teneral, and I didn’t have my books with me…  I forgot to photograph the terminal appendage.  It may be a Common Baskettail.  I don’t really know for sure.  But when I did check my books, it looked like the Beaverpond starts emerging a tiny bit earlier than the Common, so that’s why I picked it.  If it is a Beaverpond Baskettail, the eyes will get blue as the teneral body matures.

I’ll be back in the spring with more surveys!

Species Seen:

• Shadow Darner

Comments:

This dragon was hunting mosquitoes in my backyard, flying back and forth in predictable patterns making it easy to net! After the in-hand photo shoot, it hung out on the bark of the tree for a few more natural shots.

Species Seen:

• Ebony Jewelwing
• Shadow Darner
• Common Whitetail
• Eastern Pondhawk

Comments:
There were at least four of these big darners swooping around near the creek at the park.  The light was perfect to see them snagging smaller insects right out of the air.

Species Seen:

• Widow Skimmer
• Twelve-spotted Skimmer
• Meadowhawk
• Eastern Forktail
• Fragile Forktail
• Slender Spreadwing
• Common Whitetail
• Eastern Pondhawk
• Unknown Bluet

Comments:
It was just a day for dragonfly eggs.  After seeing the Pondhawk at Turtle Pond (see previous post), now we saw a Meadowhawk species with eggs.  In this species, the eggs came out in two rows, single, not at all sticky.  The speed and manner that they came out reminded me of Lucy and Ethyl in the candy factory.

Species Seen:

• Twelve-spotted Skimmer
• Widow Skimmer
• Eastern Pondhawk
• Blue Dasher
• Eastern Forktail
• Yellow-legged Meadowhawk
• Slender Spreadwing

Comments:
Someone caught a female Eastern Pondhawk who was just pumping out eggs.  It was an incredible sight.  Her eggs came out in a big sticky mass.  Click on this photo to see a larger version.

Species Seen:

• Ebony Jewelwing
• Twelve-spotted Skimmer  (He just zoomed by me quickly when I was getting in my car to go home.)

Comments:
I wasn’t intending on seeing any dragonflies today.  As I rounded a curve in the trail and came to the creek, I noticed it was swarming with Ebony Jewelwings.  I found a spot where I could sit on the gravel very near a log where the damselflies kept lighting.  They were so “friendly!”  They landed on me and seemed not at all disturbed by my presence.  I got a couple of wonderful closeup shots.  I wish someone had been with me, though.  I would love to have a photo of me sitting in the gravel with 5 or 6 damselflies on me!

Species Seen:

• Eastern Forktail
• Fragile Forktail
• Elegant Spreadwing
• Yellow-legged Meadowhawk
• Unknown Damselfly

Comments:
Well, the kids really stumped me.  I’m hoping Jeremy Martin will read this blog posting and tell us what this damsel is…  (These 2 photographs are of the same individual.)