In the afternoon, on Monday (30 May, Memorial Day), I spent about three hours (about 1:45 to 4:45) hunting odes. I never got beyond maybe three hundred feet from the yard and was able to photograph nine different species of dragonflies and damselflies… and one grasshopper!
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Small numbers (one or two at a time) of odes have been appearing in the yard for the past couple of week. In the last three or four days the numbers have jumped.
Yesterday afternoon (with the weather overcast and the temperature not reaching 70 deg F) found about a dozen dragonflies (a mix of Hudsonian Whitefaces and Chalk-fronted Corporals) perched on our deck while trying to stay warm.
All of these photos were made within a hundred yards of the house and in the past five days.
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This afternoon, I made the two and a half hour round trip to Athol, Massachusetts to photograph the American Rubyspot.
The section of the Millers River just upstream from where Route 2A crosses the river at the western edge of the downtown business district in Athol is a hot spot for this uncommon damselfly. The southern part of Case Meadow Conservation Area lies along one bank of this stretch of river and parking is available at the Millers River Environmental Center; both make for easy access.
I spent just over an hour from first to last frame exposed. I saw around a dozen and a half rubyspots including two females at two spots along the river bank. I also observed a few large dragonflies (darners most likely) out over the river. I also saw a few darners flying in the meadow on the walk back to the truck.
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Yesterday afternoon I headed “down back” to the beaver-made wetland at the back of our property.
I was expecting to find the usual late-season odes… autumn meadowhawks and a number of the spreadwings. Although the numbers of individuals were small, there was a nice variety of species present.
I observed a total of three meadowhawks (all female) and about a dozen (total) of the three species of spreadwings.
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August at the lake is time for the big dragonflies… clubtails and darners.
The most common ode around the lake on Wednesday afternoon was the black-shouldered spinyleg, one of the clubtails. I also observed a number of dragonhunters (another clubtail) and a number of unidentified darners. The last of these only as they flew by at breakneck speed.
As for damselflies, there were a few male variable darners hanging around the vegetation along the shore; always low to the water. These are stragglers. The bulk of the population mated some weeks ago and are now gone.
The clubtails and darners are difficult to observe and especially photograph. Both groups are strong fliers and don’t spend much time perched.
Darners are the worst in this respect. They are really fast in flight, so you don’t get a good look at them. They also tend to perch high in the trees and thus are hard to see and harder to photograph.
The clubtails are a bit easier… they tend to perch lower down, often on rocks. Thus, getting a good photo is at least thinkable. On the lake they like to perch on the deep water side of the many rocks that emerge from the water.
My strategy is to watch them carefully and observe where one lands. I can usually observe them with the binos. Often, I can then get the kayak in position to make a good photo before they decide to take flight again.
Photographing at high magnification from a moving platform (i.e. a kayak) has its own challenges and my “keeper” rate is lower than is typical. However, the “hunt” is an entertaining way to spend a hot sunny afternoon.
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Yesterday (Tuesday, 21 July) dawned hot and sticky and stayed that way. Despite the weather I spent some time in the late afternoon haunting the yard in search of odes. The numbers of odes were small, but there was a nice variety. The most common insect was a butterfly; the great spangled fritillary.
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At some point during my rounds, I turned my attention from odes to the flowers Joan has growing in the many beds and containers around the yard.
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I spent a few hours yesterday (Sunday, 19 Jul) afternoon wading the shore of Gregg Lake near our camp. The weather was hot, sunny and breezy.
Although there were a few dragonflies in flight over the water, I saw only damselflies along the edge of the lake. The most common damsels were variable dancers. There were mostly males present; probably two or three dozen along the roughly hundred feet of lake shore I wandered. However, I also observed four or five tandem pairs ovipositing.
I also saw two male eastern forktails and either one or two (it could have been the same individual twice) male swamp spreadwings. I do not remember seeing swamp spreadwings along the lake before.
The highlight of the day (for both the spider and myself; not so much for the damselfly) was watching a spider feasting on a variable dancer trapped in a web.
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Yesterday (Friday, 17 Jul) Joan had a plant survey scheduled for the northern White Mountains. The forecast was for perfect hiking weather, so I went along and spent the day meandering along the trail to Zealand Falls and the nearby AMC hut.
The bright sunny weather and timing (middle of the day) were not going to make for great landscape photos, but I was hoping for some odes, especially for more northern species. The map showed a number of ponds/wetlands along the upper portion of the trail, so I was expecting good “hunting”.
The first critter I encountered along the trail was a garter snake sunning itself at the trail’s edge. Of course my approach spooked it, but it hung around under the shrubs long enough for me to photograph it.
Surprisingly, the beaver ponds were not the ode “hot spot” that I thought they might be. Maybe they are too high (between roughly 3000 and 3500 feet) for water warm enough to support many species.
I did see small numbers of larger dragonflies (probably darners of some sort) patrolling out over the water. Along the shore of one of the ponds, I also found (and was able to photograph) some bluets (either Boreal or Northern) and a few male chalk-fronted corporals.
I observed a single female bluet and roughly a dozen males. When I first spotted the female she was already flying in tandem with a male. As I watched, the pair were harassed by a number of males trying to break up them up (and thus have their own chance of mating with her). The harassment was for naught, as the pair finally formed a mating wheel.
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Yesterday (Sunday, 12 Jul), Joan and I made a hot, sunny trip (of about three miles round trip) on the Connecticut River in Claremont, NH.
Joan was on a rare plant hunt for NEWFS. I, of course, was interested in big river odes!
Joan did not find the plants she was looking for. I watched two teneral dragonflies drown!
The most common ode we saw were, I believe, powdered dancers. Most were single males patrolling out over the river. But I did see four or five pairs ovipositing in a small patch of emergent vegetation. I have no photos of them since it is simple not possible to make photos at high magnification while sitting in a boat on a relatively fast moving river. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
At one point, I noticed a odd fluttering movement on some emergent vegetation at the rivers edge. I headed over to discover a damaged and teneral dragonfly. I pulled my boat ashore and spent some time observing and photographing this “fellow” (see the first three photos below). Twice, while I watched, the wake of a passing boat washed the critter off the stem it was holding but each time it climbed back up. Notice the crumpled wing, despite much fluttering of wings at times, I suspect that this individual was never going to fly and was, thus, doomed.
After some minutes of my watching this individual, Joan came along and pointed out another teneral dragonfly about ten feet further upstream from the first. I headed over to photograph the second individual who was clinging to a stem of grass within inches of the water (see the second three photos below).
After a few minutes of photographing this new individual, another boat (with its concomitant wake) went by and washed it off its perch; the current carried it quickly downstream. I went back to the place I first stopped and, alas, there was only a very soggy clump of vegetation to be found.
I packed up the ode rig and headed on upstream to the spot where Joan was searching for plants on the back. I beached the boat and began to hunt unsuccessfully for a powdered dancer to photograph. I did, however, find a small number of very nondescript brown damselflies which I think are female dusky dancers. At one point Joan came by bearing a small piece of vegetation to which an exuvia was clinging. I was able to prop this up between two river stones and make a nice photo of it as well.
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Late on Friday (3 July) afternoon Joan and I headed for our camp on Gregg Lake. I spent about ninety minutes (beginning about 4 PM) photographing odes along the lake shore.
Although I observed a small number of dragonflies in flight over the lake, I only saw two species of damselflies along the shore. The most common damselfly was the male Little Bluet. I saw at least a dozen individuals in about a 100 feet of shore, all perched within a foot of the water; the large majority with in six inches. Additionally, I observed a single pair of variable dancers ovipositing.
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