On July 1st I spent the morning at Sheila McKee Memorial Park with the full intention of heading out to Pinhey’s Point afterward. My goals were to get to Sheila McKee early enough to look for the Yellow-throated Vireo and Yellow-billed Cuckoo that had been found there recently, then look for dragonflies in the open meadow and along the river shore. I was hoping to find another Mustached Clubtail, or perhaps an Arrow Clubtail, or the first Cobra or Midland Clubtails of the season. It was a bit cool in the morning, so I waited until 8:30 am to leave. When I got there just before 9:00 there were already several cars in the parking lot, and by the time I headed out to the road to listen for the elusive cuckoo a cavalcade of cars was turning into the parking lot from Sixth Line Road.
I spent about 15 minutes listening to the Yellow-throated Vireo and a Blackburnian Warbler high up in the trees, seeing only the gorgeous fiery orange throat of the warbler while talking to other birders who had come to see these southern Ontario species. I never did hear the cuckoo, so after I was done chatting I decided to head deeper into the park to look for some odonates. My intention was to only spend about two hours there as I didn’t expect to find anything different from my previous visit only five days earlier, but my outing far surpassed my expectations – I could only bring myself to leave because my iPhone battery was down to 13% (yes it’s an older model) and my camera battery was also running low enough to concern me. I never did make it out to Pinhey’s Point as a result! I ended up with 18 identified odonate species, including four emeralds, two darners, a cruiser… and five clubtail species, not an easy feat outside of Gatineau Park! The weather was beautiful, I had some wonderful encounters, and it was as close to a perfect day as any I’ve ever had since embarking on my journey as a dragon-hunter.
The day started with a lovely fresh Widow Skimmer in the long open corridor at the top of the slope leading down to the beach. Its wings were shiny and unblemished, indicating that this individual had recently emerged.
The Blue Dashers were absent, and I saw only one whiteface that looked like an old female, but a few darners were poking around in the shadows of the trees and shrubs that lined the corridor. I expected them to be all Canada Darners again, but as I passed a large downed tree limb with multiple branches, I startled two darners of clearly different sizes, a fact that I confirmed when they both landed on twigs only a foot or so apart.
The first was a bit larger and more robust than the other, and it was clearly a Canada Darner. The first thoracic stripe had a deep indent in the middle, and there was no cross-stripe on its face.
The second darner was a bit smaller. The first thoracic stripe was yellowish and straight. It was probably getting late for Springtime Darner, so I tried to get a better look for the “handle” at the top that would indicate Shadow Darner, though it seemed a bit early for that species. The “handle” of the Shadow Darner’s walking cane was missing, which left only one other species, the Black-tipped Darner. I haven’t seen very many of these in Ottawa, though I have seen good numbers of them in Gatineau Park and points further north. I checked the last segment of its abdomen, and sure enough it was completely black. I was completely unprepared for this species, and was happy my day was off to a great start!
Further along the corridor I came across a green Eastern Pondhawk, and happily snapped its photo as I missed getting photo evidence of the one that I saw on my last trip due to the “exhaustion” of my camera battery.
Then I saw my first clubtail of the day, a beautiful black and yellow Black-Shouldered Spinyleg. Like some skimmers, many of the clubtails change colour as they age. Immature adults start out as yellow with black markings, then turn green, and finally deepen to an olive colour. Colour is therefore a useful characteristic in determining how old a clubtail is; this one had emerged only recently. This was the only clubtail species I saw at the top of the cliffs in the sunny corridors and meadow, and I found four individuals before making my way down to the water.
In the large, open meadow at the west end I found a great number of intriguing species. A few Racket-tailed Emeralds were flying through the air, and I found another Canada Darner when it landed on my arm! I’ve never had so many Canada Darners land on me or my net in one season, but later, while I was walking on the shore, another one landed right on my face! I wished then that I had brought someone with me to record this hilarious encounter! I did catch one to confirm the species:
There were over a dozen Widow Skimmers and Blue Dashers perching in the vegetation at the edges of the clearing, as well as a few Halloween Pennants resting on the clover scattered in the lawn. I thought the blue and yellow colours of the Blue Dasher looked striking against the red berries and green leaves.
This immature Blue Dasher perching on top of a cluster of fuzzy pink flowers also caught my attention.
A few dragonflies were still flying around the clearing when I finished my survey of the vegetation. I saw a Swift River Cruiser flying too high to catch, the bright yellow spot near the end of the abdomen identifiable in flight. Then I noticed another dark dragonfly zooming around at about shoulder height and quickly set myself in a position to catch it. I was quite surprised to find a Brush-tipped Emerald in my net as I’d never heard of them being found along the Ottawa River. I had honestly been debating whether to go to Marlborough Forest instead as I hadn’t found this species yet this year, so it was quite ironic that I found one at Sheila McKee Park instead!
Then I spotted another, larger dragonfly flying fairly low. When I saw it land in the shrubs in the center of the clearing I knew it was something good! It was another Somatochlora emerald, I hurried over to take a look. I only managed to take three photos of it before it flew off, but iNaturalist tells me it’s a Williamson’s Emerald. I’m inclined to agree as I can see the claspers are hairy, and this ain’t no Brush-tipped Emerald! I spent some time walking around the meadow, hoping to find it hunting with the Racket-tailed Emeralds, but it was never seen again. This was one of the highlights of my visit as I hardly ever see these dragonflies, even though they seem to be the second-most common Somatochlora Emerald in our region after the Brush-tipped.
I didn’t think my day could get any better, but my good luck continued to hold when I went down to the shore. Here I found more emeralds, including a few more Racket-tailed Emeralds, a perching Prince Baskettail, and a perching Brush-tipped Emerald! It was sitting in a flowering shrub near the base of the escarpment, and sat still for a photo – I think this is my favourite photo ever taken of this species!
I walked along the shore, then finally found some clubtails: there was another Black-shouldered Spinyleg, bringing my total up to five individuals for the day. Then I spotted a large clubtail resting on a rock. Unlike the Black-shouldered Spinyleg, the club was huge. The green eyes, narrow yellow stripes on top of the thorax, and lack of yellow marking on top of segment 8 (the thickest part of the club) identifies it as a Cobra Clubtail, an Ottawa River specialty!
I love the green eyes on this species, and followed it around for a time to get photos of it on different substrates.
The next dragonfly I found is quite similar to the Cobra Clubtail but has a few noticeable differences. The turquoise eye colour was the one that immediately stood out; however, it also has thicker yellow stripes on top of the thorax and a yellow marking on top of segment 8. If you can get a look at the face, the Cobra Clubtail has a thick black stripe across the middle of the face whereas the face of the Midland Clubtail is plain yellow.
I also found at three Lancet Clubtails along the shore. This species is smaller and duller than the others, with dingy yellow markings on a brown body instead of the crisp black and bright yellow of the larger clubtails.
The most exciting find, however, was a dragonfly that had not yet spread its wings. It was struggling to emerge from its larval skin, and that discovery eventually led to the discovery of more emerging dragonflies along the shore! I took so many photos of the emerging clubtails that the next blog post will be devoted entirely to them. Stay tuned!
OdoNotations 