Cherry-faced Meadowhawks are much more common in Kings County, Nova Scotia than Ottawa. While I usually see several when I’m visiting the East Coast (in season), I hardly see them in Ottawa anymore. In my early days of ode-hunting I used to turn up males with deep red faces fairly regularly among the multitude of White-faced Meadowhawks, and I’d discovered a reliable population near the Hurdman transit station that persisted for several years. I don’t get there often anymore because it takes too long to get there from work now to make a leisurely lunch-time visit, so for all I know they are still there. It’s been a long time since I have even seen any potential candidates when I’m out ode-hunting in the west end; I think my last was a male in the ditch near near the Eagleson ponds several years ago.
I’d noticed a sighting on iNaturalist from last year that intrigued me – an individual with a dark red body, large black triangular markings along the abdomen, and a dark red face. It was seen by a birding acquaintance of mine at one of my favourite places – Bruce Pit, somewhere in the northeastern part of the park though the marker is right along the path near the bridge. I don’t always walk all the way to the bridge, but after seeing that observation I intended to do so more often to see if I could scare any up. Of course, sometime over the winter I forgot about my resolution, and Cherry-faced Meadowhawks were relegated to the back of my mind.
This morning I went to Bruce Pit, spending very little time at the shore at the west end of the pond before heading to the back. The usual suspects were around – White-faced and Autumn Meadowhawks, Lance-tipped Darner, a Slender Spreadwing. Then, after I followed the trail from the meadow through a tunnel of trees and tangles (a great spot for warblers and migrants during migration), I saw a single meadowhawk in a sunny opening. The red body, black legs, and black triangles along the abdomen ruled out Autumn Meadowhawk, and its face was bright cherry red, ruling out White-faced Meadowhawk.
It was most likely a Cherry-faced Meadowhawk, but the meadowhawks are one of the most difficult groups of dragonflies to identify. In the northeast the males and females of all regularly occurring species are bright yellow when they emerge. Males darken to red, while most females become a mustard colour; however, some turn red instead. Some older individuals may continue darkening, becoming a shade of brown. While leg colour, face colour, and wing colour are useful for separating species such as Band-winged, Saffron-winged and Autumn Meadowhawks, only fully mature male White-faced Meadowhawks in our area should be identified with confidence. Females and immature White-faced and Cherry-faced Meadowhawks have a faces that may be yellow or brown instead of the pristine white colour of the males.
As Ruby Meadowhawks are not known to occur in eastern Ontario, it seems to me that any mature males with bright red faces can also be safely identified as Cherry-faced Meadowhawks. I know my mentor, Chris Lewis, would say that you need to examine the “naughty bits” to be certain, but since the tiny hamules are confusing to look at and difficult to photograph clearly, I usually only take a few documentary photos mainly so people with more experience than I can identify them on iNaturalist.
Further complicating identification is the hybridization that occurs between Cherry-faced and White-faced Meadowhawks and Cherry-faced and Ruby Meadowhawks. Hybrids of the two red-faced species used to be known as Jane’s Meadowhawk (S. janeae), however, many experts now treat this as a variation of the Cherry-faced Meadowhawk rather than a distinct species. Hybrids of Cherry-faced and White-faced Meadowhawks are rare, and individuals are usually identified by intermediate characteristics between the two species – including the shape of the hamules on males and the subgenital plates on females.
I caught the meadowhawk and tried to examine the hamules, but insufficient magnification made it difficult for me to make out the shape in order to match it to either Cherry-faced or White-faced Meadowhawk in the field. Still, I took some photos to post on iNaturalist hoping that they would be identifiable to experts with more experience.
Fortunately my photos convinced two prominent members of the dragonfly community – including Colin Jones, co-author of my beloved Algonquin Field Guide and the person who confirmed to me that white-faced males in our area could only be White-faced Meadowhawks – and they both identified it as a Cherry-faced Meadowhawk! Perhaps one day I will gain sufficient experience with this species to be able to confidently identify them from the “naughty bits” on my own. Until then I will keep looking for this species and catching them when I can!
OdoNotations 