On Sunday, August 10 Chris and I returned to Kazabazua, determined to obtain better photos to confirm that the clubtails we’d seen patrolling above the Kazabazua River were indeed Riverine Clubtails. We started a little later in the day, and headed to the dead-end road past the Eco-Centre around noon. When we got there the only dragonflies flying over the river were Fawn Darners. One hung up on a shady branch in front of me, so I caught it – a great start to the day.
Once again we failed to find any Zebra Clubtails, so after about only 15 minutes we left. We stopped along the grassy track that passes the Eco-Centre once again to try and catch the darners flying along the path, and this time we caught one – a female Shadow Darner with lovely amber wings and two missing cerci.
We drove to the spot on the river I named Dragonbend. This time we spotted at least three clubtails zooming over the water below the rapids as well as at least four Fawn Darners patrolling the stream banks and two mosaic darners flying much higher. The sticks we had placed in the water as perches were still there, but no one was using them.
We waded into the water and waited for one of the clubtails to fly close enough to net. There is a steep drop off not too far from the shore, so we were unable to get out into the middle of the river where they were flying. We tried waiting in different positions between the rapids and the downed pine tree and although we spent about three hours there, Chris only swung his net once and I only swung mine once. Both of us missed.
Still, it was fun to watch the Fawn Darners as they tangled with the mosaic darners, the clubtails and each other. They often circled Chris as though looking for a place to lay eggs, but none landed on him. We did observe two ovipositing on one of the logs we placed in the shallow water near the bank – the first time I’ve ever seen one laying eggs on something other than a human leg! It was interesting to see how yellowish they appear in flight – one difference between the Fawn Darner and the similar-looking Ocellated Darner (Boyeria grafiana – a species I still have yet to see) is that the Fawn Darner is a “warm brown” and the Ocellated Darner is a “cold greyish brown”. It doesn’t get much warmer in colour than yellow!
After hiking up the bank and over the rapids Chris stood on the shore and started photographing them instead of trying to catch them. He had much better luck catching them on the digital equivalent of film than I did in my net, for his photos conclusively proved that the clubtails were indeed Riverine Clubtails – a species of special concern in Canada (and considered endangered in Ontario) and a lifer for us both! He managed to get a clear photo of one flying toward him showing the distinctive three-pointed star behind the head – similar in appearance to that of the Black-shouldered Spinyleg, though spinylegs are larger, have less yellow on the club, and spend their time perching rather than flying. I was envious and wondered how we could actually catch one. Several ideas were put forward, ranging from installing mist nets – such as the ones banders use to catch birds – across the river, to bringing inflatable tires and anchoring ourselves in the middle of the water with our nets. We did not come up with any plans that might realistically work – something to think about over the winter.
Many thanks to Chris Traynor for allowing me the use of his image!
The black markings on the face are also clearly visible in this image. Interestingly, although it is the smallest of the Stylurus clubtails, it has the largest club and the largest amount of yellow on the club!
Thrilled with our success (though frustrated because we were unable to catch any or find any hanging from the waterside vegetation), we climbed the path back up to car. I took one last look at the rapids below, and then I saw it: a heavily ringed clubtail perching on a rock high above the water, but still several feet below the top of the escarpment where we stood. This was the first Zebra Clubtail we’d seen on our forays into Quebec, and I immediately called Chris over to have a look. I tried to get down to it, but a large patch of poison ivy blocked my path (I was wearing sandals and shorts again). As a result, I was only able to get a few distant documentary images.
After our successful visit to Dragonbend we decided to head over to the Danford fen as it was getting late enough in the afternoon for the darners to be flying. Once again we descended the steep bank, and almost as soon as we arrived we saw the silver flash of several sets of dragonfly wings in the sunlight. The water was even lower than it had been on our previous visit – hardly any remained in the open channels. Still, we saw a few darners ovipositing into the reeds, meadowhawks and Calico Pennants perching in the vegetation, and several spreadwings flying low through the fen, many in tandem.
The darners were more numerous on this visit, and we managed to catch a couple…Chris met with success first, netting first a Green-Striped Darner and then a Canada Darner which he posed on a small leafy shrub.
I caught a Green-Striped Darner as well, and the flag at the top of the first thoracic stripe was noticeably thicker than the one on Chris’s. This was a new species for my Quebec list, and one that I am always happy to see as they are still rare in Ottawa.
The surprise of the day came when Chris netted a Dragonhunter, of all things! What this large predator was doing in a fen instead of hunting over the flowing water of the rivers or lakes nearby will have to remain a mystery!
We still didn’t see anything that looked like a Zigzag Darner, and with the sun dropping lower in the sky and shadows lengthening across the fen we decided to call it a day. Though what an amazing day it was!
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