All week I’ve been dodging rain showers to get out and find dragonflies to add to my Odolympics species total. It figures the sunniest day of the week was Tuesday, when I had to work downtown. Almost every other day was overcast, and it rained heavily on Thursday and most of Friday. Limited to checking only areas close by, my dreams of tallying a large number of species completely fizzled out in the sub-optimal weather.
Monday was overcast but warm so I went to Terry Carisse Park at lunch to look for the Orange Bluets and Horned Clubtail I had seen there on Friday. I was also hoping that the Elegant Spreadwings usually present near the northern boat launch might be present on this visit. I missed them last year as there were no emergent reeds near the boat launch; there are some there this year but I still haven’t seen any yet. Nor did I see any Orange Bluets or Horned Clubtails.
However, I did find some new species when I saw my first Stream and Rainbow Bluets of the year there!
I didn’t see any dragonflies whatsoever, so I headed back over to Sarsaparilla Trail, where the only dragonfly I found was a Chalk-fronted Corporal. There were, however, a few damselflies present, including my first Sedge Sprite of the year and some Taiga Bluets.
On Wednesday, June 17th I returned to Terry Carisse at lunch but only added Skimming Bluet to my list of odonates.
Thankfully, the sun came out later that afternoon so I drove over to Andrew Haydon Park after work. I had my best outing of the week here, although it started with a murder. I’d found an opening onto the eastern pond where a couple of Common Baskettails were flying back and forth. I waited patiently for one to fly close enough to catch, but it stayed well beyond the reach of my net. Then one of the baskettails zoomed directly at the other, and made contact. The second baskettail went down into the pond, too far to rescue with my net. I threw a couple of sticks toward it, hoping it could pull itself out, but they didn’t float close enough. The baskettail eventually drowned.
After that incident the day got much better. I found a few Sedge Sprites and an Eastern Forktail near the small bridge, and several Marsh Bluets around the pond.
I followed the shoreline back, hoping to see some other species along the river. I found a few more Common Baskettails, and caught one. According to my records it’s the first time I’ve seen this species here.
Then I saw another dark dragonfly flying over the lawn. It zoomed out toward the river, then back in…straight toward me where it landed on my shirt! It was my first Harlequin Darner of the year, but when I tried to catch it it flew off over the river and disappeared.
The only other dragonflies seen were a Common Green Darner out over the pond and a couple of Dot-tailed Whitefaces along the shore.
Still, it was nice to see the variety of odes here and to add Harlequin Darner and Common Baskettail to my personal list of the odonata of Andrew Haydon Park!
It rained most of Friday so I didn’t go out at lunch. However, when it stopped in the afternoon and the clouds started to break up I decided to head over to Jack Pine Trail to see if I could find any emeralds at the back of the trail. Unfortunately, it was still too cloudy for anything to be flying; the only odes I found were a few Sedge Sprites in a grassy patch.
This leaves only Saturday and Sunday to get any serious dragon-hunting in for the Odolympics. Unfortunately, the forecast appears sketchy – a mix of sun and clouds with 40-60% chance of rain – but hopefully we’ll get enough sun to make it to Marlborough Forest.
OdoNotations 