It was just a quick trip to Cambridge, Ontario, but the weather was so gorgeous I couldn’t resist dragging my dad out for a few nature walks. Although in his mid-70s now, he is still mobile enough to get out, and while I’m looking up for birds and dragonflies, he is usually looking down for snakes and turtles or turning over logs for salamanders.
Because it was late in the season I had checked iNaturalist ahead of time to see what odes had been recorded at the beginning of October. I was blown away when I realized that American Rubyspots were still flying, and that they lived along the Grand River! Their range does not extend to eastern Ontario – they are a southern Ontario bug, though funnily enough there is a population in Montreal.
Earlier this year I spent some time exploring the creeks of Kanata in an attempt to find some of the creek-loving odonates that inhabit Gatineau Park on this side of the Ottawa River. While I was happy to find new places for damselflies such as Aurora Damsel, Ebony Jewelwing and River Jewelwing, I wasn’t able to find any creek-loving clubtails, darners or spiketails. One place that intrigued me was Brassils Creek in Marlborough Forest. It meanders through a large portion of the forest, though it is wide and marshy in most places where the trails cross it, with a slow-moving current similar to the Jock River. Google maps shows that this creek passes beneath Flood Road just off of Upper Dwyer Hill Road, and on July 12th I spent an hour exploring the area to assess its potential for odes.
I was quite happy when I learned that this year’s North American Odolympics were to take place in mid-August this year. This would be my third year participating; the 2023 Odolympics ran from August 19-27 while the 2024 Odolympics ran from September 7-15, so I was worried that this year’s bioblitz would be held in October! However, with a start date of August 16th (and running till August 24th) it would be my earliest bioblitz yet!
Unfortunately there was one problem with that date: I would be driving to Nova Scotia with my partner and three cats during the entire first weekend! Then came the second blow: while I was excited to participate in my first Nova Scotia Odolympics, a forest fire was burning out of control in Annapolis County (not too far from where our trailer is located); the fire risk was extremely high all throughout the province due to the prolonged drought conditions; and the government had closed the woods to recreational activities, including trails in provincial and national parks. The reason for the closure was to prevent additional human-caused forest fires, which meant hiking, camping, fishing, and driving recreational vehicles on both Crown and private property were all prohibited. This decision was based on the amount of dry, flammable material present which could easily start a fire, and the fine for violating the ban was $25,000. Immediately my dreams of looking for odes along forest creeks – which were already terribly low from a lack of summer rainfall – were dashed, and even places like Miner’s Marsh were out of the question as the marsh had entirely dried up, leaving the dry, cracked muddy bottom completely exposed.
The forecast for Saturday looked gorgeous, but hot and humid. It’s been one heat wave after another this summer, and while it’s certainly preferable to the rain and smoke we’ve had previous years, I find I get tired faster in the heat.
Chris and I have been planning another trip to Quebec. He’s been eager to explore a section of Meech Creek with hidden rapids and waterfalls that looked good for clubtails and snaketails. I wanted to go with him, but I was worried about exploring a new place when I didn’t know how high or fast the water might be, how much bushwhacking we might have to do, or how long we would be out. So on Friday night I suggested that Chris do an exploratory scouting mission while I headed to a couple of places I haven’t spent too much time yet this year – Sheila McKee Park or Marlborough Forest.
Last winter while looking up various clubtail sightings on iNaturalist I was surprised to find a couple of rocky creek-loving species at Blakeney Rapids just outside of Ottawa County: Mustached Clubtail, Eastern Least Clubtail, and Rusty Snaketail. These are all species I associate with the small, rocky streams of Quebec, and I was startled to see that they could be found on this side of the Ottawa River. Both the Rusty Snaketail and Eastern Least Clubtail, the two species I most wanted to see, had been observed on July 4, 2023, so I made it a point to visit the first weekend of July in 2025.
Last November I spent some time on Google maps looking for accessible creeks around the fringes of Kanata north where I might find some creek-loving odonates. If a tiny fragment of a stream in Stony Swamp could hold Arrowhead Spiketails, who knows what other species might call these small streams home? I wasn’t expecting anything as magnificent or scarce as a Mustached or Eastern Least Clubtail, but I thought that Stream Cruisers, Fawn Darners, River Jewelwings, and maybe a spiketail might be possible.
A few areas looked particularly interesting, including a section of Shirley’s Brook between Station Road and Monk Environmental Park, the stream that drains the eastern end of the Beaver Pond near Lismer Pines Park, and Stillwater Creek where it runs between Corkstown Road and the Trans-Canada Trail, aka the Watts Creek Pathway. Although all of these streams run through green space, the surrounding areas had become built up with new homes and developments over the years. The Crystal Bay/Lakeview Park subdivision just south of Andrew Haydon Park is long-established, with a narrow band of trees running between the subdivision and Highway 417, but the area around the Beaver Pond off of Goulbourn Forced Road started being cleared for housing relatively recently (around 2010), starting with the controversial Terry Fox extension, and houses are still being built there to this day. The forest is thickest in Monk Environmental Park where there is little encroachment so far, and my hopes were highest for this little park as a result.
Marlborough Forest is one of my favourite spots for ode-hunting. There are so many terrific species there, including some considered scarce, rare, or even very rare according to the official Ottawa checklist. So far I’ve found three lifers here – two of which I have not seen again in the forest or anywhere else: Ocellated Emerald on June 21, 2020, and Ashy Clubtail on June 19, 2022. The third species, Kennedy’s Emerald, was a lifer for me in Marlborough Forest on June 12, 2021 in Marlborough Forest and then, oddly enough, turned up on a house in Nepean on May 21, 2023. The sheer size of the forest – over 9,300 hectares of meadows, wetlands, old plantations and natural forests – tantalized me with the mysteries hidden within its depths, whether those be bog-loving Somatochlora emeralds, remnants of old farmsteads, or rumours of long-lost graveyards.
The Uhler’s Sundragon is an early-flying member of the emerald family that is apparently more easily found on the Quebec side of the OFNC study circle. However, iNaturalist shows a few records from the Quyon ferry dock along the Ottawa River, so one of my goals was to spend some time visiting places like the ferry dock, Sheila McKee Memorial Park, and Fitzroy Provincial Park to look for it and other river odes, including the uncommon Mustached Clubtail. I’ve only seen the Sundragon twice, both times in Nova Scotia, and in the same habitat – medium-sized- rocky forest streams flying over the gentle pools of water either at the top or bottom of a waterfall. Fortunately their patrols take them along the shoreline, and I was able to catch two in 2024 and one earlier this year. My goal was to see one in Ottawa, and I had high hopes for finding one at Fitzroy Provincial Park as there are two small rivers running through it that I wanted to check.
On Saturday, June 14, 2025 Derek Dunnett and I led a combined birding and dragonfly outing at Murphy’s Point Provincial Park for the Ottawa Field-Naturalists’ and McNamara Field Naturalists’ Clubs. It was restricted to 20 people for carpooling purposes (the park roads are quite narrow for parking) and 18 showed up altogether. Unlike our trip last year, the weather was perfect: cool and sunny in the morning, hot and sunny in the afternoon with a hint of a breeze. Our targets this year included Cerulean Warbler (which had been heard singing earlier in the week), Blue-winged Warbler, and Golden-winged Warbler, while our odonate targets included the diminutive Elfin Skimmer and various stream odonates. Last year the trip had been postponed several times due to rain, and we missed the Blue-winged Warbler, Golden-winged Warbler, and Elfin Skimmer as by the time we had visited (July 7) it was late in the breeding season and the weather for ode-hunting (thickly overcast in the morning) was less than ideal.
Last year on August 5th Chris Traynor and I headed up to La Vérendrye Wildlife Reserve just beyond Grand-Remous, Quebec to look for the Common Sanddragons that had been discovered along the Desert River (Rivière Désert) in 2016. We were too late in the season to find any, but had a marvelous time watching dragonhunters and catching darners. We made a pact to return the following year earlier in the season, and on July 21st Chris, Sophie Roy and I finally fulfilled that pact. The sky was spattered with more puffy, white clouds than I would have liked, showing little blue at first, but the further north we drove the clearer the sky became. The temperature was perfect, about 24 or 25°C, with only a slight amount of humidity that really only made the temperature start to feel too warm later in the afternoon, but a fresh breeze kept us cool enough. We were in high spirits because even if we missed out on the sanddragons again there were sure to be enough interesting birds and bugs to make the journey worthwhile. And of course, the rushing rivers and waterfalls of Quebec are beautiful in their own right.
We arrived in Moncton late on Wednesday, June 5th. Our AirBNB for this stay was a basement unit in Riverview, the small town situated on the south side of the Petitcodiac River and a short drive from both downtown Moncton and the Moncton Coliseum, home of East Coast Comic Expo. I had already scouted a few places that looked good for both birding and and ode-hunting; these included Riverview Marsh contained within a bend of the Petitcodiac River for Nelson’s Sparrow, Mill Creek Nature Park for forest birds and stream dragonflies, Bell Street Marsh for marsh birds and odes, and a small stream in a hydro corridor near Mill Creek for Superb Jewelwing, a potential lifer for me.
On our final day in Yarmouth I was ready for a change of scenery. It was a bright, sunny day, but once again the wind made it feel much cooler so I gave up on the idea of driving down Cape Forchu to the lighthouse. I knew it was my last chance to see the ocean and find some ocean birds before leaving for the Valley, but I also knew the wind blowing off the ocean would be cold, and I didn’t have any winter gear with me. I consulted Google, and found a few spots that looked interesting – the Yarmouth County Rail Trail near Arcadia, a tiny community just down the road from the Y-Con Comics convention, and Tusket Falls, which is a little further away and has an interesting walking trail close by. I liked the idea of visiting Tusket Falls for river-loving dragonflies, while the Yarmouth Rail Trail passed by the Chebogue river, which might be good for looking for odes in the vegetation nearby. The Yarmouth Rail Trail actually becomes the Tusket Falls Walking Trail a little further east, too long of a hike from where I planned to access it in Arcadia, but easy enough to drive to once I’d seen enough of the Chebogue River.
It was only six weeks ago that I last added a new species to the Eagleson storm water ponds ode list, the River Jewelwing that mysteriously showed up for one day back on June 10, 2023. I wasn’t expecting to find another new species so soon, but that is exactly what happened when I went for a walk there this afternoon. My goal was to look for the diminutive Eastern Amberwings, a species that I would have looked for earlier in the month had I not been in Nova Scotia. This colony first showed up in 2017 and its numbers have been increasing in the southern ponds over the last six years. I was happy to find four males perching on the lily pads on my visit; it appears they are still thriving here.
Eastern Amberwing
I saw Orange Bluets here for the first time this year on July 3, 2023, and I was hoping to find a few close enough to the shore to get a good photo. This is the second season that I’ve confirmed their presence here, and I was disappointed not to find any on this visit.
I saw Blue Dashers here for the first time this year on July 7, 2023; this is also only the second year that I’ve seen them here, and I counted at least eight of them around the two southern-most ponds. They are so beautiful and colourful when fresh – I can’t imagine ever becoming so used to them that I don’t want to stop and admire them, especially when they are sitting on a such a lovely perch.
Blue Dasher
I saw a male and female Common Whitetail flying over the pond together; the female was ovipositing. A White-faced Meadowhawk and a Band-winged Meadowhawk were nice to see, though the Band-winged Meadowhawk didn’t stick around long enough for photos. I’ve been keeping an eye out for Saffron-winged Meadowhawks, a species that was common here in 2020 but has been diminishing in numbers ever since – I only found two in 2021 and one in 2022. I didn’t see any on this walk, making me wonder if the population has died out. Its season lasts until September, so it is not too late to keep looking for this species.
A Slender Spreadwing was the only other odonate of interest, other than the Eastern Forktails that are usually too numerous to count.
I finished my walk with a loop around the Hope Side pond, stopping at the bridge where I took a moment to scan the water toward the overpass. I’ve seen muskrats swimming and dragonflies flitting among the vegetation here, and almost immediately something small and black fluttering in the tunnel formed by the cattails toward the bridge. When I got my binoculars on it I saw a male Ebony Jewelwing sitting in the sun!
Ebony Jewelwing
Ebony Jewelwings are usually found at woodland streams, preferring those with rapids although they may be found at shaded, slow-moving streams as well. The area it was inhabiting at the Eagleson ponds is no more than a shallow channel that drains water from the ponds into a narrow waterway running alongside a patch-work of fields before entering the Jock River at Terry Carisse Park. But since a River Jewelwing has already found its way up here perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that this Ebony Jewelwing had followed. This is ode species #36 for the ponds – a terrific number for such a small area and limited habitat.
Doran and I visited Nova Scotia again in mid-July, now one of my favourite times to visit after seeing so many dragonfly species on our last trip. This time we rented an Airbnb in Middleton – the basement suite of a house right on the Annapolis River. Although the vegetation along the river was much too thick to get close to the water, there were a few well-trampled trails leading down to the water’s edge. In addition, our location was close to both Bridge Street (Highway 10), with Riverside Park on the opposite bank, and the South Shore Annapolis Trail which has its own bridge across the water and runs behind Riverside Park and the Middleton sewage lagoons. We got settled into the apartment, and the following day that Doran and I went exploring. My fiancé had recently become interested in searching out local waterfalls, and as a number of clubtail species can be found on fast-flowing rocky rivers, I was more than keen to accompany him.
Chris Traynor and I chat about dragonflies and damselflies a lot. We both also like to pour over old dragonfly reports, iNaturalist records, and Google maps looking for suitable habitat for this species or that, as well as interesting places to go dragon-hunting in general. It was Chris who, when searching for places to see Clamp-tipped Emerald, thought that Taylor Lake in the northwestern part of Gatineau Park might be worth a visit. There are two iNat records from the area from 2015, as well as one Brush-tipped Emerald record from a few kilometers away. The map shows a variety of ode-worthy wetlands including streams, ponds, seeps and marshes, and an exploratory hike of about 5 kilometers in the fall cemented his impressions and desire to return there during prime dragonfly season. It was also almost completely unexplored for odonates, which made it quite enticing in my eyes, and close to a spot where Chris Lewis and Bob Bracken had discovered a stream with mature Eastern Least Clubtails and other clubtails several years ago. Good Somatochlora spots in the Ottawa-Gatineau region are uncommon, and we both thought would be fantastic to discover one up in Gatineau Park. I emailed Chris Lewis about Chris’s idea to check on the trails around Taylor Lake and revisit some of her and Bob’s footsteps in Gatineau Park, and the three of us made plans to visit its northern reaches on July 8th.
OdoNotations 