Lancet Clubtail – OdoNotations

To Catch a Cruiser

Swift River Cruiser (Macromia illinoiensis)

I don’t see Swift River Cruisers very often, and even when I do, I seldom get the opportunity to catch or photograph one. I used to see them fairly regularly at Mud Lake, but now it seems the best place to see them – aside from my recent outing to Quebec with Chris Traynor – is Sheila McKee Memorial Park. However, even here I only see them in flight, either far out on the water or soaring high above the trees with the Prince Baskettails. Swift River Cruisers love feeding in large, sunny clearings near the rivers they breed in, dancing in the sky with graceful twists and turns too rapid to follow with the eye. They do, however, perch fairly regularly, though I have never seen one doing so at Sheila McKee Park. As such, I have not been able to enter any of my sightings into iNaturalist as photographing them is next to impossible while they are in flight.

Rarities Along the River

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.

Nova Scotia in June

Back in March my partner and I bought a trailer in Nova Scotia. We don’t have any property yet so it is currently parked next to a relative’s house. This will give us a place to stay when we go back instead of spending money on an Airbnb – though we have stayed in some nice ones over the years! This also means I could buy a second dragonfly net and leave it there for those occasions when we fly instead of drive.

We took a vacation during the first week of June so I could see it for the first time. It’s amazing – 40 feet long, with an actual bedroom, living area, kitchen area, and dining area and even an electric fireplace! Although it is 12 years old, it has been immaculately maintained with new furniture and a new furnace. We spent the first two days furnishing it and getting to know how it works – the weather was lousy (cold, overcast and blustery) so I wasn’t interested in spending much time outdoors anyway.

Canada Day Clubtails – Part 1

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.

Dragons in the Wind

On June 15th I visited Mud Lake for a morning of birding and ode-hunting. It was about 13°C when I arrived at 8:30, and although it was sunny, the persistent breeze made it feel cooler. Still, there were more odes about than I had hoped for, although at first I saw only a few damselflies (Eastern Forktails, Fragile Forktails and Powdered Dancers) and Dot-tailed Whitefaces. It wasn’t until about an hour into my walk that I came across my first interesting odonate observation of the day: a lilac bush with several dragonflies perching on its branches. It was the Spiny Baskettail landing on an exposed twig that caught my attention, and while I was trying to photograph it a few more dragonflies landed nearby: first a Blue Dasher and then a Prince Baskettail! These large emeralds are the least likely of the baskettails to land, so seeing one perching is always a treat.

Moncton, NB: A sunny day in Riverview

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.

Trout Lake, NS: Interlude

After leaving Yarmouth we drove to our next stop on the tour, a cottage on Trout Lake south of Middleton in Annapolis County. The lake was nice, but quiet: there was a small sandy beach with several rocks protruding from the water at either edge of the property. A little bit of emergent vegetation made for some great perches for skimmers and damselflies, but I didn’t see either during our short stay. The weather was cool and cloudy for most of our time there, which, combined with the early season – there were no Slaty Skimmers or Calico Pennants flying yet – likely had a lot to do with a lack of odes at the water.

Both of the days we were there dawned with the sky completely covered in cloud. It was cold our first morning there, so cold that I didn’t even want to go for a walk along the gravel road. Instead we went into Greenwood to get breakfast, pick up some groceries, and check out a few rocky creeks and waterfalls that we had visited on past trips. The thick blanket of clouds covering the sky showed signs of breaking up by the time we finished our errands, so we headed to a small trail on Rock Notch Road that looked over Fales River and a medium-sized waterfall that once powered a water mill from 1857 to 2002.

Yarmouth NS: The Yarmouth County Rail Trail

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.

Yarmouth, Nova Scotia: Chebogue Meadows

On my second day in Yarmouth I headed out to the Chebogue Meadows Wilderness Trail not far from the Hebron Recreation Complex. I had wanted to drive down to the Cape Forchu lighthouse to look for seabirds, but the chilly north wind was uncomfortable and I figured it would only be worse by the ocean so I decided to head inland instead. Chebogue Meadows sounded like a great spot to look for birds and bugs; it was an eBird hotspot, with a whopping 33 species listed before my visit, including many northern-type warblers and thrushes. Interesting to me was the river at the back of the loop visible on Google maps, but what made it especially appealing was an online description of a trail that takes you through 12 distinct habitats via footpaths and boardwalks including softwood forest, a black spruce swamp, a meadow, a hardwood upland, and wetlands.

Yarmouth, Nova Scotia: Hebron Recreational Complex

My fiancé Doran and I spent two weeks in the Maritimes in late May/early June: first we spent some time in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, where Doran (a comic book creator) had a booth for all three days of the Y-Con Gaming & Comics Convention, followed by three days in the Annapolis Valley to visit family, and finishing with a few days in Moncton, New Brunswick where Doran had a booth at East Coast Comic Expo for a day and a half. These are places I never would have planned to visit for birds and dragonflies on my own, so it was a great opportunity to explore some places completely off my radar! I prepared for the trip the same way any contemporary naturalist would prepare: I investigated iNaturalist, explored eBird, and goggled over Google maps looking for places that had an intriguing variety of birds, odonates, and habitats in order to come up with a short list of places to visit around each of our AirBnBs. I wanted to see (or hear) and document as many species as possible with three main goals in mind: (1) to find some East Coast lifers whose range is limited to the Maritimes (White Corporal and Mantled Baskettail being at the top of my list); (2) to find some species that live in the Ottawa-Gatineau region but are difficult to find, mainly due to the inaccessibility of habitat (such as emeralds in bogs or clubtails and snaketails in rushing creeks); and (3) add as many ode records as possible to Nova Scotia and Moncton in order to increase the general knowledge of the species that live there.

Gatineau Park: In Search of Emeralds and Clubtails

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.

A trip to Morris Island with the McNamara Field Naturalists

On Saturday, July 3rd I accompanied the McNamara Field Naturalists on their first in-person outing since the latest Stay-at-Home Order ended on June 2nd. Ontario entered Stage 2 of its reopening plan on July 2nd, which raised the number of people who could attend outdoor social gatherings and organized public events to 25 people (as well as allowing haircuts and personal care services again). Although I am not a member of the McNamara Field Naturalists Club, which calls Arnprior home but whose explorations include a large swath of the Ottawa Valley, one of my friends happens to be in charge of putting field trips together, and asked if I wanted to help lead a dragonfly walk. I said yes, and suggested Morris Island as it’s a great place to find all sorts of odes, including several flashy skimmers and clubtails that can be found perching in the vegetation and along the trails. I was thrilled when my mentor Chris Lewis joined us, as it would be easier to find some more of the unique species with a couple of knowledgeable people looking.

Adventure in Dunrobin

On June 5th I headed out to Dunrobin to spend some time looking for odes and birds. My first stop was the Crazy Horse Trail on March Road at the end of Huntmar Road. This is a relatively new pedestrian-only trail for hikers, skiers, and snowshoers that was developed by the Friends of the Carp Hills under an agreement with the City of Ottawa. It is named for an old tavern that used to stand adjacent to the trailhead but has long since been demolished. The goal of the trail is to provide recreational access to the the Carp Hills on City-owned property while keeping impact on the environment to a minimum. The trail is narrow, and as there is no intention to groom or widen the trail, people are asked to respect the natural areas by staying on the trail, keeping dogs under control at all times (which means using a leash if necessary), leaving no waste, and respecting property boundaries. There are some rough, volunteer-built boardwalks in places too wet to cross which adds to its charm. In fact, all trail maintenance and improvement depends on volunteers, rather than the City, which makes it doubly important to respect the work they have done in creating this trail.

Clubtails at Sheila McKee Park

On July 22nd I received an email from Chris Lewis about a new dragonfly spot along the Ottawa River. I’d been to Shelia McKee Park out near Dunrobin just once, on an OFNC trip in 2015 to look for herps; it has a network of woodland trails and a steep staircase that leads down from the top of the cliff to the rocky beach at the bottom. Chris said she found evidence of a very recent dragonfly emergence of in the form of both exuviae and teneral dragonflies; she recognized exuviae of both clubtails and emeralds, though she was not able to identify them to species. She saw an unidentified darner and several teneral meadowhawks in the woods, and several Powdered Dancers and a pair of Stream Bluets in tandem near the water. However, it was her clubtail report that intrigued me: she mentioned one Lancet Clubtail, both mature and teneral Black-shouldered Spinylegs, several Midland Clubtails, and one Cobra Clubtail which had become the unfortunate meal of a Midland Clubtail. It is amazing that I’ve never considered going back to this park for odes before – the shoreline here is quite rocky, with little or no emergent vegetation, reminiscent of Britannia Point at Mud Lake or the causeway at Morris Island, both of which are great spots for clubtails. Curious to see these clubtails for myself, I headed out the following Sunday (July 28th) and brought my net in case there was anything worth catching.

Dragonflies at Mud Lake

By the end of June it seemed that summer had finally arrived and the weather had returned to normal: the temperature had reached a consistent near 30°C, the state of emergency caused by the unprecedented spring flood had ended on June 12th, water levels were returning to normal, and the sun had finally come out! I was hoping that this meant that the dragonflies were also emerging on schedule again, and decided to head to Mud Lake on the last Saturday of June. Mud Lake is a fantastic place to see dragonflies in mid-summer, as all the dragonfly families except for Cordulegastridae – the spiketails – can be found there. Among the damselfly families both the spreadwings and pond damsels are well-represented; the broad-winged damselflies, mainly Ebony Jewelwings, are seen there from time to time. I had high hopes for my visit.