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.
Chris Traynor and I planned a wonderful outing in the Kazabazua area for the August long weekend. He’d been reviewing some of Chris Lewis’s notes about expeditions to the Kazabazua area about an hour north of downtown Ottawa, in particular to a small fen near Danford Lake where she and Bob Bracken had found Zigzag Darners, a Forcipate Emerald and and an Incurvate Emerald. The dates of their expeditions and findings are as follows: August 3, 1998 (several Zigzag Darners and one Forcipate Emerald); August 15, 1999 (several Zigzag Darners and one Incurvate Emerald); August 21, 2000 (6 Zigzag Darners); and August 10, 2002 (5 Zigzag Darners). He’d also dug out some notes from Benoit Menard who had found Subarctic Bluet (the damselfly) and Subarctic Darner (the dragonfly) in the fen. The Incurvate Emerald would be new for Chris; and the Subarctic Bluet, Zigzag Darner, Subarctic Darner, and Forcipate Emerald would be new for both of us, so we were keen on going even if it was a bit early in the season for the dragonflies. This area has the added attraction of being close to the Kazabazua River where we had seen Zebra Clubtails in 2023. I jokingly told Chris I was looking forward to writing a blog post called “Of Zigzags and Zebras” as these species at least seemed almost a sure thing, but the reality was very different.
OdoNotations 