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.
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.
In addition to the Somatochlora emeralds, I saw some other interesting dragonflies at Jack Pine Trail over the past few weeks. The first species was a large dragonfly called the Arrowhead Spiketail. I’ve seen this species many times over the years along the stream at the back of the trail, usually between the first and third weeks of June. Normally I only see them on one or two visits, making me wonder how long their flight season actually is – while the Ottawa Checklist says they fly from early June to early July, I don’t think I’ve actually seen any beyond the third week of June. While the range of dates surely applies to all populations within the Ottawa region, I was certain that individuals lived longer than a single week, and checked the stream each time on my visits to see how many spiketails I could find.
Another ode season is over. Ottawa had some beautiful warm weather during the month of October – there were 26 consecutive days where the daytime high reached 9°C or above (between October 1st and 26th), tying for the 5th longest streak on record. As a result of the warm weather, I thought this would be the year I’d find more species flying later. Our first frost of the season occurred on October 16th with an overnight low of -1°C; this is a week later than the average first frost date. Then a warm spell hit late in the month – October 30th reached a ridiculous high of 22.2°C and October 31st hit 23.9°C, the warmest such days since records began in 1872. The month was mostly dry, with very little rain until the 29th.
November was cooler, though daytime temperatures remained above zero throughout the entire month. It’s not the day-time high that limits the dragonfly season in Ottawa, however; rather, it’s the nighttime lows falling below freezing. While the latest-flying dragonfly, the Autumn Meadowhawk, can withstand a few light frosts, a hard frost will kill both it and the flying insects it feeds on even if subsequent days reach double-digits. November 2nd and 3rd were both below -3°C, while November 9th and 10th were both below -2°C. A string of subzero nights after November 11th followed by warmer but cloudy, windy or wet days after November 20th ended the dragonfly season for good.
Today I went to Bruce Pit to see if anything was still flying around the edges of the pond and the field at the back. When I was here last weekend, there had still been three meadowhawk species and six damselfly species (Slender Spreadwing, Spotted Spreadwing, Azure Bluet, Familiar Bluet, Fragile Forktail and Eastern Forktail) still present, as well as an unidentified darner in flight over the water. With only two days left in the month I wasn’t expecting much, and indeed the wet vegetation at the edge of the pond yielded only three damselflies on this visit: Slender Spreadwing, Spotted Spreadwing, and Familiar Bluet. I also saw White-faced and Autumn Meadowhawks, but the Band-winged Meadowhawk from last weekend was gone.
I was pleasantly surprised when I saw at least two large darners zipping along the edge of the shore, especially when one flew low to investigate the reeds close to where I was standing. My net shot out, and the next thing I knew there was an angry buzzing sound coming from inside. I had caught a darner, and I was not really surprised to find a male Canada Darner inside.
The 2024 North American edition of the Summer Odolympics were held between September 7-15, giving ode enthusiasts two weekends and as much time as a regular working week would allow to collect observations. I had hoped to find 19 or 20 species based on the same period spent collecting observations last year, but as most species are on the decline by this time, I knew I needed both good weather and good luck to come up with a respectful number. Unfortunately, neither luck nor weather were in my favour that first crucial weekend when I hoped to find a few species whose season ended around the beginning of September; it rained most of Saturday, and the temperature never rose above 15°C. Although it didn’t rain nearly as much on Sunday, the weather was worse: it was cloudy, windy, and the temperature never rose above 14°C. In fact, it was the coldest September 8th in more than 70 years (since 1949) and the windiest since records began in 1953 with a mean wind of 21 km/h. With a 1:00am windchill of 1.6 it was almost (within 0.1) the lowest windchill ever recorded on September 7th. Cold, wet, windy nights are even more of an obstacle, as many late-lingering species may not survive the low temperatures. When the sun began peeking out from the thick, fast-moving clouds around 4:30 I headed out despite the wind as to have zero species recorded on the first weekend was unthinkable. I didn’t expect much, and found only two species at the Eagleson ponds: an Eastern Forktail and a Slender Spreadwing.
On July 15th I went to Jack Pine Trail at lunch to look for dragonflies. I was hoping to find some Brush-tipped Emeralds, a species I hadn’t seen there since 2019. I have not visited Jack Pine Trail much in the past five years for a variety of reasons, including closures during the pandemic lockdowns and after the derecho of May 2022. However, the main reason is that I stopped looking for them there after I began visiting Marlborough Forest during the pandemic and saw how common the Brush-tipped Emeralds were on all the trails there. Unfortunately Marlborough Forest is a little bit too far to visit on a lunch hour, but Jack Pine Trail is nice and close. It can be good for baskettails, and it’s the most reliable spot in the area for Arrowhead Spiketails in mid-June. I’ve also had Slaty Skimmer there and two unidentified clubtails that I never got a good look at before they flew off. I usually find something interesting there when I visit, and was hoping to do so again today.
By October I’m thinking about putting the net away for the season. If it is still warm at the beginning of the month, I will usually take the net out as long as I’m still seeing darners and small bluets around. Once I’m seeing nothing but meadowhawks, however, it’s time for me to declare an end to the season and put my gear away until the spring. This year the first week of October was very warm, with temperatures reaching 30°C; they then returned to seasonal for the next week with temperatures in the mid-teens. By the end of the month temperatures were in the single digits during the day and falling to below zero overnight, bringing an end to all but the hardiest of dragonflies. That title belongs to the meadowhawks, in particular the Autumn Meadowhawk (Sympetrum vicinum). It is no coincidence that it is the latest-flying dragonfly in many areas of the northeast….sometimes by several weeks. Once called the Yellow-legged Meadowhawk, it was renamed in 2004 by the Dragonfly Society of the Americas because mature individuals often have brown legs instead of yellow and because it persists so long into the fall. It is the only dragonfly in our area with entirely brown or yellow legs (never black), making identification relatively easy. And it is the only species you are likely to see in Ottawa in November!
Although technically still considered summer until the equinox, the month of September ushers in the beginning of fall, the season most associated with change and impermanence, with encroaching darkness, with death and transition and the melancholy appreciation of the last burst of colour before the inevitable bleakness of winter. I can’t help but be reminded that this is the season of endings every time I go outside: the robins are gone from the neighbourhood, the songbirds in the woods have stopped singing, trees are changing colour, and the asters and goldenrods have replaced all the other wildflowers along roadsides and in conservation areas. In the dragonfly world, it is the season of the meadowhawk, the glider, and the darner, as these types of dragonflies are by far the most numerous. The goal now is to search out any others that may still be flying, and see how long into the season they last. Part of the reason is purely scientific – to get a better grasp of the flight seasons of local odonates. However, another part of the reason is purely emotional – I never know if a sighting will be the last of the year, and hope to put off the final goodbyes as long as possible.
When I first heard about the Odolympics – a special bioblitz hosted by the Dragonfly Society of the Americas, Sociedad de Odonatología Latinoamericana, and Odonata Central in order to record as many odonata species from as many places in the Western Hemisphere as possible – I knew I had to participate. This specialized bioblitz is only two years old, and there are usually two Odolympics each year: one falling during the North American summer, and one falling during the South American summer in order generate a snapshot of odonate distribution throughout both hemispheres.
Dragonflies and damselflies, collectively known as odonates, are valuable indicators of a wetland’s environmental health and biodiversity. Simply put, the more odonates that use a wetland for breeding and feeding purposes, the healthier the ecosystem. Naturalists were encouraged to submit their observations during the bioblitz via one of two platforms: iNaturalist, or Odonata Central. While I love iNaturalist and have been using it for a few years now to record my non-avian observations, I began submitting my observations to Odonata Central last year when it developed a checklist-based phone app similar to eBird. iNaturalist also has a phone-based app for submitting observations, but it is intended to be used in conjunction with the phone’s camera which I only use as a backup camera when my Nikon Coolpix’s battery decides to take a nap. Although I love the ease of searching for data in iNaturalist’s projects, I chose to record my Odolympic observations in Odonata Central as it allowed me to include observations of species for which I am usually unable to get a photo (yes, I’m looking at you, Prince Baskettail and Wandering Glider!)
Mud Lake and Andrew Haydon Park are usually excellent places to find different species of dragons and damsels throughout the summer months. In both 2015 and 2019 I had a good number of species at Andrew Haydon Park in late July, and an OFNC dragonfly outing at Mud Lake on July 21, 2013 also netted some fantastic species. I was hoping for some similar luck on an ode-hunting trip on July 24th, but this time I found fewer species and fewer individuals overall. I am not sure why there seem to be so few dragonflies around good pond habitat these past two years (such as the Eagleson ponds), but the trend is concerning.
My first stop was the shoreline at Mud Lake where I hoped to find some large river clubtails perching on the rocks in the channel behind the filtration plant. When I arrived I was happy to find two dragonflies perching on the rocks right away, and managed only to photograph one before a couple of people came along and scared them both – while I’m certain one of them was a clubtail, the one I photographed turned out o be an Eastern Pondhawk. The clubtail did not return, although I saw a couple flying out over the water several times on my visit.
By the time September rolls around, most odonate species are done for the year in the Ottawa region – gone are the Aurora Damsels and Elegant Spreawings, the Spiny Baskettails and Ebony Boghaunters, the Arrowhead Spiketails and Horned Clubtails, the Chalk-fronted Corporals and Four-spotted Skimmers. This is the time of year when the number of meadowhawks and darners begin to peak, and southern species such as Spot-winged and Wandering Gliders may blow into our region with the warm south winds. A few bluet and spreadwing species may persist, as well as the common and widespread Eastern Forktail, though each day sees fewer and fewer individuals. This is a summary of species I saw and photographed around Ottawa during September 2019 – due to my trip to Edmonton and some cool, cloudy weekends, I didn’t visit as many places as I had hoped and missed a few common species.
The Equinox fell on Thursday, and by then the winds were blowing down from the north, putting an abrupt end to summer. Although I quite love the crisp, cool days of fall, I hate the cold early mornings which require hats and gloves to stay warm. This morning I headed out to Jack Pine Trail, leaving at 8:15 – the sun is visibly lower in the sky now – and I wished I had brought gloves as my hands were so cold. A Blue Jay and some chickadees were feeding on seeds left on the ground in the parking lot, and it seemed strange not to hear any Red-eyed Vireos or Eastern Wood-pewees singing.
OdoNotations 