Kennedy’s Emerald – OdoNotations

Somatochlora Surprises

Last year I visited Jack Pine Trail in mid-July to look for Brush-tipped Emeralds. I didn’t find any, though I found three species of darners, which made me wonder if the emeralds were still present – I hadn’t recorded any there since 2019 for a myriad of reasons, including closures during the pandemic lockdowns and after the derecho of May 2022. The Brush-tipped Emerald belongs to genus Somatochlora, the striped emeralds, and is the smallest representative in our region. Somatochlora dragonflies are eagerly sought after by odonata enthusiasts, as they are uncommon to scarce in most human-populated areas, requiring special trips to remote peatlands, bogs, fens and swamps; and they are gorgeous, with their metallic green, yellow and black bodies and bright green eyes. They spend most of their time hunting on the wing and will land just often enough to give a dragon-hunter hope that they might get a good look or a photo of one perching naturally, though these emeralds often don’t often perch for very long – unless it’s on the side of a house during a drizzly day, or high up in a tree where they are shaded by the canopy. Their very unpredictability in where they will turn up makes it a delightful shock when you see one flying by.

The Emerald Mystery

On May 20th I received a photo of a large male emerald dragonfly from Chris Traynor. It was a teneral, with brown eyes and crisp, intact wings, but wasn’t so fresh that the wings had that glistening Saran-wrap look. The abdomen was long, thin and black, with an incomplete thin yellowish-white ring near the base. The message that accompanied the photograph was brief: “Don’t have my book. Any ideas?”

New Dragonflies at Marlborough Forest

The beginning of June arrived with plenty of warmth and sunshine, and I couldn’t wait to go back to Marlborough Forest at the peak of butterfly and dragonfly season to look for new species living there. Last year when I started going to Marlborough Forest in mid-June, I kept seeing large, dark dragonflies – almost certainly emeralds of some sort – zipping down the shadowy trail before the sun had fully risen above the trees. I never had my net on me when I saw them on my early-morning birding walks, so I was unable to catch one to verify their identity. This time I was prepared for these dawn-flying dragons, and brought my net with me. I had already added one dragonfly to my life list, the Ocellated Emerald at Trail E4 last year; was it possible that there were other species of interest here?

My first summer visit to Trail E4 occurred on June 6th. Although the morning started out cool, it quickly warmed up. The usual birds were singing along the trail, including all the Red-eyed Vireos, Eastern Wood-pewees, Eastern Kingbirds, Veeries, and the Tree Swallows that were missing from my mid-May visit. I heard seven warblers (Ovenbirds, Northern Waterthrushes, Black-and-whites, Nashvilles, Common Yellowthroats, Black-throated Greens, and a single Magnolia Warbler), two Chipping Sparrows, a Field Sparrow, and a Blue-headed Vireo singing in its usual spot in the large open area devastated by motor bikes and ATVs.