Although Saturday morning started off overcast, the clouds began to break up around noon and the sun started shining through. I headed out at 1:30 to hit a few spots close to home in case it started to rain: the former sewage lagoons at the Richmond Conservation Area, and Jack Pine Trail to look for emeralds. The Richmond CA ended up being a terrific place to spend some time. I saw a female Ebony Jewelwing along the small path between the parking lot and the lagoons; although this isn’t the first time I’ve had one here, it is the first one I have photographed and added to iNaturalist.
All week I’ve been dodging rain showers to get out and find dragonflies to add to my Odolympics species total. It figures the sunniest day of the week was Tuesday, when I had to work downtown. Almost every other day was overcast, and it rained heavily on Thursday and most of Friday. Limited to checking only areas close by, my dreams of tallying a large number of species completely fizzled out in the sub-optimal weather.
Terry Carisse may not have the highest diversity of odonate species, but it is worth visiting for the ones that inhabit this small park, namely Orange and Rainbow Bluets, Skimming Bluets, Stream Bluets, Elegant Spreadwings, and Fragile Forktails. Various skimmers show up along the edge of the water fairly frequently, particularly near the boat launch at the north end, but never in large numbers. My best skimmer find to date has been a Slaty Skimmer seen back in 2022 and then never since.
Other dragonfly families are less common. The only darners I’ve identified here are Common Green Darner and Lance-tipped Darner, while the only emeralds I have observed are Prince and Common Baskettails. I have never seen a clubtail, cruiser, or spiketail here, although I suppose there is a faint chance that individuals belonging to the first two families may show up here from suitable habitat nearby. The list as of this morning stood at 25 species, and I have never given much thought to what might show up next. Perhaps not all the darners cruising over the lawn in the late summer are Lance-tipped Darners, and there might be a Canada Darner among them. Perhaps a Wandering Glider would join them. Perhaps another type of spreadwing – such as Spotted or Northern – would show up at the water’s edge.
We are now about four weeks into dragonfly season here in Ottawa and my dragonfly woes continue. There just don’t seem to be the number of individuals present as there should be. On June 3rd I visited Andrew Haydon Park to see if there were more odes flying there. While there were plenty of teneral damselflies in the vegetation – too fresh and colourless to properly identify – I only saw three dragonflies. Not three species – three individuals. One was a Common Whitetail that escaped my camera. The other two were Common Green Darners laying eggs in the pond that didn’t. I walked around the two ponds and checked the eastern creek and the small beach at the mouth of Graham Creek (which was almost non-existent due to high water levels) but did not find nearly the number of dragonflies that I was expecting.
Monday was finally warm and sunny, reaching 20°C, with only a hint of a breeze. I hope it’s not going to be one of those years where the weekdays are sunny and beautiful while the weekends are rainy and cold! I headed over to Terry Carisse Park on the Jock River on my lunch break to test my theory that rivers and streams would have more odes than marshes and ponds badly affected by last year’s drought. This not a great park for dragonflies but an excellent one for damselflies. When I scanned the lawn for baskettails I did not see a single one – I’ve had Common Baskettails here the last two years both flying over the grass and over the water. I checked the river in three different spots and the only dragonfly I saw was a Common Green Darner on patrol. I didn’t even see any damselflies lurking in the vegetation at the canoe launch.
From there I returned to the lawn and began checking the sunlit vegetation on the east side. At last I had some luck, finding both Eastern and Fragile Forktails in relatively small numbers.
Fragile Forktail (Ischnura posita)
Both immature and mature individuals were present – I did not see any mature females. There were perhaps four or five of each.
Eastern Forktail (Ischnura verticalis)
I did not see any other damselflies on my walk – no Skimming Bluets, Stream Bluets or Rainbow Bluets. It’s still early in the season for some of those species, but at least it’s a start!
The dragonfly season for odes that emerge here in Ottawa (as compared to those that migrate from further south) usually begins for me on the May long weekend, if not earlier. Odonate larvae need the waters they inhabit to warm up to a specific temperature in order to begin the transformation process, and this usually requires several days of heat and strong sunshine. Unfortunately this year the temperature was slow to warm up, with many days of cloud and northern winds that made it feel cold even when the sun was shining – I didn’t put my winter coat away until the first day of the long weekend because morning temperatures were still quite cold!
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.
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 the Friday before the long weekend my workplace allowed employees to log off work an hour earlier. This meant I had a beautiful, sunny afternoon to myself starting at 3:30. Andrew Haydon Park and the colony of Vesper Bluets I’d found there two years ago were on my mind, so I drove over right after I closed my laptop. I’d searched for them there the previous weekend, to no avail….I was probably there too early in the day for them and the Orange Bluets as I saw neither species at the water. With the sun setting a little earlier each evening as the earth tilts its way toward the equinox, the shadows were long when I arrived and I thought I might have a chance of seeing both species. I was also looking for Skimming Bluets, darners, and skimmers, though of course any cooperative ode would be welcome!
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.
Sarsaparilla Trail is always worth a quick visit in the warmer months, even with the limited access to the water. The pond is fairly large, and I’ve often wondered just how many species actually live and breed here away from the boardwalk – the only point of access to the water. On June 18, 2025 I added a new species here to the list of Stony Swamp odes, a female Horned Clubtail that landed on the boardwalk and stayed long enough for some photos. After seeing that magnificent dragonfly I wasn’t expecting to add another new species to the list anytime soon, but that is what happened on one of my visits this month.
The circular trail through the woods is short – the inner loop is only about 0.5 km – so most times I only stop by for a quick walk on my lunch break while working from home, or a short visit after returning from somewhere else. My July 8 visit was a lunchtime visit, and although there were lots of clouds in the sky, the odes were flying around the pond as usual.
Burritt’s Rapids has been on my radar as a low-priority place to visit for about a year now, and if I hadn’t missed a turn on my way to the southwestern corner of Marlborough Forest I wouldn’t have ended up there on a nice warm day in mid-July. I had been curious about what species I might find at the rapids there, and was hoping to find a few new species to add to iNaturalist as it didn’t have many when I first started thinking about going there. One species I was curious about was Swamp Spreadwing, which had been found a short distance east at Rideau River Provincial Park back in 2022. The only place I’ve seen this species in Ottawa is Petrie Island, and it would be fantastic to find another one closer to home. I was also wondering if the river and rocky rapids might host some of our common clubtails, such as Dragonhunter or Black-shouldered Spinyleg.
A day without seeing a dragonfly is like a day without chocolate – sure, it’s completely survivable, but utterly lacking in joy. I had to work downtown on both the Wednesday and Thursday after Canada Day, and decided to go for a lunchtime walk along the canal to the river on Wednesday to see if I could find any weekday odes. I’d seen Prince Baskettails and Common Green Darners flying up and down the canal, and a Midland Clubtail on the rocky shore behind Parliament Hill many moons ago, so the downtown core is not completely devoid of odonates. Still, I wasn’t expecting much, and got lucky on Wednesday when I saw first a Common Green Darner flying by, then a Prince Baskettail. Then something small fluttering above one of the mats of vegetation caught my eye – a female Eastern Amberwing ovipositing in some floating vegetation! After a few more minutes of watching, I saw a pair of males fly by. I waited for several minutes for one to land but they never did.
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.
On July 5, 2026, I visited Bruce Pit briefly hoping to find some spreadwings, amberwings, and pennants along the northeastern corner of the pond. The water of the pond was finally low enough to have a shoreline again; however, I didn’t spy any perching pennants or Azure Bluets, as there were no stalks of vegetation emerging from the water for them to perch on. Disappointed to find little of interest at the pond, I decided not to head to the bridge or the meadow at the back and drove over to the Richmond Conservation Area instead – I’d had a fabulous time on my previous outing there, and was certain to see more there than at Bruce Pit!
OdoNotations 