Skimmers – Page 3 – OdoNotations

Finding Amber-wings

I have been spending time on iNaturalist lately, looking at historical records of various odonate species and checking what species have been seen around Ottawa recently. This search stemmed from an interest in seeing whether there were any new locations or new records for the Eastern Red Damsel and Amber-winged Spreadwing, two species that used to be common at Bruce Pit but aren’t any longer. The Amber-winged Spreadwing is a relatively hefty species that inhabits various bogs, lakes and ponds, preferably those which do not contain fish. It’s been a good ten years since I’ve seen one at Bruce Pit, and the only other place I’ve seen one in Ottawa is at the Mississippi Snye in 2021. To my surprise one had been reported in Kanata not too far from home: Bill Teron Park in Kanata North. Named for the developer who initially designed Kanata to be a garden city existing in harmony with nature – no straight roads or cookie-cutter houses, while preserving rock outcroppings and areas for parks – it is a delightful pocket of the same rocky, wooded ecosystem found at South March Highlands hidden within an urban setting. There is a small pond here, with the usual dragonflies being seen at the water or along the nearby trails: Chalk-fronted Corporals, Dot-tailed Whitefaces, Common Whitetails, Autumn Meadowhawks, Common Green Darners.

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.

Clubtail Season Begins at Sheila McKee Park

After a couple of wonderful outings the previous weekend, I was looking forward to heading back out to the west end to Sheila McKee Memorial Park to see if any new dragonflies had emerged. However, the weather was most uncooperative – it rained almost the entire weekend. So I took Tuesday morning off work instead, as it was forecast to be both warm and sunny…the temperature had already reached 20°C by 7:00am. My goals were still to look for rarities such as the Mustached Clubtail reported there on May 24, 2021 and the Arrow Clubtail reported there on June 24, 2021. I knew the Arrow Clubtail would be almost impossible, as it is very rare in our region, but as the Mustached Clubtail had a few sporadic reports from Remic Rapids on both sides of the Ottawa River I thought I had at least a shot of finding that species….long though it might be!

The sky was pure blue when I left, and the day’s high forecast was to be a sunny, humid 29°C – perfect weather for dragon-hunting. I left just before 9:00 so I would miss the worst of the rush hour traffic and arrived about 10:20. Being a workday, there were only two other cars in the parking lot when I arrived, and I saw no one on the beach by the time I got there.

Marlborough Forest: Heaphy Road

Last year I spent a cloudy Sunday morning in the south end of Marlborough Forest, looking for for new parts of Marlborough Forest to explore as there were very few odonate records on iNaturalist from that area. I visited four places that looked intriguing on Google Map: an unmaintained trail extending beyond Mulholland Road at Harnett Road; a large wetland further south on Harnett Road directly accessible by car; another unmaintained trail beyond Weedmark Road off of Paden Road; and the Paden Road trail itself. I had hoped to have time to explore Heaphy Road on the western boundary, as Google Maps shows it running through another big wetland and crossing over a large creek before encountering more wetlands. I wasn’t sure what the creek looked like in this area, whether it was a slow, deep, muddy, meandering waterway like the Jock River or if it was a narrow, rocky, fast-flowing stream like those I had seen recently in Nova Scotia. Fast-flowing waters provide habitat to a different variety of odonate species than the slow-moving streams and marshy ponds that make up much of Ottawa county, and I was hoping that there was a fast enough flow to attract jewelwings, clubtails, and perhaps even a spiketail. So far all that had been recorded in that area was Sedge Sprite, Common Whitetail, Dot-tailed Whiteface, and Common Green Darner, all very abundant and widespread species in Ottawa.

A Dazzle of Dashers

After leaving Mud Lake I went to Sheila McKee Memorial Park to try my luck there. I was hoping that the whitefaces would still be flying, as I wanted to find some fully mature individuals after seeing so many tenerals and immatures right before my trip to the Maritimes, and I was hoping that some clubtails had emerged. It was still sunny, only about 18°C, and while the wind was still blowing, the small clearings in the woods at the top of the escarpment were relatively protected. I didn’t see any odes other than a few Powdered Dancers until I reached the main clearing where the trail leading down to the water branches off to the right. Some smaller dragonflies were perching in shrubs at the edge of the clearing, and I was delighted to find some freshly emerged Blue Dashers – both males and females!

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.

Sarsaparilla Trail Predators

Late spring is a wonderful time to visit Sarsaparilla Trail. I usually start visiting in May to look for early dragonflies such as Spiny Baskettails and Chalk-fronted Corporals, both of which emerge in good numbers in mid- to late May. It is also a good place to look for Taiga Bluets, often my first damselfly of the year. Friday, May 24th was a beautiful, sunny day despite a cool north wind blowing, so I spent my lunch hour there searching for signs of spring. I began my walk by scanning the shrubs bordering the clearing near the outhouse for dragonflies perching in the vegetation and baskettails flying in the open…there were no emeralds flying on my visit, although there had been over a dozen Spiny Baskettails present only eight days earlier. I did scare up a dragonfly perching close to the ground – it turned out to be a Four-spotted Skimmer.

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.

Emeralds and Whitefaces at Sheila McKee Park

Sheila McKee Memorial Park has been on my mind all winter. I haven’t been there since 2020, and when thinking of good spots to look for clubtails close to home, I remembered seeing Cobra Clubtails, Lancet Clubtails, and Black-shouldered Spinylegs there later in the summer on my previous visits. The open, rocky shoreline makes it a better spot to see them perching than Mud Lake, and as it isn’t as far as Gatineau Park it was high on my list of places to explore. I started poring over iNaturalist sightings over the winter and was delighted by the additional clubtail species that had been observed there – not only the Midland Clubtail my mentor Chris mentioned seeing back in 2019, but also two rarities: Mustached Clubtail and Arrow Clubtail. I’ve seen Mustached Clubtail once at Sugarbush trail in Gatineau Park, but Arrow Clubtail (Stylurus spiniceps) is so rare that it’s not even on my mental dashboard, let alone my radar. This clubtail is one of the hanging clubtails referred to in a previous post; it perches by hanging vertically from a leaf or branch instead of horizontally on the ground. Perhaps that’s the reason I’ve never seen one, then: I don’t spend too much time looking in trees for odes, unless I happen to see one fly in and land!

Hudsonian Whitefaces of the Bog

Although it’s been warming up nicely, I haven’t seen many dragonflies since witnessing the wonderful mass emergence of Spiny Baskettails at Mud Lake on May 12th. So when Chris T. told me he was thinking about going to Mer Bleue on the weekend, I decided to join him. Mer Bleue is ecologically significant as one of the few accessible bogs in eastern Ontario, hosting many different species not found in typical forests or wetlands. There were a couple of butterflies in particular I was hoping to see, the Brown Elfin and Jutta Arctic which I last saw in 2012, as well as the aptly-named day-flying Black-banded Orange Moth (Epelis truncataria). Several bog-loving odes were high on my list, chiefly Sphagnum Sprite, Ebony Boghaunter, Harlequin Darner, and Hudsonian Whiteface, all of which I’d seen here in my early ode-hunting days with Bob Bracken and Chris Lewis. I was also secretly hoping to stumble upon a Somatochlora emerald or two, as they are more likely to be found in the Mer Bleue bog than on the side of a random house in Nepean….or so I hoped!

Odonates on the Wing: October and November 2023

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!