Comet Darners eaten by Purple Martins

My friend and colleague Gregor Beck has a thriving Purple Martin colony on his property near Turkey Point and he snapped a bunch of photos of the parents feeding the young. He mentioned that you can see a dragonfly in a few of the photos so I took a look. We zoomed in on a photo of a male martin trying to feed his young a large darner and I quickly realised it to be a male Comet Darner!

Gregor informed me that there is a pile of dragonfly wings underneath the nesting box and even a few whole dragonflies that didn't get eaten for one reason or another. We went out to take a look and found 3 intact dragons - 2 Swamp Darners, and another Comet Darner (a female)! Our hypothesis is that perhaps the young Martins couldn't quite stuff our largest darner species down their throats as easily as some of our smaller dragons.

Previous to this year Comet Darners were thought to be very rare in the province, but already this year they are turning up all over the place and even in Quebec - a first for the province. This is partly due to more people out looking, but maybe more due to the warm weather we have experienced this year.

You can tell it's a male Comet Darner by the bright red abdomen, red femurs and long legs.

 (above and below photo taken by Gregor Beck )

 This dead female Comet Darner was found under the nest box. Another feature to look for is the lack of any marking on the top of the frons - the top part of the face between the eyes (see below).

Here's a photo of a Carolina Saddlebags I took a few days ago. 

This Edward's Hairstreak was particularly bright with a lot of white highlights. I hadn't seen one like this before. 

Least Bittern and Carolina Saddlebags

Yesterday, while looking for turtles, I kayaked quite extensively through the Big Creek Marsh at Long Point. In the turtle department I had many Midland Painted Turtles and 3 Blanding's Turtles, a threatened species. Naturally I also saw many birds and dragonflies. I was wishfully hoping for a rare heron/ibis to make an appearance, or perhaps even a Lilypad Forktail (damselfly) which is known from Pelee. Neither materialised. I did however have several Least Bitterns calling and one even flew up into some Phragmites offering quite a stellar view. This might have been my first Least Bittern I have ever seen perched. They are so secretive I usually just hear them calling or occasionally flying by.

Dragonflies were a little disappointing with nothing that special flying around. Some clubtails were buzzing around but wouldn't offer any good looks and I didn't take my net with me. Below is a photo of an Orange Bluet (kind of an oxymoron no?). It is longer and more slender than orange female Eastern Forktails, and the ring of orange on abdominal segment 9 is a diagnostic feature.

Today I went out again to a few inland ponds to see what was lurking around and was pleasantly surprised to find 4 Carolina/Red Saddlebags at a fishless pond near Backus Woods. I caught one and identified it to Carolina Saddlebags, and I presume that is what they all were. This is the first record of this rare southern species for Norfolk County according to the Ontario Odonata Atlas that is online (I don't think this is considered up to date, so it's probably not the first record). Two were even seen in tandem and ovipositing so perhaps we will have a permanent colony here now. Also around were some Unicorn Clubtails, and a bunch of more common species one would expect to find.

Carolina Saddlebags 

Unicorn Clubtail

Last week I had my first Spot-winged Glider, a species that usually doesn't show up until Late Summer.

Turtles are up laying eggs now so keep a watchful eye out on roads. This Snapping Turtle was laying eggs at Big Creek Marsh yesterday. There were already around 50 predated nests, a number likely to grow as more turtles lay their eggs.