Dragonflies in the News

If you think birdwatching is a bit on the fringe of what makes the news, then news on dragonflies and other insects is even more rare. Recently the Long Point Basin Land Trust put out a news release detailing the story of how my colleague photographed Purple Martins eating dragonflies, and one of these dragonflies turned out to be a Comet Darner. The story got picked up by many newspapers and even got me an interview on CBC radio! Just goes to show you that there's an appetite for this sort of nature nugget. Just to refresh your memory, one of the photos is below (photo credit Gregor Beck). 

The news release emphasized the novel method of studying dragonflies by watching what the martins brought in, and a lesser extent that the Comet darner is rather uncommon. Well the story ended up getting picked up by a number of newspapers in Southern Ontario, and many tried to put their own slant on things. Many  wanted to emphasize the rarity of the Comet Darner - you would have thought I discovered the first one in Ontario or something, while others even tried to make connections to Global Warming. People wanted to know - what does all this mean? Is it bad that the martins are eating "rare" dragonflies? The short answer was it's not bad or good - it's just cool! We just thought it was a fun story.

Also it's funny how easily it is to get miss-quoted, or have things taken out of context. I was quoted as saying "...the unusually warm spring and summer in the area that has also attracted new species of butterflies to Norfolk, including the rare Red Admiral..." I most certainly did not call Red Admirals rare, and I think the news reporter just mixed a few quotes together by accident. Next time I read some bizarre "quote" in the newspaper I'll keep in mind that it might not be exactly what was said.

Here are a couple newspaper articles that took different slants on the topic.

July19th - The Record - Kitchener Waterloo
http://www.therecord.com/living/article/764202--rare-dragonfly-spotted-in-ontario

July19th - Simcoe Reformer
http://www.simcoereformer.ca/2012/07/19/dragonflies-cross-lake-erie

Shortly after these news releases, someone from CBC radio Calgary called to chat with me a little more about Dragonflies. He was already doing a story on dragonflies, and must have stumbled across my name after reading one of the newspaper articles. Anyways, we had a nice little interview over the phone and he ended up using some of it in a nice little piece on dragonflies. Kind of funny to hear my "radio voice". I had hoped to post the audio file on here, but it seems like adding audio to this blog is a bit of pain in the but so you are going to have to take my word for it!

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. 

Tiger Spiketail is back!

Last year on July 27th I came across a rather large beautiful black and yellow dragonfly along a forest edge and didn't know what it was. I was just getting into dragonflies at the time and had no clue what it was - just that I thought it looked "cool". I took some mental notes to it's colouration and headed home to check some books (never take mental notes since they aren't reliable and tend to change with time!). I consulted a dragonfly book from Ohio and quickly decided that it was a Tiger Spiketail, no big deal. However, once I looked at reference material for Ontario I couldn't find this species anywhere! This meant one of two things: 1) I made a mistake, it was not a Tiger Spiketail, I'm misremembering the field marks. 2) It was a new species for Ontario and thus Canada!

I went back to the site daily until I confirmed it as a Tiger Spiketail on July 29th, and captured and photographed one on July 30th. I was pretty excited to say the least - a new record for Canada. Also encouraging was that I saw both a male and female in the area so I was pretty sure there was a small breeding population in the area.

I've checked this site several times this year hoping to prove there is a breeding colony here but hadn't found anything until today. This isn't surprising given that they fly later than our other spiketails, with July being the main month they fly in Ohio. Today I had just about given up hope when a male Tiger Spiketail appeared just a few feet in front of me, buzzing around some leaves and twigs, and not perching very often. I managed one "decent" photo before he disappeared. It will be interesting to check the site in early and mid-July to see if I can find more than just 1 or 2 individuals. It would be even better if I could find them at another location nearby.

 This is the individual from today, seen briefly on June 26, 2012.

The photos below are from a male I found last year.

.

Today I also found my first Comet Darner, and presumeably one of few if any for Norfolk County. This is a rare migrant as far as I know, but could and may breed in Ontario as well. I had brief looks at it as it flew along a forest edge, presumeably hunting. It appeared to be on the move and wasn't sticking around. It's bright red abdomen was distictive with the naked eye.

I also photographed (poorly) a Painted Skimmer today which was nice since I thought I had one earlier in June and another one on Saturday closer to Port Burwell. This is another uncommon migratory dragonfly that comes north in summer. 

 Edward's Hairstreaks were abundant today, nectaring on New Jersery Tea and Butterfly Milkweed. A few Coral Hairstreaks were mixed in, and lots of Silvery Checkerspots as well. One got caught by a yellow crab spider.

Edward's Hairstreaks (above and below)

 Coral Hairstreak

Camouflaged spider making a meal of a Silvery Checkerspot

I hope these Barn Swallow chicks fledge soon, my front stoop needs a good cleaning and I'm tired of getting dive bombed by the parents every time I leave the house.