It’s the end of June (actually the very last day of June) and I’ve been frantic to see the Enallagma, Bluets, genus of damselflies before they disappear for the season. Sure, a lot of them have flight times well into the fall, but they become increasingly hard to find as the summer season progresses. If they are seen, it’s “onsie-twosies” versus five or six (or more) and those few are very difficult to find: it depends more on luck than anything.

But members of the dragonfly clan, especially clubtails, may increase in numbers and be easier to find in July and August, so there is always something to observe.

A few of the odonata I’ve observed around our county in the last few days include a fairly wide array, although I’m still trying to find the Enallagma civile, Familiar Bluet, which has frankly not been familiar at all, and I’d love to see a Enallagma vesperum, Vesper Bluet. Last night at our pond, I thought I saw a pair of damselflies ovipositing on a mass of algae that floats in the shallows. But it was at dusk and my eyesight isn’t that great. The damselflies looked yellowish but I couldn’t see the tip of the male’s abdomen to know if it was blue or orange. It could have been a pair of Enallagma signatum, Orange Bluet, since I’ve seen that species at our pond before. Tonight I’m going to go out around 7:30PM with my camera and sit at the edge of the pond. Perhaps they will show up again. Or perhaps not. But it will still be lovely to see what is visiting us, especially now that I’ve planted more native plants in the shallow end of the pond including pickerelweed, lizard’s tail, and spider lilies. The pickerelweed is doing very well and is just lovely with spikey purple blooms.

I thought I would share a few of the photos of the odonata I’ve been observing both at our pond and within our North Carolina county.

A few of the damselflies:

The Variable Dancer, Argia fumipennis, above has two subspecies in North Carolina, one with dark wings and one with lighter-colored wings. The one shown above is the subspecies we have here, which is: Argia fumipennis ssp. fumipennis. To quote from the NC Odonate Website: “There are two subspecies in the state — the dark-winged nominate one (Argia fumipennis fumipennis) is found over most of the Coastal Plain, whereas the clear-winged one (A. fumipennis violacea) occurs over the remainder of the state.”

The Ebony Jewelwing, Calopteryx maculata, is such a gorgeous damselfly that I wanted to show it off a little:

I was thrilled to see a Dragonhunter, Hagenius brevistylus, at Turnbull Creek State Park as well as a Black-shouldered Spinyleg, Dromogomphus spinosus. I initially thought I was looking at one Dragonhunter that kept coming and going, but I now think there were two. When I took the following photos, I didn’t realize that the Dragonhunter had two different prey items: a Common Green Darner in the first instance and a Blue Dasher in the second. (Or at least I think those are the prey items–they are definitely different dragonflies though and I believe the photos show two different Dragonhunters as well or an exceedingly hungry and fast one.)

A few other dragonflies that I’ve observed at our pond and at some of the state parks nearby…

The diversity is amazing and so far, I’ve managed to observe 57 species out of the hundred (or so) that have been seen in our county. It may be impossible, but I’d like to try for 60 by the end of the year. Eventually, I’d like to see most (if not all) of the odonata that visit our county in North Carolina.

Finally, at Baytree Natural Area (State Park) I discovered a side path where I could fairly reliably observe a Six-lined Racerunner, Aspidoscelis sexlineatus, poking around the base of vegetation as it foraged for food.

It’s a beautiful little lizard and as fast as can be. It really didn’t want to have its photo taken but I’m going to keep trying whenever I get the chance in hopes of really catching it clearly. In the photo above, I think the racerunner thought it was hidden under the vegetation and it sort of was, but not sufficiently to prevent me from taking this photo.

I haven’t included all of the gorgeous species I’ve seen around here, and I’ve completely neglected the birds despite seeing such oddities as a Roseate Spoonbill that showed up in May.

We don’t normally see Roseate Spoonbills here–actually I’ve never seen one on our property before. In mid-summer to late summer, a few immature birds may show up along the coast of North Carolina as they explore and forage for food, but it is highly unusual to see one during breeding season (i.e. May). So that was a first for us. I believe this is simply an “after hatching year, AHY,” bird that was non-breeding and exploring the area. It was hanging out with a group of Wood Storks, oddly enough.

Wood Storks are getting to be fairly common here (when we’re not in a drought) so I wasn’t so surprised to see them foraging at the swamp creek. Maybe the spoonbill felt comfortable with birds that were approximately the same size. I haven’t noticed the spoonbill since that day in May, but the Wood Storks come and go so it may very well still be hanging out with a flock of them.

Well, it’s time to go out and look for more critters!

Happy observing!