Summer is actually almost over for 2026 and this has been one of the fastest years ever. I’m still on the hunt to observe all things natural and adding to my iNaturalist observations and Odonata Central. In fact, I’ve been working on an article doing a “compare and contrast” of iNaturalist and Odonata Central for folks trying to decide which web application is right for them. The article will hopefully be published in the newsletter, Argia, for the Dragonfly Society of the Americas, perhaps in the August issue. Writing the article right now is more about having an excuse to stay indoors and escape the heat than anything else. I’m no good in the heat.

This year has been a peculiar one for odonata hunting, at least around here. With the exception of the Cyrano Darner, Nasiaeschna pentacantha, there haven’t been many (or any) of the regular darners this summer. I haven’t found a lot of our regular dragonflies or damselflies either. Not sure why. Maybe I’m just not getting out as much due to the heat. Or maybe our extremely cold winter and drought are affecting things. This last winter we had a week where it never got above freezing and that is really unusual for our area.

Nonetheless, I did manage to find a Sandhill Bluet, Enallagma davisi, at a shallow pond in the Bay Tree Lake State Natural Area. That was a surprise since they haven’t been seen in Bladen County since the mid-1960s. There were several other damselflies I subsequently hoped to find on later visits but by July, the shallow ponds had mostly dried up and there weren’t many damselflies left in that location.

Perhaps next year there will be more water and a chance to see more damselflies (and dragonflies) at Bay Tree.

The Dragonfly Society had their annual meeting in Hot Springs, NC, this year during the last week of June and it was a great meeting. I saw several species new to me, which isn’t hard to do since I haven’t seen a lot of Odonata, but it was a lot of fun. I was particularly happy to see several American Rubyspot, Hetaerina americana, along the French Broad River.

There are usually Smoky Rubyspots, Hetaerina titia, here in Bladen County along the Cape Fear River at the William O’Huske Lock and Dam but so far, I haven’t seen any this year. As I mentioned, it’s been a weird year. But I did see one dragonfly that I’ve been wanting to see for several years now and is theoretically common, and that’s the Eastern Ringtail, Erpetogomphus designatus.

There were actually two of the Eastern Ringtails. They perched near me for about two minutes and then took off across the river and I never saw them again. So I was just lucky to be in the right spot at the right time. No wonder I’ve had such a hard time finding them.

So the summer is nearly over since it’s mid-August but there might still be a few interesting Odonata flying around during the late summer/early fall months so I’ll keep looking. At least it won’t be so hot.