CHASING DRAGONFLIES

Rob with a Common Whitetail Dragonfly.

Once the craziness of spring migration is over, Rob and I don't do much birding until Fall. We enjoy the summer visitors that frequent our backyard, like Baltimore Orioles and this year the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have been around more then ever, so it's pretty easy to stay put.

We have however, in the last couple of years, gotten more interested in other winged creatures, Butterflies and Dragonflies. I signed us up right away when our local Wild Birds Unlimited posted a Dragonfly and Damselfly talk and outing. And we are lucky that both these species visit our backyard as well.

Last Sunday we were at the store for 9am for the lecture part of the event. Kyle, a fairly new employee at the store is also a naturalist. He lead the talk and shared his knowledge and sense of humor.

We learned the difference between Dragonflies and Damselflies, learned about their life-cycle, courtship, etc. It was very informative and interesting. I had no idea there is 173 species of Dragonflies reported in Ontario!

After the enjyable hour long talk with slideshow we were off to a local park to see some of these amazing flying insects. Kyle taught us how to catch (with a net) and hold a Dragonfly safely, as to not injure it.

Kyle demonstrates how to  hold a Dragonfly properly.

Kyle hunting Dragonflies, a man on a mission.

I'm looking at an Eastern Amberwing and Kyle wants to catch it.

An Eastern Amberwing.

I "Googled" a close up shot of an Eastern Amberwing so you could have a better look.

We saw a few different types while on our outing, Twelve-spotted Skimmer (Dragonfly) and Eastern Forktail (Damselfly) to name a couple. It was a great event and I hope they do more like this in the future.

Want to know more about Dragonflies, Damselflies and all sorts of other flying insects? I found this great blog while writing mine, The Dragonfly Woman.