Dragonfly Walks at 9:30 a.m. Saturdays
September 5, October 3
Intricate
patterns on dragonflies can be breathtaking, and guided walks at the Arboretum
September 5 and again October 3 offer a chance to learn to identify them.
Blue-eyed Darners such as the one pictured at right hover over Ayer Lake and
hunt smaller bugs during Summer months at the Arboretum, if one of these large
dragonflies stops to perch on a cattail focus your binoculars for a great
look at the mosaic design of blue and black along the abdomen -- and watch
for the vivid purple of a Roseate Skimmer.
September 5 our tour will be lead by ASU
Professor Pierre Deviche, and the final dragonfly walk for 2009 is
October 3 with Joanna
Henry
Ayer
Lake and Queen Creek are great places to see and photograph beautiful dragonfly
species such as Blue-eyed Darner and Flame Skimmer.
What species are you likely to see?
Tour guide Roger Racut sent this report following the August tour (which was
also lead by Joanna Henry and Joe Marsala): "we saw a male Neon Skimmer,
2 male Flame Skimmers, two or more Male Red-tailed Pennants, Male and Female
Roseate Skimmers, numerous male Mexican Amberwings, 2 male Red Saddlebags,
a few male Blue Dashers, 1 male Blue-eyed Darner, a male Giant Darner, a male
Common Green Darner and a male Springwater Dancer -- and last week a Comanche
Skimmer was spotted and photographed at the BTA for the first time, first
official record of this species here." On July 4 we found numerous male
Flame Skimmers and Mexican Amberwings; one Red Saddlebag, a few Rambur's Forktails
and Desert Firetails... and new to BTA that month was a Desert Whitetail which
was spotted as a "fly-by."
Our most
impressive tally may have been during the Bio-Blitz event, a special biological
survey on September 15, 2007. Rich Bailowitz and Doug Danforth were kind enough
to come up to do the butterfly and dragonfly survey. Odonate results were
25 species, and an impressive 224 individuals. Here's what they reported finding:
3 Black Saddlebags, 1 Red Saddlebags, 1 *Black Setwing (new for our checklist!);
2 Blue Dasher, 20 Flame Skimmer, 27 Mexican Amberwing, 4 Neon Skimmer, 14
Roseate Skimmer, 8 Variegated Meadowhawk, 1 Straw-colored Sylph, 2 Spot-winged
Glider, 4 Pale-faced Clubskimmer, 2 Blue-eyed Darner, 3 Common Green Darner,
1 Giant Darner, 1 Arroyo Bluet, 39 Familiar Bluet, 3 Amethyst Dancer, 7 **California
Dancer (also exciting, this gives confirmation of a previous observation);
30 Dusky Dancer, 10 Lavender Dancer, 5 Sooty Dancer, 20 Springwater Dancer,
8 Desert Firetail and 8 Rambur's Forktail 8.
Early
summer walks produced some of these same varieties, and also Filigree Skimmer,
Variable Dancer, Springwater Dancer, Mexican Forktail, and Arroyo Bluet....
and older reports have included Black Saddlebags, Pond Damsel, Amethyst Dancer,
Sooty Dancer, Familiar Bluet, Arroyo Bluet and more.
The Arboretum offers our thanks to photographer and Arboretum tour guide Pete
Moulton for sharing several of the images on this page - and also Rich Bailowitz
and Doug Danforth for helping lead the walks and educating visitors about
native insects of the Odonate order. Dragonfly enthusiast and photographer
Peter Moulton was our guest tourguide for June, and pointed out colorful species
around Ayer Lake including the Rambur's Forktail, Blue-ringed Dancer, Mexican
Amberwing, Desert Forktail and the large blue-and-black Widow Skimmer (the
latter two species were first-ever records for the Arboretum). Large red Flame
Skimmers and also Blue Dasher were seen flying over both Ayer Lake and Queen
Creek, and the Dasher was also observed hunting smaller insects around the
Demonstration Garden water features. Species seen only along Queen Creek included
Red Rock-skimmer and Giant Darner, a magnificent insect and the largest dragonfly
in all of Arizona. Another exciting specie found around the Demonstration
Garden water feature was Desert Firetail.
The Arboretum is a great place to observe "watchable
wildlife" including birds, butterflies, lizards... and also the colorful,
charismatic and predatory dragonflies that strafe Ayer Lake and Queen Creek
in search of prey. Pete Moulon travels from his Phoenix home to photograph
dragonflies and butterfly species at the Arboretum -- and he shared two of
the colorful images on this page. The Arboretum is among Pete's favorite spots
for macro photography, and these images were captured during his rambles around
the trails here at BTA.
"When the temperature is a little warmer Ayer
Lake is a good place to start looking for both dragonflies and damselflies.
Some species breed in still water, and at the lake these include: Blue-eyed
and Common Green Darners, Flame and Roseate Skimmers, Mexican Amberwings,
and Blue Dashers.
"The little wet area just above the lake produced
what, at the time, was the first known record of Neon Skimmer for both the
Arboretum and Pinal County. Cynthia Donald found this spectacular bug, which
stayed just long enough for one not very good--but recognizable--photograph
before it disappeared.
"While some species prefer still waters for
breeding purposes, and are therefore found around lakes, ponds, and the like,
others favor flowing water. Queen Creek provides habitat for some of these
species, and the shady spot where the trail drops into the canyon and then
switches back to follow the creek downstream is excellent for both the Red
Rock Skimmer and the Springwater Dancer. I've also seen and photographed the
American Rubyspot here.
"A few species require open water only for breeding,
and may be found anywhere in the park, often far from water. The Wandering
Glider and Variegated Meadowhawk are two of these wide-rangers."
Pete photographed the beautiful blue Springwater
Dancer (the damselfly above) along Queen Creek, and the brilliant red skimmer
at right was also photographed here. To read other dragonfly reports posted
on the web and learn about other places to see them, visit the website
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SoWestOdes
Read more about Boyce Thompson Arboretum weekend
nature walks and EVENTS