Unexpected Pleasures of Dragonflying: San Juan Surprise

Last September, Betsy and I took a short ferry ride from our home in Anacortes, WA to San Juan Island, in the heart of the San Juan archipelago of northern Puget Sound.  In the photo below, we're coming into Friday Harbor, where the ferry terminal is located.  After disembarking, we spent the day exploring the island by car – with an eye out for interesting dragonflies, of course.  We weren't disappointed.

Pulling into Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.

One of our first stops was Roche Harbor, where we had a nice lunch on the pier.  Lots boats anchor in this harbor, and you can see many of their shore boats docked in the photo below.  The name of the large boat in the foreground pretty well sums up the feeling of the place.

I went into an old Mom-and-Pop general store with wooden floors, crab traps, fishing gear, as well as groceries and snacks.  I picked up a delicious ice cream bar for us.  It was wonderful on a pleasant day like this.

Roche Harbor, on San Juan Island, WA.

After lunch we headed for Lime Kiln Park on the western shore of the island.  The land you see in the distance is Canada's Vancouver Island.  The passage of water between the islands is the Haro Strait, known for frequent visits by pods of killer whales.  We saw groups of porpoises, but no whales this time.

A lighthouse overlooking Haro Strait on the west shore of San Juan Island.

Next, we dropped by a small pond that looked like good dragonfly habitat.  Sure enough, we saw lots of Cardinal Meadowhawks, a few Striped Meadowhawks, and some Spotted Spreadwings.  The activity level was quite good.

The pond was in the middle of a large sculpture garden.  The photo below shows a dragonfly sculpture we found there.  It was quite detailed, even in the wings and the eyes.  It put one in mind of the large dragonflies that flew during the Carboniferous period.

Dragonfly sculpture on San Juan Island.

This dragonfly was a bit large to hold in one's hand, but worth the try anyway.

"Nice dragonfly."

This wasn't the only large dragonfly seen at this pond.  More on that later.

U-Haul Dragonfly

I've seen lots of U-Haul trucks with interesting graphics on their sides highlighting animals, events, landmarks, etc., from different states and Canadian Provinces.  They call it their SuperGraphics program, and I think it's a great idea.

Here's a SuperGraphics I'm suggesting for the state of Washington, which highlights animals seen on Fidalgo Island in Puget Sound.  After all, the Happy-face Dragonfly was discovered right here on Fidalgo Island, at Cranberry Lake.

I think this would make for a great U-Haul SuperGraphics.

Dragonfly Art

The beauty of dragonflies has inspired me to try some dragonfly drawings based on my photos.  Here's one based on a photo of a Blue Dasher:

This male Blue Dasher is perched on a stem above the ground, which is typical of this species.  In fact, out of all the hundreds and hundreds of Blue Dashers I've seen over the years, I have yet to see even one perched on the ground.  They just don't like to perch there.  

On the other hand, our other blue dragonfly, the Western Pondhawk, wants to land on the ground.  It will be found on the ground unless bare ground is not available in the habitat.  Thus, a very good rule of thumb for our area is the following: Blue dragonfly on the ground = Western Pondhawk.

January 2015

Here's a calendar for January 2015, featuring various dragonfly photos as a reminder of what we can hope to see this summer:

Happy New Year, 2015!

Happy New Year from the Happy-face Dragonfly!

We've been enjoying Christmas here, as you can see:

Now that the Christmas season is winding down, we've started off the New Year with a great day.

A Cooper's Hawk visited the backyard to add a touch of excitement.

Happy New Year everyone!