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.

The Calico Pennant

One of the first dragonflies we saw in Virginia was the Calico Pennant.  This is a small dragonfly – smaller than our meadowhawks in Washington – but what it lacks in size it makes up for in appearance.  Through the binoculars this is a brilliant dragonfly, with intricate patterns in the wings and heart-shaped reddish spots lined up along the abdomen.  You can't fail to notice a Calico Pennant, and their high perching index of 80 - 90% ensures lots of good viewing opportunities.

Pennants are named their habit of perching on the top of a stem and orienting themselves to face into the prevailing winds – just like a pennant at the top of a flagpole.

Dragonflies of Cranberry Lake

We haven't seen many dragonflies since returning to Washington, but finally a couple days ago we saw our first ones at Cranberry Lake in Anacortes.  We saw a couple Four-spotted Skimmers laying eggs along the shore, several California Darners flying over the meadow and landing on the ground, and at least one American Emerald – a dragonfly with wonderful green eyes.

Here are a couple pictures from the lake:

Four-spotted Skimmer, male.  The dark spots at the nodus (center of leading edge of wing) give this dragonfly its name.  The dark spots near the tips of the wings (the stigma) don't count, since all dragonflies have them.  Notice that the front two legs are folded up and tucked behind the head, as they are in flight as well.

California Darner, male.  These darners like to land on the ground, though most other darners perch about chest high in a bush or tree.  Darners are large insects, but the California Darner is the smallest of the darners in our area.

American Emerald, male.  Named for its intense emerald green eyes.  Notice also the green cast to the thorax.

American Emerald, male.

The Case of the Happy-face Dragonfly

This is the first picture I took of a Happy-face Dragonfly.  When I took the picture, on October 22, 2006, I had no idea its face looked like this – it wasn't until I got home and viewed the picture on the computer that I realized what I had discovered.  This picture is what really "hooked" me on dragonflies.

The official common name of this dragonfly is the Paddle-tailed Darner.

A Study In Emerald

On October 17, 2011, Betsy and I went to Picture Lake near Mount Baker.  Picture Lake is just before you get to the Mount Baker ski area, and it provides an incredible reflected view of Mount Shuksun.  A little later in the season the fall colors would be more prominent, yielding an even more impressive view.

Betsy, with Picture Lake and Mount Shuksun in the background.  This picture was taken shortly after we arrived, when there was still a bit of fog near the summit of Shuksun.  The temperature at this time was a brisk 46 ˚F, but the sun and lack of a breeze made it feel quite comfortable.  It warmed up during the time we were there, and by lunchtime it was 64 ˚F.

This is me at Picture Lake a little while later after the fog had burned off.  When we first arrived we didn't see any dragonflies, but shortly thereafter the activity was pretty good.

The greatest activity that day was provided by the Ringed Emeralds.  The first one we saw was this dead male found along the shoreline.  A darner helped us find it by stopping on his patrol of the shoreline to check it out more carefully – in case it might happen to be a female darner.  The Ringed Emerald has an iridescent green thorax, green eyes, and thin white rings at the base of each abdominal segment.

The Ringed Emeralds were plentiful as the air warmed up a few degrees.  You could see them everywhere along the shoreline: pairs flying in tandem; males chasing females and other males; females laying eggs with males hovering nearby for protection.  Here a female dips her abdomen into the water to deposit eggs (water temperature was 46 ˚F).  

The water was so clear that I spent some time looking to see if I could spot the eggs the female was laying.  With a little practice I could.  The eggs came out in a small mucus string of maybe 6 or 8 greenish eggs, a lot like miniature frog eggs.  Strings start out in a tight ball, but then twist and straighten out as they drift slowly to the bottom.