Feb 27, 2023 Odonate Update

I went through the woods again today and counted the number of odonates I saw. I strted at the north end of the first run (stream) crossed the woods to the second run and then went back to the south along the second run. When I started out at noon, it was 68 F and when I finished it was 71 F. I also walked through the cutover where it is sunny and boggy with a lot of standing water right now.

I made counts of the odonates I saw by moving to an area and counting any odonates I saw. I then would move approximately 2 to 3 meters, stop, and count again. I didn't try to catch any and number them in any way by marking their wings (basically because I'm afraid of injuring them in the process). It's a very informal count. But I did my best to avoid recounting the same individuals.

I also took quite a few photographs and when I get them uploaded as observations in iNat, I will link them to this journal entry.

Fragile Forktails: Ischnura posita - they were present in both the wooded areas in the fresh green sedge/grasses along the edges of the runs and particularly abundant in the delta area of the second run.
Males: 28
Females: 22
Teneral: 4

Citrine Forktails: Ischnura hastata - they were mostly present in the open, sunny cleared area of the cutover where there are a lot of shallow puddles/standing water and clumps of sedges/grasses are beginning to grow.
Males: 1
Females: 2

Odd thing: I noted a fine dusting of something on many of the damselflies. It appeared to be whitish, like whitish dust. My speculation is that it is either pollen (the pine pollen and other pollens are terrible right now) or some form of mite although they are tiny for that and I've seen mites on damselflies before and they are typically much larger than this dust-like stuff. So I'm leaning more strongly towards pollen.

Publicado el 27 de febrero de 2023 por amypadgett