Another Late Season Dragonfly

On Sunday, spurred on by Will's recent post on local birding, I asked my friend Susanna to give me a tour of some local birding spots that I had been meaning to visit. We visited Griggstown Nature Preserve, Six Mile Run State Park, and Hutcheson Memorial Forest. While not the birdiest of days, we had some nice sightings, great weather, and we saw some lovely places. I can't wait to go back to these places later in the winter and in the spring.

The surprise find of the day for me was a dragonfly. The only dragonfly I usually expect to find this time of year is the gorgeous red Autumn Meadowhawk. This dragonfly was not a meadowhawk, but a darner. I'm not very experienced with darners, so I snapped a few photos with my cruddy phone and looked it up when I got home. It turns out that the Shadow Darner (Aeshna umbrosa) is also a late season odonate. I had always wanted to see a Shadow Darner, which typically flies through in open woods or along streams. This individual was uncharacteristically perched in a sunlit meadow.



Sorry, I'm too cheap to pay the $5 to email myself the photo from my phone. So, here's someone else's.