- 2004, seen at Sherwood Park, Sumpter Twp. several times, first county sight record.
- 2005, seen two different occasions at the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge, Humbug Marsh Unit (DRIWR).
- 2005, seen in Northville Twp. in a retention pond.
- 2006, seen in Taylor, in another retention pond.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7lk1oBF9tWKAjcYIGoaK204fvTnghaiwo2tnezE2YCpxOrbZsWJaVOsWA9V2QQmFmD7L3fkUC9WKxiTnwREiBsa9OigbQ6GQO6enZIAIgay5B0jBxrIxluipQD2OgUsoiya0aew/s200/bullseye.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnsw2T5qLJHJ3QxnAgWxkRGZNmSG3iMcTGUmb1Y-qx4yM1JfuE-uExXKUGjeTbnzrrwbCxOms8Vw07h3DHCMcEODTwsN4KzGuqz9uGjmqMwyN40dW2VTMKeXX2Uk7dkv6yGrtc9A/s200/nobullseye.jpg)
Although I carry the shorter net with the narrower mouth, I was a bit closer, directly behind her, and tend to be a little more of a patient stalker than Stylurus. My net bag has already been sewn up a few times, so ripping it on the locust thorns was a risk I was willing to take. Stylurus was ready off to the right. I swung, and made a clean catch without even tearing the net.
Extracting it from the net, we found out that indeed, we'd finally bagged our county voucher. This was a different location at the DRIWR than I'd seen Comet Darners previously. I suspect they occur here because the river acts as a corridor; there are no appropriate fishless ponds (or any other surface water) for them to breed in. But this bodes well for when ponds are built on the Refuge.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz-rx-GrL0bi9gDyrPDtK1_zRGT2ToCiTfNrfB22gg4qSc2O7K3qTDLZkyjZHZdWkyJ_lNqUrfZa7HBDNAZE4uI1hXrZIG7H8wNHRTgOx4VK7NbNTtBgDfUlGkoD-9krkU2ikDYA/s400/longipes.jpg)
From the photo above, it's hard to get any true perspective on size, and she sure looks like a green darner (although the big, long reddish legs don't seem right for junius). We decided to snag a green darner just for comparison:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjJkYUbB_6nR_RyZP9XvGP3hvFeFE-Kn-6z94baM7AQZ1KzMo4aor6tbDv2LPncNUfs2_W1VcGLm61XHd4NL6Fgso-cJ1M650PaF0bCh78yFIbB7oZX3RUSLZgecIW37XxjXL2Dg/s400/anaxi.jpg)
We resumed our survey, in which we ended up with 25 species. Sedge Sprite (Nehalennia irene) was a new species for the Refuge, for a total of 33 species since I first began doing bird work there several years ago.
We'll be doing biweekly surveys for the rest of the summer. Stay tuned.
1 comment:
The best part is... You caught it, and not that tall guy with the net.
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