Late May odes for Wayne County

For late May-2010, here is another combination of several outings in one post.

May 29 at Lower Huron Metropark: I was anxious to look for C. obliqua and the results will be noted in a future post.

Midland Clubtails (Gomphus fraternus) were numerous such as this obelisking female captured by Nannothemis:


May 29 at UM-Dearborn: Nannothemis wanted to check Fairlane Lake and the Rose Garden pond.

Two male Unicorn Clubtails (Arigomphus villosipes) shared perches on the south end of Fairlane Lake. Here is one digiscoped through my binoculars:


Dot-tailed Whitefaces (Leucorrhinia intacta) flitted about the Rose Garden pond and here is a perched male:


The best find were the Marsh Bluets (Enallagma ebrium). This is a new location in the county for us and here is one of the males:


May 30 at Crosswinds Marsh: I keep looking for Springtime Darners (B. janata) in Wayne County and thought I'd poke around this mitigated wetland. I found hundreds of Sedge Sprites (Nehalennia irene) and the big surprise was a Four-spotted Skimmer (Libellula quadrimaculata), but unfortunately no photo.

Twelve-spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella), three times too many spots, but this female was the first of the season of this species for me:


May 29 at Willow Metropark: I checked another location to continue my search for Springtime Darners (B. janata). No luck, but I did find another location for clubtails.

Midland Clubtail (Gomphus fraternus), the mosquitoes were bad, but here's a female that was patrolling the edge of this field:


May 30 at the Humbug Marsh Unit of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge: Nannothemis and I hope to visit every couple weeks to survey for odes since the Chrysler property has a new pond/lake/sea.

Immediately, we spotted a Unicorn Clubtail (Arigomphus villosipes) utilized the edge of the water. Here's one of the males with the Trenton Power Plant stacks in the background:


Spot-winged Glider (Pantala hymenaea), we found two, one patrolling a shallow pool and this female hunting over the eastern fields:


While walking the eastern fields, we saw multiple Swamp Darners (Epiaeschna heros) hunting the edges of the dogwoods and cottonwoods. Here is one of the females of this large species:


... and there were Common Green-darners (Anax junius) making more:


May 31 at Crosswinds Marsh: I returned to look for the Four-spotted Skimmer (Libellula quadrimaculata), but I had another nice surprise with two Painted Skimmers (Libellula semifasciata):


... more interesting odes in posts to come: