Odes from WV 2 day trip!

This past week we stopped on the way back from my nephews wedding to camp at Spruce Knob in the mountains of WV. One Monday and Tuesday I spent about 6 hours a day trekking around Spruce Knob Lake and a beaver pond ditch below the lake. Also looked around Gandy Creek for odes as well.

I'll do a post after this with a lot of butterfly photos as soon as I get a chance.

 Male Superb Jewelwing, Calopteryx amata

See Stephen Cresswell's page on these

Female Superb Jewelwing photo above and below.

These were found along Gandy Creek. Gandy Creek only had Superb and Ebony Jewelwings and Common Whitetails.

Hagen's Bluet, Enallagma hageni (male)
These are hard to ID just from a photo like this, so I could be wrong on the ID.

I featured this damselfly on another recent posting it is a male
Aurora Damsel, Chromagrion conditumFound at the back of Spruce Knob Lake and a singleton along Gandy Creek
More on this species at Jim Bangma's website

Variable Dancer, Argia fumipenni or Violet Dancer, Argia fumipennis violacea (male)
The Variable Dancers where we live have amber tinted wings, these northern ones do no have tinted wings.

The above photo is a female Eastern Forktail, Ischnura verticalis
and the photo below is the male Eastern Forktail.
There are records of this species in our area but I have failed to find them, in WV they are very common. You can find out more about them at Stephen's website

Brown Spiketail, Cordulegaster bilineata
I saw several of these in the back waters of Spruce Knob Lake and below the beaver pond. They pose nicely for photos. See Jeff Pippen's page for more info.

Not sure on the ID here these are meadowhawks but given the difficulty to ID them I can't say for sure. Female above and male below. My guess would be Ruby Meadowhawk, but it just a guess.

Unicorn Clubtail, Arigomphus villosipes
above and below photos.
These were found in good numbers at the top of the beaver pond and the back of Spruce Knob Lake. Stephen's site on this species

I reported these incorrectly they are male Southern Pygmy Clubtail, Lanthus vernalis
Found lots of these in small rocky creeks perched on the rocks, my first for West Virginia. I have not seen this species in many years since I found females perched in trees in western North Carolina. Will Cook's page on this species

Twelve-spotted Skimmer, Libellula pulchella
Saw more of these than I ever have around the beaver pond there were more than 3 dozen alone flying all about chasing each other. Stephen's page on these.

Chaulk-fronted Corporal, Ladona julia
Saw fewer of these than most of the times I visited Spruce Knob Lake and they usually are easy to photograph, not this year. Jim's page on these.

Calico Pennant, Celithemis elisa (male)
The most common dragonfly we saw.
They were everywhere I estimated seeing at least 150 of them.

Male Dot-tailed Whiteface, Leucorrhinia intacta
My first for West Virginia, I have seen them in Maryland and Pennsylvania
Stephen's page on this species 

Wait until I get to the butterflies!

Occoneechee April Nature Walk.

On Sunday meg and I took a nature walk at Occoneechee State Preserve. The Carolina Butterfly Society was having a mid day field trip and we had plans on going to the Seeds Pie Social so we went on our walk before the club got there.

The two ponds at the preserve were re done a few years ago and it still looks bad habitat wise that is. We decided to first look for dragonflies and damselflies in the ponds. It was a good day as we found about 20 dragonflies and 2 damselflies emerging. Most were just out of reach of the camera but I managed to get a few shots.

Freshly emerged damselfly and exuvia.

Not sure but this emerging dragonfly might be a Blue Dasher, I have been wrong before.

 Not quite out of the exuvia yet. This is the same kind of dragonfly as in the previous photo.

Life outside of the pond begins!

A female Skimming Bluet, Enallagna geminatum I found on the hillside well above the ponds and the Eno River.

One of our best finds of the day! This is a Common Roadside-Skipper in Orange County I have only found these along our driveway and it has been 4-5 years since we had one. Three were seen, not at all common in the Piedmont of North Carolina.

Brown Elfin on Blueberry.

Occoneechee is know for the unusual population of Brown Elfins, some think they were displaced on Occoneechee Mountain as far back as the ice age. We counted 34 Brown Elfins a new state high count!

Female Pipevine Swallowtail, she posed for about 2 seconds for this photo.

May Apples stole the show down along the Eno River. I have not taken a close look at these in many years. What have I been thinking? We have them blooming in in our ravine also.

Iris verna, these were all long the power lines out in the sunlight.

Cranesbill Geranium found mixing with the May Apples. We have a light blue version of these blooming along our road right now.

This is for Neil Jean! Pinkster Azalea, we saw a patch of these over the river on a cliff that was 15 x 50 foot likely the largest native patch I have ever seen of them. Needed a canoe to get a good photo of them though.

DSA Trip Looking for Clubtails

Folks,

I've been chasing dragonflies for 8-10 years now and damselflies for 5-6 I guess. Anyway finding new ones locally is already a pretty rare thing to happen now days. The Dragonfly Society of the Americas had their Eastern US spring trip two weeks ago and just 3 hours from here in Galax Virginia. So my friends and I headed out there to join them for a Saturday field trip.

Here is the first dragonfly I found it was a lifer for me and the camera.

Stygian Shadowdragon, Neurocordulia yamaskanensis
This species is pretty rare or very hard to find. It usually flies after dusk as during the day it resting under tree limbs in the shade. With a large crowd kicking around in the damp grass we were lucky to find it.

While everyone was checking out the Stygian Shadowdragon I started looking for more goodies and found this Splendid Clubtail, Gomphus lineatifrons a fairly common clubtail in Virginia along the New River several were found during the morning field trip. In North Carolina this clubtail is considered significantly rare. I found this species about 100 miles out of its range in both Durham and Orange Counties back in 2002 and this past weekend as well on the Eno River in Durham, County.

Male Splendid Clubtail perched on a log along the New River.

Female Splendid Clubtail found in North Carolina the next day inside the New River State Park.

Male Brook Snaketail, Ophiogomphus aspersus this was found in a Virginia Golf Course and it took several walks along and in this brook until we found one that would stay put. It was another lifer for me and the camera. A very rare bug in North Carolina.


Male Cobra Clubtail, Gomphus vastus found in North Carolina at the New River State Park. I'd only found this clubtail once and that was in Cincinnati, Ohio along the Ohio River.

Above and below are a teneral female Rusty Snaketail, Ophiogomphus rupinsulensis This snaketail, I'd only seen once a male near the New River in Radford Virginia. We found at least three of these all females in North Carolina at the New River State Park. When I found the one in Radford VA at the time there were no records of the species in North Carolina, it was discovered in NC back in 2006 likely near where we found it. Only known to one county in NC.

Now some damselflies from the Virginia Golf Course ponds. This one below is a male Orange Bluet, Enallagma signatum.

And below is a female Eastern Red Damsel, Amphiagrion saucium it is supposed to be fairly widespread in NC and even in the county I live in but I can't recall ever finding it in North Carolina.

Dragonfly Safari in the Sandhills

Today my friend Roger and I ventured out to the Sandhills Gamelands and checked out some wild ares including 17 Frog Pond, the annual burn site and a pond I forgot the name of. The weather was windy and warm with mostly cloud cover, not the best day to find butterflies, but a decent day for odonates (dragonflies and damselflies).

The Damselflies


Above is a Cherry Bluet (Enallagma concisum) male they are about 1 1/4 inch long.
one of my favorite damselflies. This photo does no justice to the really red color. We found two of these after trekking back to the car they were not seen on the first pass through. We are at the northern edge of the range for the Cherry Bluet.

Sandhill Bluet (Enallagma davisi) male they are about 1 1/4 inch long.
we found maybe 30 of this spring flying damselfly today. In years past we just missed finding these as you have to look out on the edges of sandhill ponds on twigs and stems in knee deep water. The Cherry Bluet likes the same habitat as well.

Atlantic Bluet (Enallagma doubledayi) male they are about 1 1/2 inches long.
17 Frog Pond had at least one hundred of these guys, I say guys as only one female was seen. We observed several of the males catching and eating Citrine Forktails.

This one is teneral, meaning immature. I'm certain it is a bluet but which one?

Citrine Forktail (Ischnura hastata) male
17 Frog Pond had likely 1000 Citrine Forktails at least. These damselflies are very tiny only 3/4 inch long!

Citrine Forktail (Ischnura hastata) orange female


Southern Spreadwing (Lestes australis) male they are around 2 inches long.
17 Frog Pond we saw maybe 20 of these spreadwings. We also saw the larger Swamp Spreadwing but were not able to get close to any of them.

The Dragonflies

Common Green Darner (Anax junius) these are about 3+ inches long.
I saw 3 of these at 17 Frog Pond, this one is teneral and had likely just taken it's first flight just before I took this photo.

Elfin Skimmer (Nannothemis bella) female the smallest dragonfly in the US!
These are rare unless you have lots of sphagnum in your pond. The male of this species is bluish black. Only 3 of these were seen today.

Ornate Pennant (Celithemis ornata) male these are about 1 1/4 inches long.
They used to be called Faded Pennant because when they age all that mantling one the wings fade away. There were loads of these today maybe a 100 and every last one of them were nervous as can be.

Diminutive Clubtail (Gomphus diminutus) these are about 2 inches long.
Rare mainly found in the Carlinas Sandhills and a few records in Georgia. I've know about this site for these for years.

Blue Corporal (Ladona deplanata) male these are about 1 3/4 inches long.
One key to learning these they are early spring fliers and always perch on the ground or on logs like this one did.

Other dragonflies we saw were: Comet Darner (Anax longipes), Common Baskettail (Epitheca cynosura), Painted Skimmer (Libellula semifasciata), Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia), Calico Pennant (Celithemis elisa), Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis), Little Blue Dragonlet (Erythrodiplax minuscula), Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis) and Carolina Saddlebags (Tramea carolina). Pretty good day if you ask me.


I realized today that if I ever moved away from NC I'd miss this place. Yep that is 17 Frog Pond, it is said that the name 17 Frog Pond came about because one knowing their frogs and toads could on a decent night (after a good rain) identify 17 species of frogs and toads by ear. My best attempt at this is 11 or 12 species. Notice the pond appears to have no water, it does dry up and for that reason it has no fish. Today the water was about knee deep it does fill up all the way to that stump some years.