Dot-tailed Whiteface

There is still quite a while before I will begin to see dragonflies here again in Minnesota. May is when I usually begin to see the first of them. The first ones that I will see, often showing up early in May, are the couple of types that migrate like the green darner and the variegated meadowhawk. The first non-migrating species that we see usually emerge at the end of May.One of those that emerge fairly early is the dot-tailed whiteface.
The dot-tailed whiteface is a member of the skimmer family. It is usually found in wetlands with standing or slow moving water. Ponds and slow moving streams with a lot of vegetation are usually were I see them. Often times they will perch on floating algae mats.

Dot-tailed Whiteface

Dragon watching is similar in many ways to birdwatching. With odonates there are fieldmarks that help you identify which genus the dragon is and which species, males and females are often different colors, and habitat has a lot to do with where you find certain species. These three things are also true with birding.
The field markings on this particular skimmer dragonfly are very telling. This dragonfly is almost all black except for the small yellow dot on the back of the abdomen and the bright white face. So if you put the field marks together you will get a dot-tailed whiteface which is what this dragonfly is called. Another similarity between dragons and birds is that they are often very seasonal. The dot-tailed whiteface is a dragonfly that you often see very early in the year, usually starting in May here in Minnesota, but you do not see many of them come August. One glaring difference between birds and odonates is that it does not really work to put up dragon feeders.

The Descriptive Dot-tailed Whiteface

Have you ever wondered how a bird, plant, animal or insect got its name? When you look at things like red-bellied woodpeckers and ring-necked ducks do you think that the person who named them must have been on crack?
Well the dot-tailed whiteface dragonfly is not in that category. As you can see from the top picture this pond skimmer does have a dot near the end of its abdomen, which many people call a tail. The photo above demonstrates that it is indeed a member of the genus Leucorrhinia, or whiteface. A common dragonfly seen around here especially early in the summer, they are easy to identify because of their aptly descriptive name.

Dot-tailed Whiteface

The whitefaced dragonflies are a genus, Leucorrhinia, in the large and some what diverse skimmer family. Skimmers are a large group of mostly pond dwelling dragonflies. They come in a variety of different sizes and colors but they all have eyes that come together on the top of their head and hind wings that are rounded at the base.

The genus leucorrhinia, or the whitefaces, all have whitefaces as their name would suggest. Most are a combination of black and yellow or black and red. Some change color due to pruinose, a powdering substance that some dragonflies produce as they age. All whitefaces have black legs.

The dot-tailed whiteface is the most common whiteface found in Minnesota. It can be found in every county in the state, unlike the other whitefaces that are limited geographically. The mature male is mostly black with a single square shaped black spot on the top of abdominal segment seven, see the first picture for an example. Females and juvenile males have yellow top spots on segments one through seven, see the picture above. Dot-tailed white faces are usually found around ponds, marshy areas, as well as quiet lakes and streams.

Dot-tailed whiteface often perch on vegetation in the water, such as lily pads and algae beds. Males are often seen defending their territory from such perches. Even copulation typically takes place on floating vegetation, as pictured above. After they finish the female will lay the eggs in the water next to some floating vegetation. The male will hover guard while she lays the eggs making sure no other male can get to the female until after she has finished bearing his future offspring.

Introducing the Sexually Dichromatic Dot-tailed Whiteface

It always amazes me how similar dragonflies are to birds. For instance many dragonflies are sexually dichromatic just like many song birds. What is sexual dichromatism? It simply means that there is a difference in color between males and females of the same species. Like male cardinals are bright red while the female cardinal in more of a yellow color.

If you did not know anything about dragonflies and you looked at the two pictures above you would probably think that you were looking at two different types of dragonflies. However both of the pictured dragonflies are dot-tailed whiteface, a sexually dichromatic member of the skimmer family. The top photo is an example of the dot-tailed whiteface female while the bottom photo is a male. Not all dragonflies are sexually dichromatic, just as all birds are not, but many of the skimmers are.

Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge

Each summer I try and make at least one trip over to the Sherburne NWR which is located north west of the Twin Cities. Established in 1965 Sherburne has over 30,000 acres of habitat in the transition zone between the tallgrass prairie and deciduous forests.

I spent most of my time at Sherburne traveling the wildlife drive. Although the drive transitions through several different habits, including wetlands and forest, much of the land surrounding the road is open prairie. In the summer these fields provide a tapestry for nature to paint a masterpiece of color.

The bright colors of the wild flowers are a signal to butterflies, bees and other insects that the blossoms are ripe with nectar. The visiting insects pick up pollen as they feast. This pollen will fall from the insect while it is feeding at a flower in the future and it will pollinates the plant. In this way the flowers and insects depend on each other and work together in harmony.
Dragonflies are not so harmonious. As a predator, taking their prey is totally one sided. Do not judge them harshly though, for many things that they prey on, flies and mosquitoes for example, are considered pests.

Part of the original mission of the refuge was to protect and restore the habitats of the St Francis River Valley for the benefit of migratory birds. Each spring and fall thousands of waterfowl travel through this area. Areas like Sherburne provide valuable habitat where they can stop, eat and rest.

There are also some birds that use the refuge as a breeding ground. This killdeer nested right on the side of the wildlife drive. Refuge personnel put up markers to warn drivers so that they would be aware of the mother and her young chicks.

Dot-tailed Whiteface

Really Cool Dragons at the Sax Zim Bog

When we left the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary it was late we so we decided to stay the night at a hotel in the small town of Orr, MN. We got up early on the sixth and headed out right away. We did not have anything going that day, besides the 3 plus hour drive home, but since we were in the area I wanted to make a quick side trip and drive through the Sax Zim Bog area. The Sax Zim Bog is vast conifer bog located in north east Minnesota. The approximately 200 square mile area consists of a mix of spruce, tamarack, and northern white cedar bogs as well as hay fields and sedge meadows. It also includes 3 separate wildlife management areas.

The Sax Zim Bog is known as one of the best places, in the US, to see northern migrant bird species during the winter. Some of the species that you might see if you visit during the frigid months are northern goshawk, great grey owls, snowy owls, northern hawk owls, boreal owls, three-toed woodpeckers, black-backed woodpeckers, evening and pine grosbeak, common and hoary redpoll, crossbills, gray jays, bohemian waxwing, boreal chickadee and more.

We discovered that Sax Zim Bog is also a great place to photograph wildlife in the summer. Although we did not spend as much time as I would have liked exploring the different bog habitat, we still had a long drive home, we did find a lot to look at and photograph in the short time that we were there. Since it was July the dragonflies and damselflies where in high season and there were many around to photograph.
As I learned in the dragonfly workshop, which I took in August, it is difficult to tell the difference between damselflies with out capturing them and investigating them under a magnifying glass. My guess at the damsel above would be a familiar bluet but it is tough to be 100% positive with just a photo.
The chalk-fronted corporal, named for the pair of white stripes on the front of the thorax which resemble corporal stripes, are always a good thing to see. They are very social and often gather together in groups to feast on nasty pests like mosquitoes and deer flies.
There are also several types of meadowhawks that are very difficult to distinguish between. If you have captured a male, which in most cases are red in color, and are looking at it under a magnifying lens there are differences that you can see. However the females, which are a yellow color like the one above, are almost impossible to tell.
At first I believed that this was another female meadowhawk, but on closer examination of the photo I realized that it is actually a female dot-tailed whiteface. These were the first type of dragons that I spotted in the spring after the green darners. The males are black, with a single yellow dot on segment 7 of the abdomen and a white face.
The most exciting find of the day, and for me the most exciting of the trip, was a calico pennant. When I started photographing dragonflies last summer I visited several websites to help me identify the dragons that I had shot and get some info. At that point I spotted a picture of a calico pennant and thought that it was one of the coolest dragonflies that I had seen. From then on I had always hoped that I would see one and that Sunday was the day.
We had stopped to take a look at a shorebird that was perched on a rock in the midst of a small pool. The bird was pretty far away so I was easily distracted by some butterflies and dragonflies in the grass on the side of the road. I was on my way back to the car when I spotted a large dragon landing nearby. I went over to take a look and I was stunned to see this male calico in the grass. Before I could get a picture it took off and my heart stopped. Fortunately it did not go far, it landed and I was able to get several nice shots. Though they are not listed as a rare species in Northern Minnesota not many people that I know have seen them. In fact the leaders of the dragonfly workshop that I went to in August have been hunting dragons for about 10 years and they still have not seen a calico in Minnesota. So I was really excited to add it to my dragon collection and I am planning to use the first calico pic above as the February photo for my 2009 calendar.

Woodlake Dragonflies

Well I am finally almost finished with pictures that I took in June. Since August is almost over that means that I am only about 2 months behind. I am fortunate though, to be so far behind, because that means that it has been a great summer. I have spent a lot of quality time outside photographing nature. Four months from now I will be happy to be photographing anything that is not snow or ice. So here are some more dragons that I photographed at Wood Lake Nature Center the last weekend in June.
This first picture is of a female meadowhawk. I am not sure specifically which kind. At the dragonfly workshop that I attended last weekend, we talked a little bit about identifying meadowhawks. There are a couple of types that can be identified by field markings, like the whiteface and the autumn, however most of the others can only be identified if you have them in hand and are looking at them through a magnifying lens. Even then only the males are usually identifiable this way. So its best just to identify females as meadowhawks and leave it at that.

This is also a female but the type is a twelve-spotted skimmer. Twelve-spotted skimmers are very common and easily recognisable, although it is sometimes easy to confuse the female twelve-spotted and the similar looking female common white tail.
The dot-tailed white face is one of the earliest dragons that we see in the year. They usually begin to fly in May.
This picture demonstrates pretty well where the dot-tailed whiteface got its name. This is much more obvious on the males, like the one above, then the females, who typically have more then a single spot on the top of their abdomen.
It is a little difficult to see all the differences between male and female in this shot of a pair in the wheel mating formation but you can still tell that they do look different.
Damselflies also mate in the wheel formation. They are even more difficult to distinguish the type, with out close examination with a magnifying lens, then dragons are. Since I did not want to disturb their reproduction I will just ID them as damselflies.

Bass Ponds Dragonfly Mating

The Bass Ponds is always a good place to look for dragonflies. BP consists of trails around a series of small ponds, these ponds where once used for producing fish to stock lakes in the area. Between the tails and the ponds there is a good deal of grass, weeds, milkweed and other pond vegetation. On one pond there is a small boardwalk that goes out to a viewing platform in the pond and the Minnesota River runs along the eastern border of the park.
The dot-tailed whiteface is one of the dragons that I photographed a lot early in the summer.

I caught this pair in the wheel position. This is how dragonflies and damselflies mate. So I guess you could call this dragon fornification.
Another dragon that was fairly common that day was the four-spotted skimmer. These larger dragons are named for the four spots on each pair of wings.
Four-spotted skimmers are found in many places around the world. Besides most of North America they can also be found in Europe, Northern Africa and even Japan. They like to perch on twigs or other taller vegetation and wait to ambush prey, which even includes mid-sized dragons like meadowhawks.
The widow skimmer is another larger dragon that prefers to perch on twigs or reeds waiting for prey. They are usually found in established ponds, rivers and lakes and shy away from seasonal ponds.
According to Kurt Mead, in his book Dragonflies of the North Woods, widow skimmers spend the night hanging beneath overarching leaves. Dragonflies of the North Woods is a great book if you want to go dragon hunting in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, or parts of southern Canada. It is specifically meant for the northern part of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, however I have only found one dragonfly in southern Minnesota that I did not find in the book, so I certainly recommend the book and use it all the time myself for identification and research.

Dragons at Carlos Avery

There were also quite a few dragonflies at Carlos Avery that weekend, bad for mosquitoes, good for me, although we could have used a few more of the larger types to help with the run away deer fly population.
The dot-tailed white face is fairly common in this area. They are one of the first dragonflies that we see in the late spring and are usually around until October.
The frosted whiteface are typically only found in the Great Lakes and the North East.

Their preferred habitat is vegetated ponds or lakes especially ones with a lot of floating sphagnum moss.
They typically hunt by perching on vegetation and waiting for their prey.

Female frosted whiteface looks much different then the male with only the white face and black abdomen sections looking the same in both male and female.

Although their habitat is typically around water I found most of these frosted white face in a small section of short grass near an intersection of two road. There is plenty of green ponds, pools and flowages in Carlos Avery so water is never too far away but I was surprised that these dragons seemed to prefer this open grass.
At first glance I thought that this was another frosted whiteface as I spotted him facing away sitting on the ground, but on closer examination I identified this dragon as a chalk-fronted corporal. The white on the front portion of the thorax is what gave it away, notice the male frosted whitefaces above have a black front thorax. The white front thorax is how the chalk-fronted corporal got its name, as they resemble corporal stripes. Another dead give away if you see one from the front is the lack of a white face. Chalk-fronted corporals like to hunt from a perch on the ground as shown above.
As usual there were quite a few twelve-spotted skimmers about. I am guessing that this one is a female because the males typically white areas between the dark spots on their wings.
Another dragon that typically hunts by perching on vegetation is the widow skimmer. This widower is a female. Males are typically a dusky blue with white patches that follow the black patches on the wing. Immature widowers look a lot like the female however the female usually have a black ting at the tip of their wings.