Meadowhawks

Meadowhawks are a genus, Sympetrum, of dragonflies in the skimmer family. They are typically seen flying Mid summer through until October. They can often be found in grassy fields as well as around most types of wetlands.
We see around 8 different species of meadowhawks here in Minnesota. Most mature male meadowhawks are red in color, except for the black meadowhawk, while females and immatures are a gold or brown color. It is very difficult to distinguish the immatures and females of several different species from one and other with out having them under a microscope so often they are just identified as meadowhawks.

Meadowhawks

Meadowhawk

Meadowhawks

One of the dragonflies that I typically see late in the year is the Autumn meadowhawk. These dragons are often still flying into November, as long as we do not get a hard frost, these pics where taken in October. According to the book Dragonflies of the North Woods, by Kurt Mead, autumn meadowhawks can survive, meaning fly and feed, at temps slightly below 50 degrees.
Unlike many of the other red meadowhawks, mature males are red in color while mature females are either red or gold and immature are usually gold, autumn meadowhawks are easily identified by the color of their legs. Other meadowhawks have black legs while the autumn meadowhawk has yellow legs, which is why they were formerly known as the yellow-legged meadowhawk.

I am not sure which type of meadowhawk are in the photo above, I know that they are not autumn meadowhawks because they have black legs. These dragons are in what is referred to as the wheel position. The male, who is red, holds the female behind the head with his claspers. Before entering into the a tandem position the male will transfer sperm from testes, which are located on the bottom of abdomen segment nine, to his hamulus, which is located on the bottom of segments 2 and 3. the female will then arch her abdomen up to his hamulus to accept the sperm. Afterwards she will lay the fertilized eggs in the water, often while he guards to make sure that she does not copulate with another male until after she finishes laying the eggs.

Meadowhawk

Meadowhawks

This weeks Macro pics were taken near the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge in the Minnesota Valley NWR in September. Both of these dragonfly are meadowhawks, smaller dragonflies that are usually seen more often in late summer and fall.

I am not sure which type of meadowhawk is featured in the first pic, perhaps a ruby or cherry-faced meadowhawk. There are several types of meadowhawks that can only be distinguished when they are in hand under a magnifying glass. The second pic appears to be a white-faced meadowhawk which can be identified by the bright white face.

Meadowhawks

As summer fades and fall begins many of the large types of dragonfly disappear. Many of the clubtails, cruisers, emeralds and even many of the skimmers are gone by the end of August. So if you plan to go out looking for dragons in September and October you should plan on seeing mainly darners and meadowhawks, at least that is how it is in my neck of the woods.

Meadowhawks are smaller dragonflies, usually one to one and a half inches long, that can be found around open water or in open fields. There are numerous types of meadowhawks with several types looking so similar that it is hard to identify them unless you have them under a magnifying glass or microscope. In most cases the male meadowhawk is red with black triangles running across the side of the abdomen.

Females range in color from yellow to red to brown and are even more difficult to identify. The exceptions to the rules are the black meadowhawk, which the male is black and female yellow, the variegated meadowhawk, which the male is red and silver and the female is usually yellow and white, and the autumn meadowhawk, which can sometimes be seen into November and can be identified by its yellow legs. The males in these pictures are autumn meadowhawk and the female in the last picture could be one of several types.

A World with out Dragons is almost Upon Us.

This weekend the weather has been very nice hear in southeast Minnesota but unfortunately the birding has not been so great. Even when I was up in two harbors on yesterday I ran into a few birders who were lamenting the quiet fall migration that we have seen so far this year. In the past few months I have supplemented the blog with dragonfly pics when ever the birding was slow. Unfortunately dragons are now in short supply with winter approaching.
Fortunately I still have quit a few posts that I took earlier in the summer with dragons in them so hopefully I will be able to continue to provide some variety even when mother nature seems to be a little short, at least around where I live.
These pictures were taken on my first trip to Maplewood Nature Center back on July 31st. The first two pics are of meadowhawks. Most likely they are white-faced meadowhawks due to the pearly white face.
This other dragon is I believe a red-waisted whiteface. I was not able to get a photo of the face to tell if it was indeed white but because it has a long thin abdomen with white, pruinose, at the base it would only fit either a red-waisted or frosted whiteface in this area. Since there appears to be red on the back then that would eliminate the frosted which leaves only the red-waisted. This was the only probable red-waisted whiteface that I found all summer.

Clubbing with the Dragons at Carpenter

Today was another beautiful day weather wise here is southeastern Minnesota. All of meteorologist had been predicting nice weather through out the week so I decided to take a half day off of work so that I could get out and enjoy it. My plan was to head over to Carpenter Nature Center to do some birding and check out the Friday banding. Unfortunately work held me up a lot longer then planned so by the time that I got to Carpenter the banding was pretty much over. Even more disappointing was that I found out they had also released an eagle at the nature center that morning which I had also missed. Disappointed, but nice weather helped to make things better, I did a little birding around the park. I photographed a lot of fall and winter species, which I guess may be an omen that winter will be here soon. But with lots of sun and temps in the mid sixties it did not feel like winter or even late fall yet. In fact while I was out I spotted a sulfur butterfly as well as numerous meadowhawk dragonfly.
Back on August 17th I was photographing dragonflies at Carpenter also but at that time of year there was a little bit mire variety. Like the meadowhawk above, which if I had to guess I would say it is a white-faced male.
This was about the beginning of the time when I started to see Autumn meadowhawks. The females, like the one above, are yellow and fit the male Autumn meadowhawk very well. The males are red, like many other types of meadowhawks, but are distinguishable because of the yellow legs that both male and female have.

As I was getting more interested in dragonflies over the summer I began to spend more time at Carpenter. Through research I found out that there were a number of uncommon and rare dragons that tended to live around the St Croix River and its tributaries. Since Carpenter is located on the St Croix I figured that it would be a good place to look for these more unusual dragons. I never did find any of the really rare ones that I was looking for, I will have to start looking earlier next year, but I did find a couple of interesting dragons that I had not photographed before, like this black-shouldered spinyleg. The black-shouldered spinylegs is in the clubtail family. This would be a male because the abdomen is fairly wide or clubbed at the tip. Females show little to no clubbing at the tip of the abdomen.

Carpenter Dragonflies

Last weekend was sure a mixed bag as far as weather goes but then again what can you expect in Minnesota. Saturday was a beautiful day with a lot of sun and temps up to the mid 60s, which is pretty good for Minnesota in late October. The next day it was cloudy, with gusty winds, and we got our first snow of the season in the southern part of the state. The snow did not stay, fortunately the ground is still too warm but it is a good indication that winter will be here soon. Since the nights have gotten colder there have been a lot less insects around for me to photograph. Most the butterflies have been gone for a while, except for an occasional sulfur or cabbage white. A still see a few dragons around, at least on warmer days. They are mostly Autumn meadowhawks with an occasional darner still buzzing around.
However back on September 1st there were quite a few dragonflies and even some damselflies like the spreadwing above at the ponds at the Carpenter Nature Center. Unlike dragons most damselflies keep their wing together when they land. The exception to this are the spreadwings.
Autumn meadowhawks are easy to identify. They are the only type of the meadowhawks that have yellow legs. They were formally called yellow-legged meadowhawks.

Autumn meadowhawk are a late season dragon. We do not usually see them until the beginning of August and they are around into the beginning of November, unless we get really cold temps. According to Kurt Mead's book, Dragonflies of the North Woods, they can still fly and feed at temps slightly below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Most of the dragons that I am still seeing in late October are Autumn meadowhawks.
This next dragon is most likely a white-faced meadowhawk. I have included more pictures then usual but that was because I liked posting the same type perched on different plants.
Most of the red meadowhawks, other then the Autumn are much more difficult to distinguish between, this includes the white-faced, cherry-faced, and ruby meadowhawk in my part of the world. This one would appear to be a white-faced, because of the pearly white face but usually the only true way to tell is in hand under a magnifying lens.
It is so difficult to tell the difference between these 3 types of meadowhawks that often the dragons themselves are confused. Often a white-faced male may fly in tandem with a cherry-faced or ruby meadowhawk female. It is highly unlikely that they will mate, because the reproductive parts are different for each type.
You can tell that these two are the same type because they are in the wheel position. When two different types come together they may fly in tandem but it is rare that they will go into a wheel formation like this because of the incompatibility of the reproductive parts between the different types. This male, red, and female, yellow, are in the midst of mating. Soon they will divide and the female will lay eggs in the water or mud near vegetation on the shore line. The eggs will not hatch until the following spring. While the female lays eggs the male will usually hover guard to keep other males away from her until she is finished.

Vermillion River Dragons

With my expanding interest in dragonflies taking off I visited a variety of new locations this summer in order to find more variety to photograph. One of these new locations was a spot on the Vermillion River south of Hastings, MN. I visited there on August 17th.
I did not find too many new species but I did this damselfly. I am not sure what type that it is. I still need to do some more work to get all of my dragons down, once I am good with the dragons then I will work more on the damsels.
I also found a white face meadowhawk. Meadowhawks are one of the late season dragons, July and August are usually just the beginning of the season for them up here in Minnesota, they can still be found in November depending on the weather. I spotted quite a few on Sunday while I was out.
The common whitetails, on the other hand, are long gone. Their season usually runs from the end of May to the beginning of September.
It is quite easy to tell that these are female whitetails. The common whitetail gets it's name from the white pruinose which covers the abdomen of the males. Even immature males who have not developed any pruinose yet have distinctive wings that are more angular and have a more continuous brown spotting. The female whitetail is most often confused with the female twelve-spotted skimmer, but on the white tail the yellow dashes that run along the abdomen form a more jagged line then those on the twelve-spotted.

Meadowhawk Dragonflies

I am sorry that the last couple of posts were kind of short. I did them very quickly, on Friday, before I left for a trip up north to Duluth Minnesota for Hawk Weekend at Hawk Ridge. I had planned to try and add some more to the posts in the evening after I was done taking pics unfortunately the hotel that I stayed in did not have wireless Internet and the only PC they had in their "business center" was a Mac.I have nothing against Mac but when 97 % of the US works on PCs and not Macs I think it is kind of a bad business decision to choose a Mac. In fact this is the only hotel that I have ever stayed in where they had a Mac. Well needless to say no one could figure out how to use it, myself included and I work with computers for a living, so no one at the hotel was able to use Internet. Good thing that I did those short posts in advance otherwise I would have broken my consecutive streak.

So for today I have some more dragons from the Bass Ponds that I took in July. These are all meadowhawks. Meadowhawks are smaller, an inch to an inch and a half, dragonflies that are commonly seen mostly in fields later in the summer and into the fall.
There are at least 8 types of meadowhawks in my area. Several of the different types are very difficult to distinguish between unless you have them under a magnifying lens, especially juveniles and females.
Most of the male meadowhawks in my area are red in color. The exceptions to this would be the black meadowhawk, which is all black, and the band-winged, which can sometimes appear brown. The variegated is red but has an unique pattern and the Autumn meadowhawk is the only one with yellow-legs. The other four types are very similar. Females of all the species are usually a yellow orange color. My guess is that these were white-faced meadowhawks, especially the males.

In his book Dragonflies of the North Woods, Kurt Mead, states that sometimes male whiteface dragons will fly in tandem with female cherry-faced or ruby dragonflies but they will rarely actually mate because their reproductive parts are not compatible.

Crex Meadows Bugs

With fall beginning, and winter just around the corner, I have spent most of my time outside, as of late, photographing dragonflies and butterflies. During the winter here in Minnesota we may see less birds, although we do get to see some cool winter species, but do not have any dragonflies or butterflies to photograph. So I need to make the most of the time that I have left, with the temp getting into the low 40s last night it probably won't be long, to get all of the bug shots that I can. I have been getting some fabulous darner shots lately but the darners will probably be long gone before I catch up and get the pictures posted.
At Crex Meadows I found some insects to photograph while I was there in July. The male powdered dancer damsel fly is the only whitish looking damselfly in the area. The males are actually tan to dark brown in color but change white as they mature due to pruinosity covering most of the body. Pruinosity is a waxy substance that is produced by the cuticle, or outer most layer of the damsel. Pruinosity can be found in many different types of dragons and damselfly and typically effects the color of the insect.
The female damsels are difficult to tell apart. This may be a female powdered danser, that is my guess, but with out having it in hand to view under a magnifying glass it is tough to tell. Female powdered dansers are either blue or brown in color.
Female meadowhawks, like this one, are also difficult to tell apart. Many types of dragons are sexually dimorphic, which is a fancy way of stating that the males and females of the same species do not always look the same. I know this is a female because there are no male meadowhawks, at least not in this area, that would be that yellow color.
While I was there I also took some pictures of bees. I believe that this first pic is of a baldfaced hornet. Notice all of the pollen, yellow powdery substance, on its abdomen and legs
These next shots are of bumble bees. The top one is not too bad considering that the bee is in flight. There are around 50 different species of bumble bees in North America.
Bumble bees are social bees that are closely related to honey bees. They live in colonies with a queen, that lays all of the eggs, female workers, that gather nectar and pollen as well as do any of the tasks that need to be done, and male drones, which are only there for mating. Unlike honey bees, the bumble bees can not survive in cold weather. So when the weather begins to change the colony dies off and the queen hibernates alone. Then in the spring she will begin a new colony.

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.