Sintifick Draginfly Reserch

You may remember this post from late last year, wherein the Boyo was upset when he learned the meaning of extinct and that we would in fact, not be getting a baby triceratops to raise in our yard. He brightened up when he learned that dragonflies were descended from dino-dragonflies, and that we could learn about them, study them, and maybe even see some up close!

We learned that there are 18 known species in our area, and studied pictures of them with the hope that we could find some when the weather got warmer and get some pictures of our own.  The Boyo asked for a three ring binder and we got to work making a notebook full of pictures off the Internet and any info we could find on said Odonata. He made a cover page titled "Sintifick Draginfly Reserch" or (Scientific Dragonfly Research). We want to fill it with all we can find and photograph regarding our local critters of the Dragonfly variety.

So far this summer we have pictures of...

The male Twelve Spotted Skimmer...

The female Ruby Faced Meadowhawk...

Which you've seen in previous posts.
We also got some nice shots of the beautiful Halloween Pennant...

And just today I got some shots of the male Widow Skimmer...

at the lake I train in. The Boyo and I were sneaking through the muck and mire looking for other dragonflies, when we noticed this one...

male above, I think a female below

which we could not place. With wings folded back like that it is a damselfly, but there are only two recorded species in our area... the River Jewelwing...

NM
and the Ebony Jewelwing...

NM
And this new guy was not like either.  After we got home, I scoured the Odonata Central website to try and figure out who he is, and I think he is the Eastern Forktail ( Ischnura verticalis). I submitted my photos to the Odonata Central website for verification, and if it is verified, I'm hoping that the Boyo and I will have added not only to our book, but we will have upped the local Odonata count to 19!

I'm totally geeked about it, of course. And the Boyo is ready to go dragonfly hunting again all day every day.

So, in our quest to find the 18 locals, we may have found #19! Good Times... Good Times!

More Later