Dragonfly Walk at 9:30 a.m.
September 6 with Pierre Deviche

        Intricate patterns on dragonflies can be breathtaking. Blue-eyed Darners such as the one pictured at right hover over Ayer Lake and hunt smaller bugs during Summer months at the Arboretum, if one of these large dragonflies stops to perch on a cattail focus your binoculars for a great look at the mosaic design of blue and black along the abdomen -- and watch for the vivid purple of a Roseate Skimmer.

       Learn about darners, skimmers, dashers and other dragonfly species on our guided dragonfly walks; two more are scheduled for this season at t 9:30 a.m. Arizona State University researcher and photographer Pierre Deviche is our special guest tour guide on September 6; an exciting new addition to our roster of expert dragonfly walk guides.

      What species are you likely to see? Education Coordinator Chris Kline provided this recap following the walk on July 5 -- reporting that "we had many Blue Dashers and Mexican Amberwings along with Flame Skimmer, Filigree Skimmer (one at legume Garden pool); Black Saddlebags, Wandering Glider, *Spot-winged Glider, Blue-eyed Darner, Common Green Darner, Sooty Dancer, Dusky Dancer, Rambur's Forktail and Desert Firetail.

            Kline adds "we had our first ever Bio-Blitz, a special biological survey event, back on September 15 of 2007. Rich Bailowitz and Doug Danforth were kind enough to come up to do the butterfly and dragonfly survey. Odonate results were 25 species, and an impressive 224 individuals. Here's what they reported finding: 3 Black Saddlebags, 1 Red Saddlebags, 1 *Black Setwing (new for our checklist!); 2 Blue Dasher, 20 Flame Skimmer, 27 Mexican Amberwing, 4 Neon Skimmer, 14 Roseate Skimmer, 8 Variegated Meadowhawk, 1 Straw-colored Sylph, 2 Spot-winged Glider, 4 Pale-faced Clubskimmer, 2 Blue-eyed Darner, 3 Common Green Darner, 1 Giant Darner, 1 Arroyo Bluet, 39 Familiar Bluet, 3 Amethyst Dancer, 7 **California Dancer (also exciting, this gives confirmation of a previous observation); 30 Dusky Dancer, 10 Lavender Dancer, 5 Sooty Dancer, 20 Springwater Dancer, 8 Desert Firetail and 8 Rambur's Forktail 8. Kline guides dragonfly walks here during Summer months, and welcomes visitors to the "season finale" on October 6.

      Early summer walks produced some of these same varieties, and also Filigree Skimmer, Variable Dancer, Springwater Dancer, Mexican Forktail, and Arroyo Bluet.... and older reports have included Black Saddlebags, Pond Damsel, Amethyst Dancer, Sooty Dancer, Familiar Bluet, Arroyo Bluet and more.


     The Arboretum offers our thanks to photographer and Arboretum tour guide Pete Moulton for sharing several of the images on this page - and also Rich Bailowitz and Doug Danforth for helping lead the walks and educating visitors about native insects of the Odonate order. Dragonfly enthusiast and photographer Peter Moulton was our guest tourguide for June, and pointed out colorful species around Ayer Lake including the Rambur's Forktail, Blue-ringed Dancer, Mexican Amberwing, Desert Forktail and the large blue-and-black Widow Skimmer (the latter two species were first-ever records for the Arboretum). Large red Flame Skimmers and also Blue Dasher were seen flying over both Ayer Lake and Queen Creek, and the Dasher was also observed hunting smaller insects around the Demonstration Garden water features. Species seen only along Queen Creek included Red Rock-skimmer and Giant Darner, a magnificent insect and the largest dragonfly in all of Arizona. Another exciting specie found around the Demonstration Garden water feature was Desert Firetail.
    The Arboretum is a great place to observe "watchable wildlife" including birds, butterflies, lizards... and also the colorful, charismatic and predatory dragonflies that strafe Ayer Lake and Queen Creek in search of prey. Pete Moulon travels from his Phoenix home to photograph dragonflies and butterfly species at the Arboretum -- and he shared two of the colorful images on this page. The Arboretum is among Pete's favorite spots for macro photography, and these images were captured during his rambles around the trails here at BTA.

     "When the temperature is a little warmer Ayer Lake is a good place to start looking for both dragonflies and damselflies. Some species breed in still water, and at the lake these include: Blue-eyed and Common Green Darners, Flame and Roseate Skimmers, Mexican Amberwings, and Blue Dashers.

     "The little wet area just above the lake produced what, at the time, was the first known record of Neon Skimmer for both the Arboretum and Pinal County. Cynthia Donald found this spectacular bug, which stayed just long enough for one not very good--but recognizable--photograph before it disappeared.

     "While some species prefer still waters for breeding purposes, and are therefore found around lakes, ponds, and the like, others favor flowing water. Queen Creek provides habitat for some of these species, and the shady spot where the trail drops into the canyon and then switches back to follow the creek downstream is excellent for both the Red Rock Skimmer and the Springwater Dancer. I've also seen and photographed the American Rubyspot here.

     "A few species require open water only for breeding, and may be found anywhere in the park, often far from water. The Wandering Glider and Variegated Meadowhawk are two of these wide-rangers."

     Pete photographed the beautiful blue Springwater Dancer (the damselfly above) along Queen Creek, and the brilliant red skimmer at right was also photographed here. To read other dragonfly reports posted on the web and learn about other places to see them, visit the website
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SoWestOdes

Read more about Boyce Thompson Arboretum weekend nature walks and EVENTS