Odonates at Crex Meadows

I drove up to Crex with a friend who knows a lot more about odes than I do. She is one of those people who can ID a Skimmer at thirty feet by flight style, and I spent most of the day trying to learn by watching her watch them.

We found a pond that was good for Ebony Jewelwings — twenty of them working the edge, males patrolling, females sneaking. Then a shallow roadside ditch that had Four-spotted Skimmers, Widow Skimmers, and one male Eastern Pondhawk doing target practice on a Meadowhawk.

Best moment: a teneral Halloween Pennant climbing a reed stem. They look like someone took an emperor butterfly and pushed it through a dragonfly. My friend was more excited about this than I was and that’s saying something.

Butterflies incidentally: a Monarch doing what Monarchs do. Two Red-spotted Purples. A single Silvery Checkerspot. Several Common Wood-Nymphs along a shaded lane.

We ate lunch in the car with the A/C blasting and drove back for one more pass at the pond. I got a keeper of a Twelve-spotted Skimmer and her of a Cherry-faced Meadowhawk and we called it.

Note for next time: bring a second bottle of water. Wisconsin in July is not gentle.