A Celebratory Day!

On July 14 last year, I hiked into Morrell Lake and Falls northeast of Seeley Lake in an attempt to locate a Spruce Grouse to photograph. I mentioned this briefly in a previous blog. Before reaching the falls, I skirted a shallow pond that was teeming with dragonflies. After changing from my telephoto to macro lens, I waited patiently for some of these neat bugs to perch somewhere so that I could take some photos. Two different species were cooperative and I obtained reasonable photos of each. This event is what initiated my present obsession with these insects. The largest and showiest of those I got images of I later determined to be a Chalk-fronted Corporal. The other was more difficult to ID, but I concluded that it was a Crimson-ringed Whiteface. Friend and expert amateur dragonfly aficionado Nate Kohler confirmed this ID. And since he had not yet found this species himself, he was anxious to join me in another hike to this pond.

Yesterday, the near anniversary of my transformation into a dragonfly nut, we finally joined up to head back into this pond. Although the weather was not very promising, we took a chance that the sun would peek out long enough to stimulate some dragonfly activity. Immediately upon reaching the pond, we spotted some of what looked like the sought-after species. But after netting them, they turned out to be closely related, but not the target we wanted. Then the clouds moved in and the bugs moved up out of sight into the trees. After skirting the entire circumference of the lake with no success, we headed up the trail a ways to look at another nearby body of water nearby. Nothing looked promising there, so back to the first pond we ambled, discouraged but not ready to give up. Eventually, sun reappeared for a short while - and the dragonflies again came down to feed. And finally we were able to capture some of the sought after Crimson-ringed Whitefaces.Nate takes photos and keeps very detailed records of all his dragonfly outings and he also collects a few specimens for future reference. While the weatherman tried to put a damper on this outing, it was none the less quite successful. Nate was pleased with finding a new species for his records, and I was rewarded with a great learning experience provided by Montana's best amateur Odonatologist - dragonfly expert!!