Dragonfly Migration Event

I enjoyed an exciting July 30th morning on the Bunny Run. Shortly after I arrived, when I was near the original location of the wild bee hive, I realized there was a steady stream of dragonflies flying just over the treetops, all heading south. I was witnessing my very first dragonfly migration event!

I've been learning a little bit about dragonflies ever since attending a workshop offered by the Migratory Dragonfly Partnership (MDP) a few months ago. Many dragonflies are migratory, and not much is known about where they go and the timing of their travels. The MDP has started a citizen science project to try and learn more. Following their protocol, I stopped and did a point count. I started the stopwatch on my iPhone, and for the next ten minutes I counted 591 dragonflies pass over my head. That's almost one per second! I estimated that most were Spot-winged Gliders -- about 80%. The other 20% I thought were probably Wandering Gliders but I couldn't be sure. I reported this migration event here:

http://www.migratorydragonflypartnership.org/observation/show/2113
http://www.migratorydragonflypartnership.org/observation/show/2114

The birding continued to show signs of early bird migration. Cliff Swallows, the birds that nest under the Pennybacker Bridge, are present in much smaller numbers. And more Purple Martins and Barn Swallows are present in the open sky -- both early fall migrants. I got pretty good photos of a couple juvenile birds -- Red-bellied Woodpecker and Eastern Phoebe. And an unusual summer observation was a Cooper's Hawk (much more common in the winter) in the wetlands area. Near the new bee boxes, two Turkey Vultures were waiting near a dead raccoon.

Here are my photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikael_behrens/sets/72157634876660621/

Here are my iNaturalist observations:

http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/project/nalle-bunny-run-biodiversity?utf8=✓&day=30&month=7&year=2013&order_by=observations.id&order=desc

Posted on 01 August, 2013 01:55 by mikaelb