which_chick: (Default)
which_chick ([personal profile] which_chick) wrote2020-06-22 08:28 am

Odes. New camera is da bomb.

So I finally (in this era of covid, still) got a new camera to replace the canon powershot that was having lens opening issues. Hooray! I went out over the weekend to play odes with said camera.



Let us consider the yellow-sided skimmer. The yellow-sided skimmer is a member of the king skimmer group, kind of southerly in nature according to the odonatacentral distribution map:



The book also suggests that this is a more-southern species than my area, but as you can see from THE PICTURE...



it is found in my area. Pics. It did happen. The yellow-sided skimmer, quite attractive, with pretty yellow veins in wings, was a new record for my county this year. I also picked up the eastern red damsel (tiny and less red than expected), so I have a grand total of 50 species for my Neck of the Woods. (There are 184 species of odes available in Pennsylvania according to OC. Not all of them live in my county. According to OC, there are records of 64 species of odes that might be found in my county. So I'm not doing too badly, for 50 out of 64.)

Also here is a great blue skimmer, one of my favorite odes. He is the first of his kind I've seen this year, very handsome indeed. According to the aforementioned book, the great blue skimmer is the "most swamp-obligate" of the king skimmers. And yes, is found in swamps.



I have a pretty good selection of the king skimmer group (Libellula). Widow, spangled, slaty, great blue, painted, yellow-sided, twelve-spotted, and bar-winged. There are eleven species that CAN be found in Pennsylvania, and I have seen eight in my little corner thereof, so I'm not doing badly on the king skimmer front. Golden-winged is a longshot. Needham's is impossible (this species is found near the Atlantic coastline). Four-spotted is not much below I-80, so also not likely. I'll keep my eyes peeled, but I think this is about it for the king skimmers in my area.