The Golden Dragonfly Mystery - Day 218

  It was a morning for dragonflies. It was hot and calm (81 degrees at 7:30). The sun angled off their wings as they flew in front of me, twinkling with every beat like dancing crystal shards. Then they would land in the grass and simply disappear. I know there were 12-spot skimmers, and some kind of darner. (Lousy picture, but I can see stripes on the thorax)

In 1995, we were often enveloped in clouds of smallish golden dragonflies. There were thousands. We could pick up multiple ones that had been hit by cars to look at them closely. But I didn't have a dragonfly field guide back then.

When we were back in North Dakota in 2002 and 2007, we didn't see them again. It was strange, as if the golden dragonfly event happened just once, for us.

But there have been some this time. Getting a picture has been tricky, but this one is not too bad.

So, what is it? Well, it's a male- it has two little prongs at the end of it's abdomen. It's in North Dakota, which eliminates a few candidates. It has black legs (I can see this clearly in one of the poor pictures), which eliminates the yellow-legged meadowhawk.

My best guess is an immature saffron-winged meadowhawk. The adult males are deep red, but the females and immature males are yellow, darkening with age. The leading edges of the wings are amber, which is typical. Meadowhawks are known for being really hard to ID.

So, the mystery is not really solved, but perhaps it flutters closer to a solution.

I also saw a nice plains garter snake. Well, technically, I saw half a snake! Today's lonely North Dakota picture. Railroads are alive and well here.

It was much hotter today than predicted. I finished at 2:15, but it was over 90 before noon and 98 by 1:00. The heat is hard. Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler.

Miles today: 17.4. Total miles so far: 2623.4

See I Was Cruisin'