April 2003 Dragonfly Watching in Florida

47 species - see list

One should never wait four years to write a trip report!  The best I can remember is that we flew into Jacksonville, headed east through Tallahassee and into the Apalachicola National Forest where it rained.  The rest of the week consisted of finding places to see bugs where it wasn't raining!  A trip through Gainesville was nice and we got to meet Bill Mauffray who took my specimens of new Iowa odes.  It was really cool to have close encounters with Gray Petaltail - a bug high on my list for the area.  I remember as a kid singing "Way down upon the Suwannee River...".  Here Jim skips a rock on Suwannee.  Ocala National Forest had few bugs but did have my lifer Florida Scrub Jay and Cottonmouth.  The latter tempered my enthusiasm for finding damselflies at this small wet area!  Giant aeshnas, dark-winged dancers, and some really cool new clubtails are still high in my memory bank.  Places vistied, as recorded in my database, include: Pope Duval Park, Steinhatchee Springs, Apalachicola National Forest, Withlacochee River and State Forest, McKethan Lake, Alexander Spring, Hopkins Prairie, Ocala National Forest, Black Sink Lake, Payne Prairie, Lochlocsa Conservation Area, Millhopper Park, Rock Creek, Santa Fe River, and Gold Head Branch Sate Park.  This was my first attempt at photographing dragonflies, with a 2 MB camera no less, so while the quality isn't the greatest it is fun to remember the neat critters.

Click on thumbnails to enlarge.

Ebony Jewelwing	Sparkling Jewelwing	Blue-tipped Dancer	Duckweed Firetail
Gray Petaltail	Regal Darner	Swamp Darner	Sepia Baskettail
Gray-green Clubtail	Cypress Clubtail	Sandhill Clubtail	Blackwater Clubtail
Amanda's Pennant	Ornate Pennant	Little Blue Dragonlet	Blue Corporal
Bar-winged Skimmer female	Golden-winged Skimmer female	Great Blue Skimmer female	Carolina Saddlebags
Blue Dasher	Wood Stork	Wild Turkey	Common Ground Dove