Birder’s Lounge

Usually when a birder says that “fall migration has started,” he/she means BIRD migration. Indeed, fall migration HAS started and it is an exciting time to see all of the different birds making their way south. I have also heard of butterfly migration - specifically, monarchs. Last year, I had the amazing experience of witnessing hundreds of monarch butterflies crossing a lake.

I may be a little late on this, but I have just learned that dragonflies migrate too! Apparently, bird and dragonfly migration are remarkably similar. ¹

These gorgeous green-and-blue dragonflies are Common Green Darners (Anax junius). Nannothemis, over at Urban Dragon Hunters, was kind enough to identify these dragonflies for me. Thanks, Nannothemis! I am always amused when the word “common” is part of an animal’s name. To me, the connotation is akin to “plain,” or “un-extraordinary” - and I haven’t seen an animal yet that I would call “common.”

I read something in a magazine the other day - talking about dragonflies migrating - but the info didn’t really stick. After Nannothemis helped me out with this ID, I did some GoodSearching and found a really cool article at ScienceDaily about scientists who glued radio-transmitters to 14 Common Green Darners. They tracked the dragonflies in a plane and on the ground! The article even shows a picture of the tiny radio transmitter on the belly of a Common Green Darner - very cool! Although this research was done more than two years ago, it’s news to me and I just have to share.

The other fascinating thing I noticed while watching this pair laying eggs in my frog pond, was the way that they worked together on the mechanics. In each of these photos, the male is holding the female by her head! He often lowered the female into the water so that hardly more than her head was above the surface.

In this picture, you can see that the female is pretty far down into the water. You can also clearly see how the male uses his tail to grasp the female by the back of her head-plate-thing. (again, with the technical terms ) I had no idea they did that! Several times I saw the male pull the female up and away when startled by my dogs or other possible threats. Now THAT’S teamwork!