New dragonfly species - to me.

Crimson-winged white-faced dragonflies.  Male (above) and female (below).

As a boy, I would spend hours along nearby streams and ponds watching and collecting aquatic insects.  This was mostly in southern Ontario but I found the passion followed me when we moved to Alberta back in the 70's.  Even now, I cannot see a body of fresh water without looking for what interesting invertebrate fauna may present itself.  

While camping in Leduc, Alberta, I put my kayak in the water at a nearby retention pond.  Although it is artificial in nature, being a man-made hole used to manage runoff, succession has made its mark and it now resembles a fairly advanced ecosystem with a wide range of inhabitants.  That's one of the beautiful things about nature; we can mess it up terribly but its perseverance will eventually make amends if left alone. 

I saw a family of bufflehead ducks, a muskrat, damselflies, mayflies, and an army of dragonflies competing for space, mates, and food.  It was the dragonflies that caught my attention (OK, the muskrat was cool too - see the image below).  They were a species I had not seen before.  The red thorax (male) and white face stood out as unique markers to me.  I later learned this was the crimson-winged white-faced dragonfly, a species where male and female are dimorphic.

Muskrat swimming in the retention pond at the Lion's Club campground in Leduc.

Interestingly enough, this particular insect has been called "one of the most beautiful" of the dragonfly species.  They are not as large as other kinds, but the dark red bodies and white faces certainly make an impression.  While hiking around the pond itself I saw very few individuals, but once in the water on my boat, they were abundant.  I enjoyed watching them as the males fought for space while the females were laying eggs on the water's surface. They would fly just above the aquatic threshold, dipping their ovipositors into the water and creating small ripples, as if a stone had been skipped along a long arc.

It all brought me back to when I was a boy.  There is just something amazing about watching life unfold.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com