Another fun outing of searching for damselflies and dragonflies, also known as, Odes. This morning I went out to Papago Park in east Phoenix. There are three ponds within Papago Park, and each one of those ponds has open water as well as sections of cattail and marsh within each pond. Odes were abundant, especially dragonflies. I enjoyed it because I like dragons more than damsels overall, and dragons drastically outnumbered damsels. In my other times of oding, it has been the other way around. I got three lifer odes today, which were: Black Saddlebags, Red Saddlebags, and Red-tailed Pennant.
Black Saddlebags: My favorite ode of the day. This dragonfly was exciting to watch as it patrolled the ponds relentlessly without landing. Getting pictures of this species was a huge challenge, and I consider myself very lucky with the shot I got below.
Western Pondhawk
Blue Dasher: The most abundant ode of the day. I probably had close to 100 individuals throughout the 3 ponds in the park. They were so abundant I even managed to briefly capture a male by hand for a few seconds before releasing it. Blue Dasher goes down as the first ode I touched.
Blue-ringed Dancer
Black Setwing: My second time seeing this species after the initial sighting at Morgan City Wash. Papago Park had a number of them.
Red-tailed Pennant: One of three new odes for me on the day. This was actually the first new one I got to see, and it was one of the first odes I had for the day. There were probably close to ten of these dragonflies throughout the three ponds.
Wandering Glider
Mexican Amberwing
Rambur's Forktail
Familiar Bluet (Couldn't find one of my targets, which was Double-striped Bluet)
Red Saddlebags: My third lifer of the day. It often flew near Black Saddlebags, and the two species would interact.
Widow Skimmer (New for Arizona, but I photographed one in Minnesota last year). Super cool Ode!
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