Oding the Agua Fria River via Black Canyon City

The Agua Fria River is a beautiful riparian area located in southern Yavapai County.  This section of it was accessed from Black Canyon City.  I decided to explore and ode some of it on August 19th, 2017, and I wasn't disappointed.  My main target was the Filagree Skimmer, a dragonfly that I have been wanting to see since I got into oding.  After seeing a few glimpses of this species that Caleb Strand identified as they would fly by, I never got a good enough look at one to be certain for myself that's what we were seeing.  But that all changed during this visit to the Agua Fria River.  I got to see about five Filagree Skimmers!  And they were as awesome as I expected them to be.

After my first Filagree Skimmer was a fly-by, I kept my eyes peeled for more.  Not long after, they started to show up.  Something dark that landed on the ground turned out to be that wanted ode..

Filagree Skimmers are wary, and after this first one, I saw about three more patrolling the rocky sections along the river.  With some patience, I was able to get closer and get some better shots of my newest ode.

What I like about the Filagree Skimmer is that it's distinctive and pretty un-mistakable.  Any other possibility of something looking similar would be extremely rare in Arizona.  This bug behaves oddly, and flies at the hottest times of the day.  It has the rock star look to it.  The lined patterns on it's eyes add to it's awesomeness.

  There were some other cool odes, of course:

White-belted Ringtail

Gray Sanddragon

Familiar Bluet

California Dancer

Red Rock Skimmer

Species seen for the day:

American Rubyspot, California Dancer, Blue-ringed Dancer, Familiar Bluet, White-belted Ringtail, Gray Sanddragon, Pale-faced Club Skimmer, Flame Skimmer, Filagree Skimmer, Red Rock Skimmer, Wandering Glider