[Odonata-l] Band-winged Dragonlets in Michigan

[Julie A. Craves]

Today Darrin O'Brien and I decided to take advantage of the unseasonably 
warm weather (86F) and do one last survey at the Detroit River 
International Wildlife Refuge Humbug Marsh Unit in Wayne Co., MI. I 
received a grant to do a baseline Odonata survey there.

A part of this unit is a large brownfield on the Detroit River. The 
front third is undergoing restoration, and was scraped of vegetation 
this spring. Now it is uneven sandy soil with some weedy sparse 
vegetation. In one of the first glorified puddles we came to we found 
first one, then two male Band-winged Dragonlets, Erythrodiplax umbrata. 
They were reluctant to perch, and it wasn't until the second time they 
became preoccupied with each other that I was able to catch one. 
Actually, both of them in the same swing.

This is the first state record for Michigan (our fifth, remarkably), and 
so far as I know, the northernmost record for this species. Apologies to 
the folks in Ohio, who have held that record since this 29 August when 
Sally Isacco photographed a Band-winged Dragonlet at Headlands Dunes 
State Nature Preserve in Mentor, Ohio.

-- 
Julie A. Craves					
Rouge River Bird Observatory
University of Michigan-Dearborn

http://www.rrbo.org