Realizing that there is a southeast, northeast, and now even a Missouri dragonfly group (and others) conducting dragonfly field trips, we decided to have, for the first time ever, a California Dragonfly Blitz. Ray Bruun most graciously organized the event, with Tim Manolis suggesting the locale. We used the CalOdes Yahoo! Group to advertise the occasion. The decision to have this event was made late in the year, so the date set was late, September 9-11. Usually that is a fine time for dragonflies in the high mountains here, and our location, the Warner Mountains in Modoc County in far northeastern California, is in the Great Basin desert region. But, well, read on….
Seven hardy souls made the event, despite alarming weather reports for the area, which called for an unseasonable cold spell with rain and the possibility of snow in the higher levels. Admittedly we lost a few participants at the last moment, and in fact, some participants, who drove 2 days to get from the San Diego area to the Warner Mts. (places as far apart as you can get within the state) wavered back and forth as they drove north and there were a flurry of phone calls from them and others saying, “Are you still going to hold this event?”
Doug Aguillard
& Pat Sherman made the 1,000 mile journey from San Diego
The group convened as planned in the hamlet of McArthur in Shasta County at 10:00 a.m., on the 9th, and then drove thru that county and also thru Lassen County without stopping until we crossed into Modoc County. Kathy Biggs had printed up a “hit list” of species presumed to be in the county but not yet reported, or only reported as sightings, and we wanted to concentrate on those.
We hadn’t traveled too far into the county before huge dark clouds were seen on the horizon. We quickly realized that we’d better make as many stops as possibly before the storm hit. It was a wise decision. The 6 of us present at the time stopped at 11:30 in the tiny town of Adin at Ash Creek where Highway 299 crosses it. We were happy to find seven species flying there: Western Meadowhawk (Sympetrum occidentale), Striped Meadowhawk (S. pallipes), one male Black Saddlebags (Tramea lacerata), that perched up in a tree high above our heads and thus frustrated us as he was one of our “target” species, 2 Common Green Darners (Anax junius) that evaded the net, also frustrating us for the same reason, a Blue-eyed Darner (Rhionaeschna multicolor), some Spotted Spreadwings (Lestes congener), and one male Pacific Forktail (Ischnura cervula). We also saw a Purplish Copper and other butterflies, which made for a decent start to the trip.
At noon we stopped at Rush Creek further along Highway 299 at the bridge, near the Gaging Station, 1.5 miles north of Adin (lat/long: N 41.215° and W 120.931). This turned out to be a lovely little site. We spread out up and down the creek and found Blue-eyed Darner (R. multicolor), another undeterminable Darner species (Aeshna), and then Joe Smith became legendary when he caught not just one, but two female common Green Darners (Anax junius) thereby upgrading Dennis Paulson’s previous sighting only record to a specimen record. Joe, a beginning dragonflier but well versed in other biological sciences, would walk off from the group, and return a little bit later with several species in his net at once. Amazing!
Our attempts to grab a specimen of American Rubyspot (Hetaerina americana) at this spot to upgrade its sighting only record were unsuccessful, but it was fun to watch Dave Biggs swinging a net from the bridge above the creek and Ray Bruun, swinging his net from in the creek below the bridge, trying to coordinate the capture. Two rubyspots were seen. Four Spotted Spreadwings (L. congener), many Vivid Dancers (Argia vivida), one other Dancer/not a Vivid, a Tule Bluet (Enallagma carunculatum), and a female Western Forktail (Ischnura perparva) were found.
An old and ragged female Hoary Skimmer (Libellula nodisticta) was caught upstream by Ray Bruun and photos were taken and the specimen kept for Kathy Biggs to scan for her CA and SW dragonfly websites. Also present were one female Flame Skimmer (Libellula saturata), a Variegated Meadowhawk (Sympetrum corruptum), abundant Striped Meadowhawks (S. pallipes) and several Western Meadowhawks (S. occidentale). Joe then saw and caught the male Black Saddlebags (T. lacerata) that he found, thereby upgrading that species to a specimen record from a photo only record. With the storm clouds moving in quickly, we moved on.
Soon after this point the cloud cover collided with us. A few other stops were unproductive. Then as we reached the small city of Alturas the heavens opened and it poured rain while the temperature hovered in the high 30s. Brrrrrr…. Thank heavens for hot drinks at the gas station! We contemplated aborting the mission. But then decided that since we were this far into the venture, a night at our final destination, about an hour further north, but at a much higher elevation should be risked. If the weather didn’t improve, we could abort then, and a secondary plan was determined (assembling by the fire at the Biggs’ under-construction home on the sides of Mt. Shasta and viewing the New Mexico dragonfly DVD by Dustin Huntington – a MUST see!). We never did have to implement this plan.
As we drove north out of Alturas we saw some of the most amazing storm cell clouds any of us had ever seen (we were in touch with each other via walkie-talkies and a cell phone with that capability – we highly recommend this for all group outings!). Then, like a miracle, the rain stopped and a thin blue sky was overhead. Pronghorns grazed by the side of the road (a somewhat unusual sight elsewhere in CA) and we rejoiced in our decision to plow on.
Our camp at Cave Lake was very nice, and we had it to ourselves. Everyone brought a lot of food, and that led to the sharing of some wonderful meals. We had campfires and cook fires to warm us; tents, vans, and pickups to sleep in; a really nice pit latrine (if there is such a thing); a stream running through the camp; and, of course, great company. That night we relaxed, enjoyed ourselves, and awoke to a cold morning with a cloudy sky. Darn! Ray made Swedish crepes for us for breakfast – almost adequate compensation!
Amazingly, we decided to chase dragonflies nonetheless! We had to wait until 10:00 a.m. for it to warm up enough to head to nearby Lily Pad Lake. We found a few dragonflies, but most of them were dead! The frigid front had apparently done them in. We found one dead Western Meadowhawk (Sympetrum. occidentale); another dead dragonfly was a Striped Meadowhawk (S. pallipes). One male Pacific Forktail (I. cervula) was found alive and then 3 male Northern Spreadwings (Lestes disjunctus) were found, still slightly alive and our first new Modoc Co. species.
It was "Dave
vs. Betsy" for control of this watering hole.
We had noted an unnamed pond on the west side of County Road 2, ~3 miles west of Cave Lake Campground and east of New Pine Creek on our way into the area the day before. It had looked quite promising with lots of emergent vegetation. Our stop there at 11:40 was most notable in that many of the Darners we found were floating dead, or dying on the lake surface. In particular I recall one female Paddle-tailed Darner (A. palmata) that was still ‘in position’ on a floating plant stem, as if she had been ovipositing. When we picked her up, she slowly ‘thawed’ and uncurled her abdomen. It was bizarre! Also found were several Striped Meadowhawks (S. pallipes), all alive; and many Variable Darners (A. interrupta): both males and females were seen and we kept specimens of dying individuals. The flying (live!) Paddle-tailed Darners came out noticeably later in the morning than the Variables; a Lyre-tipped Spreadwing (L. unguiculatus) male had his photo taken as he represented a new late flight date by quite a bit (the previous late date was 8/16/99!). Also found there was one dead Tule Bluet (E. carunculatum); a Bluet female was also seen.
We decided right then and there to head to a lower elevation! So, we headed down to the ‘flats’ of Goose Lake. Goose Lake’s elevation is still 4701 feet (“normal water level”). This lake is HUGE (about 25 miles long and 9 miles wide), but only a few feet deep. At 1:30 it was a whole 55 degrees out there! It was the warmest temperature we had in our whole Blitz! We stopped at the eastern shoreline on Stateline Rd. near New Pine Creek (lat/long: N 41.994°, W 120.328°. Amazingly, 7 species were out and busy claiming territories and mating etc. in the marshy meadow near the lakeshore. We found the following there: Lyre-tipped Spreadwings (Lestes unguiculatus); Western Red Damsels (Amphiagrion abbreviatum); many Alkali Bluets (E. clausum) (in fact, Pat, our “novice” was even catching them with her bare fingers); several Western Forktails (I. perparva); numerous Black Meadowhawks (Sympetrum danae), a pair of which were caught in cop by Kathy Biggs and are now the voucher for Modoc County (many photographs were taken of this species and Kathy scanned the voucher pair when she and Dave returned home); one Variegated Meadowhawk (S. corruptum) was seen; and there were many Striped Meadowhawks (S. pallipes). It seemed unusual in California to be seeing more Striped than Variegated Meadowhawks.
Buoyed by our experience there, we decided to take the ‘loop’ that went from Goose Lake back up into the Warner Mts. and then to the back side of the Warners before turning west and leading us back to Cave Lake (BTW – there were no dragonflies at pristine Cave Lake, but it was an interesting lake with an attached cave!).
At 4:30 p.m. we noted a luscious looking pond east of Fandango Pass, surrounded by pines, and with a lot of emergent vegetation. In our vehicles we slowly picked our way down the 4WD road. We were disappointed after all this effort to then only find several Striped Meadowhawks (S. pallipes), one male Variable Darner (A. interrupta), and 2 Western Forktails (I. perparva).
At 5:30 p.m., at an unnamed pond (lat/long: N 42° 00.268' W 120° 13.886') on the west side of County Road 2, ~1 mile west of Cave Lake Campground and east of New Pine Creek, we found a few Variable Darners (A. interrupta). We decided it was time to call it a day!
The next morning started bleak and overcast and COLD. The 5 of us who had stayed on thru the night ate a hearty breakfast, and without much hope, packed up and started back down and out of the mountains.
A short stop again at nearby Lily Pad Lake gave us the most bizarre sighting - an Aeshna Darner taking flight from the lake and into a large pine tree while it was snowing! A dragonfly in the snow!!
On the way out, the remaining five of us stopped again on our way out at noon at Goose Lake State Park east of New Pine Creek. We again found the same species as the day before, but this time the sun was out and great photos were taken (photos & scans from the Blitz can be seen at www.bruunphotography.com/blitz/OdeBlitz2005.html).
Everyone but Ray and the Biggs had to high tail it home. A stop at 1:00 at a spot where we saw some interesting habitat along the North Fork of the Pit River, alongside Hwy 395, ~8 miles north of Alturas gave Ray the opportunity to net one of the 5 American Rubyspots (Hetaerina americana) we saw, a male, for an upgrade from a previous sighting only record, finally! Also seen were more Spotted Spreadwings (L. congener), a male Bluet species (Enallagma), one female Western Forktail (I. perparva), an Aeshna species, many Common Green Darners (Anax junius) and again many Striped Meadowhawks (S. pallipes).
Ray then headed home while the Biggs made one last stop at 2:00, still alongside the North Fork Pit River, several miles north of Alturas but south of the previous spot. They found a few more species to bring the total for the blitz to 22. The two new species found there were one male Familiar Bluet (E. civile), examined in hand and several Sooty Dancers (Argia lugens).
Upon returning home, Tim Manolis carefully examined the male Variable Darner (Aeshna interrupta) he had fished out of one of the ponds and decided that they represented the subspecies A. i. interna. The status of this and other described forms of A. interrupta in the Pacific Northwest, including Northern California, is poorly understood and somewhat controversial, but we now at least know that A. i. interna occurs in the northeastern corner of the state (not too surprising as it is the common form immediately to the north in eastern Oregon [fide Jim Johnson]).
Believe it or not, this trip was so much fun, that we are talking about doing it next year -- maybe even twice. Surely we’ll have better weather! …Maybe we should invite Nick Donnelly, as the formerly infamous “Donnelly Effect” seems to have been quite favorable lately!
Modoc County Dragonfly Blitz participants: Ray Bruun, Doug Aguillard, Dave & Kathy Biggs, Tim Manolis, Joseph H. Smith. not in group picture Patricia Sherman.
The 2006 California DSA/CalOdes Dragonfly Blitz TBA at a later date. We’re hoping for more of a Blitz and less of a Blizzard next year!