Dragon dragonflies

Jennifer and I spent 4 spectacular days camping at Silent Lake Provincial Park this past Saturday-Tuesday. Hiking, Swimming, Canoeing, Cooking over the fire. Everything you'd expect! And it was an exceptional amount of fun. We got in at a walk-in campsite (a huge 20 second walk from the parking lot) and after day 1 had the entire area to ourselves. It couldn't have worked out any better!


However! I will do my best to stick to the natural history part of the trip (this is a natural history/photography blog after all).........

My "Natural History" highlight of the adventure was my 118th odonata species for the province, Horned Clubtail:

Having the chance to poke around after some dragonflies was a great change of pace from the constant bird-work  I have been doing in the summer months the past 3+ years... Most of my dragonfly experience came from my time working in Algonquin Park (last years of highschool), and pretty much most of what I knew came from the opportunity to follow Mike Burrell around while I was there (among a few others).  But that was quite a while ago!

The new camera was fun to try documenting pretty much everything I saw/captured. The other dragonfly highlight was 4 different Cyrano Darners (1 photographed in the hand below):

This large and spectacular dragon is a must-see for anyone interested in odes. The ones I've seen seem to be patrolling just offshore (this one was caught from a canoe) on outer edge of any marshy parts to large lakes in this area. You can see a bit of the habitat to the far right of the picture.


My photography highlight (wildlife highlight that is) was a pair of cooperative Mink Frogs while Jennifer and I canoed around the lake:

Looks like I'm gonna have to make a Mink Frog Page sometime.....

Jennifer, if you read this, it was a great adventure! And I can't wait to go there again with you.