DragonFly Monitoring

photos by DABrown

Today was my first time out for the dragonfly monitoring - I'm volunteering for the Illinois Dept of Natural Resources and will go to a designated site at least twice a month to count and identify dragonflies. We were given the option of choosing sites, so I chose my favorite Wolf Road Prairie. The site is not expected to have a multitude of species since it has no deep water, creeks,rivers,lakes etc. I spent 2 hours wandering around and many prairie flowers were in bloom. I wandered over to the forested area and found a grassy trodden down place where the deer sleep or lounge in the shade on hot days. I flushed out some large bird that flapped into the air emitting a startled shriek which I almost echoed! I don't know what it was - long curved beak. I saw a hawk, the songbird sparrows, barn swallows and the red-winged blackbirds - whom I adore. I love the lovely notes that they emit. I saw 4-5 dragonflies zipping erratically over the prairie but could not track their landings - this lovely girl was the only one that I was able to get close enough to photograph and identify. Can you see her in the top photograph? (She is resting almost in the middle of the photo - look closely!) She is a female 12 spotted skimmer, a common dragonfly but so gorgeous!

The prairie did not receive its spring burn because of how wet and rainy it's been - hence the European invaders are really taking over in areas - much work to be done! Oh and I also discovered a tick an my scalp when I got home. Yuck. Had to bathe in water with a thimbleful of Pine-Sol- yup- that is the only way to be sure all of them are found! Double yuck. 3 more dropped off in the bath. Also started a course of antibiotics. Next time I will use a bit of Deet. In all my time there I've never had a tick problem! I was all bundled up - long socks, pants etc. Maybe because I was scrambling around the area where the deer sleep, probably deer ticks. Triple yuck. Can you say Lyme Disease?

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