Under the Boardwalk ...

Hastings County is fortunate to have a number of conservation areas. Among these is the H.R. Frink Outdoor Education Centre which has a boardwalk across a large expanse of wetland, allowing visitors to view areas of the marsh that would normally be inaccessible without a canoe.

These three Blanding's Turtles (Emydoidea blandingii) were basking on a floating log just a few feet from the boardwalk (they're visible to the right of the boardwalk in the photo above).

Unlike the Painted Turtles which took no chances and dived at the slightest provocation, these guys watched us with a haughty and imperious demeanor, acting as if they owned the marsh. Which, in a sense, they do: at close to twenty centimeters in length they are too large to be bothered by most predators. Considered a threatened species, two man-made dangers the turtles in this locale are immune to are destruction of their habitat and road mortality, and they might well live to a ripe old age of eighty-plus years.

Three of the following aquatic plants are new to me, having been overlooked because they live in areas of a marsh that are beyond the reach of my camera. A first sight I thought these little white flowers belonged to a species of Arrowhead. In fact, they are Common Frogbit (Hydrocharis morsus-ranae).

With little yellow flowers that resemble snapdragons, the Common Bladderwort (Utricularia vulgaris) is another of the carnivores of the plant kingdom. The plant's leaves and stem are submerged, and spaced along the stem are little bladders with hairs. Should a small organism contact these hairs they trigger the bladder to open, drawing in whatever is nearby.

Another "new" (to me) species – the Water Shield (Brasenia schreberi). The submerged stem and underside of the leaf is coated with a slimy jelly.

A familiar sight at many local marshes but until now out of the range of my camera (a Canon PowerShot A530): the Yellow Water Lily (Nuphar lutea).

The Frink Center has several other trails meandering through woods and meadows as well as wetlands. One could spend a lifetime here and still only scratch the surface of all there is to see and learn.

Whites and yellows are hard to photograph even with optimal lighting, and photography in shaded areas can be particularly challenging, as flashbulbs can distort colors and produce reflections from glossy surfaces. This was the best I could do with this Waxflower Shinleaf (Pyrola elliptica).

I think this fungus is an Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus).

An Amanita, not sure what species.

Look twice at a "worm" if you turn over an old log on the damp woodland floor, it might be a Northern Redback Salamander (Plethodon cinereus).

The odonate species at the Frink Center are the same as at other local marshes. But we can't leave without mentioning them at least in passing ...

The sky was overcast and this mating pair of Rainbow Bluets ( Enallagma antennatum) decided to perch in the shrubbery, so this photo can't really do these gaudy little damselflies justice.

All the colors of the Rainbow ...

We've already been introduced to the female Rainbow Bluet (Enallagma antennatum) with its unique and distinctive oval blue mark centered on S9.

The male isn't much to look at in dorsal view. Much like the female it's mostly black with the exception of the completely pale blue S9, and easily mistaken for a male Eastern Forktail. How many times have I overlooked these small damselflies, which are actually quite common in the vegetation just under the dam at the walking bridge spanning the Moira River?

In lateral view the male makes up for its diminutive stature on an aesthetic level ... it is literally almost every color of the rainbow. It's always a treat to find something like this, new to me, if not to science. The price of many of the photos in this blog was standing for hours under a hot sun, soaked muddy feet pursuing odonates through their natural habitat, and blundering into poison ivy, often with nothing to show for all the effort but leech, mosquito and deerfly bites. Was it worth it? You bet!

The afternoon light was better when this male was photographed along the bank of the Moira River at the "Point".

An anomalous male Eastern Forktail, and how to distinguish a disorderly disarray of damselflies

By far the most common local species, I've likely seen thousands of these small damselflies but to date this is the only Ischnura verticalis I've observed exhibiting a discontinuous antehumeral stripe.

Two days later I stumbled across another Eastern Forktail with a pinched or reduced shoulder stripe.

An imposter that might be mistaken for an Eastern Forktail: there were about a dozen of these small damselflies (about 30 mm long) in the tall grasses just under the dam shortly before sunset.

Note the vulvar spine on S8 ... definitely an Enallagma female.

The dorsal view is not the best due to the poor lighting. But the central blue oval spot on S9 is diagnostic, as are the small blue ocular spots, the narrow yellowish antehumeral stripe and heavy black humeral stripe, the pale yellow on the legs and the orange pterostigmata. This damselfly is a female Rainbow Bluet (Enallagma antennatum). I'm looking forward to photographing the males ... but where are they? Only the females were out and about ...

This damselfly is a teneral male Eastern Forktail ...

... and the next two images depict a teneral male Eastern Forktail with a broken (virtually nonexistent) shoulder stripe. Now have a look at the lateral view of a male Rainbow Bluet (Enallagma antennatum). The red tinted eyes of the teneral Eastern Forktail may be deceptive but (aside from the shoulder stripes) the ocular spots and the patterns on the terminal abdominal segments are quite different.

A male Fragile Forktail (Ischnura posita) has an "exclamtion mark" shaped shoulder stripe. This damselfly is also generally smaller than the Eastern Forktail and the last abdominal segments of this species are never blue.

Although they look similar at first glance mature female Fragile Forktails and Eastern Forktails can also be distinguished by their shoulder stripes. The shoulder stripe is broken in the mature female Fragile Forktail shown below, but solid in the mature female Eastern Forktail.

The following two immature female Ischnura posita haven't developed the pruinosity typical of the older females. Note the pale blue of the broken shoulder stripes and the sides of the thorax.

Thus far I have only encountered blue Fragile Forktail females in this area but according to the books they can be tan or grey. The females below were photographed at the marsh bordering the Eastern Ontario Trail, where this insect is abundant and not likely to be added to the endangered species list any time soon. Another good habitat to seek out these tiny damselflies are the placid pools of water hedged by low, dense vegetation along the Moira River. Now and again I've found the odd stray foraging in flower gardens a fair distance from the nearest water.