Weather: Sunny and 70 F
Location: Salter's Creek Gamelands, near Sealevel, North Carolina in Carteret County

I didn't get any photographs so I have not posted observations, however, while at the Salter's Creek Gamelands, I saw several Odonates including:

Common Green Darner: cruising the shoreline of a shallow pond
Southern Spreadwing: foraging through the long grasses growing in water in a ditch by the side of the dirt road
Fragile Forktail: foraging through the long grasses growing in a ditch by the side of the dirt road--same area where the Southern Spreadwing was foraging.

The ditch where I saw the damselflies was located along a dirt road branching off to the left shortly after passing the first parking area on the gamelands. Wheeled traffic was blocked off from access to the dirt road by an orange gate.

The shallow pond was further along the main road, perhaps 3/4 of a mile into the gamelands from the first parking area/gate. The path leading to the pond branched to the right from the main road and had an orange gate restricting wheeled traffic from the path.

These Odonates were the first ones I've seen in 2023!

I've been trying to observe odonates in the 100+ acres around us and describe which Odonates are out: where and when. This week (Feb 22, 23, 24) I've seen Fragile Forktails, Ischnura posita, near our pond, near the bungalow, and on the Karson City tract near the first and second runs. The most "well populated" area is what I am now going to christen as "the Delta" which is a triangle of muddy "land" situated in the middle of the second run (stream) in the swamp. There is dappled sunlight there and it seems to be a favorite location for damselflies. Last year until quite late in the year the area almost always had at least a few Furtive Forktails, Ischnura prognata.

I have yet to see any I. prognata, but the delta area as well as the areas along the first and second runs are full of I. posita including a few tenerals. On Feb 24 I observed 5 tenerals spread out along the first and second runs and on the delta. I found one Citrine Forktail, Ischnura hastata, at the north end of the first run in the swamp. There are about 30 I. posita for every one I. hastata at this point in time.

All of the damselflies I've seen are around the clumps of fresh green grass that is at least a foot tall. That is, the clumps that have been shorn off by deer grazing don't seem to attract the damselflies and neither do the dead/withered grass clumps that are still visible after having withered during the winter. The damselflies are near the green grass clumps although they do alight and perch on slender twigs near the clumps. They are strongly exhibiting the tapping behavior I noted last year with the I. prognata. The I. posita are really tapping like crazy and catching/eating a lot of mosquitoes. I noted two separate instances of I. posita tapping then catching and eating the mosquitoes they flushed.

The tenerals are very, very noticeable--they seem to spread and flap their wings more and their flight is more fluttery (hard to describe). They really catch my attention due to this fluttery, wide-winged flight. The ones I've seen seem to be I. posita upon inspection/photographing. They are light brown with light tan exclamation point markings on their thorax.

I've seen about equal numbers of male and female I. posita in the swamp. There are often two males near a female and one male will often chase the other male for a short distance. Sometimes it chases it away and sometimes, they give up after a second and go back to perching or foraging near the female. That is not to suggest that there are more males, however, as I came upon several spots where there were several females and perhaps only one, two, or no males nearby.

I am anxious to see when the I. prognata start to appear however and will continue to try to observe the inhabitants in the swamp on sunny days where the temperature is at least 70 F. That seems to be when the damselflies are really out in force.

I went through the woods again today and counted the number of odonates I saw. I strted at the north end of the first run (stream) crossed the woods to the second run and then went back to the south along the second run. When I started out at noon, it was 68 F and when I finished it was 71 F. I also walked through the cutover where it is sunny and boggy with a lot of standing water right now.

I made counts of the odonates I saw by moving to an area and counting any odonates I saw. I then would move approximately 2 to 3 meters, stop, and count again. I didn't try to catch any and number them in any way by marking their wings (basically because I'm afraid of injuring them in the process). It's a very informal count. But I did my best to avoid recounting the same individuals.

I also took quite a few photographs and when I get them uploaded as observations in iNat, I will link them to this journal entry.

Fragile Forktails: Ischnura posita - they were present in both the wooded areas in the fresh green sedge/grasses along the edges of the runs and particularly abundant in the delta area of the second run.
Males: 28
Females: 22
Teneral: 4

Citrine Forktails: Ischnura hastata - they were mostly present in the open, sunny cleared area of the cutover where there are a lot of shallow puddles/standing water and clumps of sedges/grasses are beginning to grow.
Males: 1
Females: 2

Odd thing: I noted a fine dusting of something on many of the damselflies. It appeared to be whitish, like whitish dust. My speculation is that it is either pollen (the pine pollen and other pollens are terrible right now) or some form of mite although they are tiny for that and I've seen mites on damselflies before and they are typically much larger than this dust-like stuff. So I'm leaning more strongly towards pollen.