I was off of work today due to the tropical storm, so I decided to go to one of our local parks that overlooks some water to see if I could find a weird tern or Magnificent Frigatebird. I arrived at Prien Lake Park around 1 pm and winds were strong out of the west/southwest, tossing the waves in the ship channel. After some looking around, I didn't see any weird ocean birds are much of anything fighting the wind. I did see a Purple Martin, some Barn Swallows, Laughing Gulls, and a Brown Pelican over the water. You can find my eBird checklist for the day here.

I did notice lots of dragonflies hunkering down on the east side of the peninsula out of the wind. I photographed what I thought were Black Saddlebags, but turned out to be Marl Pennants. Then a large Four-spotted Pennant appeared flying over the lake and landed near one of the Marl Pennants. These were the only two species I saw on the peninsula. Later as I walked back to my truck, there were loads of dragonflies hunkering down in the crepe myrtle trees and irises in the flower beds. I photographed the ones I could for iNaturalist (Needham's Skimmer, Eastern Pondhawk, Blue Dasher).

Posted on June 22, 2017 10:04 PM by ilouque