Sunday afternoon I spent a few hours at Rose Lake State Wildlife Research Area looking for dragonflies. This spring I have been excited by the vast numbers of dragonflies I have been seeing and the diversity. By Sunday I had already added three new species to my list and I got to add another exciting find to the tally later that day. I had gotten down on the ground to take a photo of some interesting moss when out of the corner of my eye I noticed a small dragonfly land nearby me. I slowly got up and moved closer. The dragonfly looked sort of familiar, like a very common juvenile female Dot-tailed or Frosted Whiteface dragonfly, but something was just not right. I took several photos before it flitted away. The sun had started to drop to an angle not conducive for photographing in the woods, so I headed home.
When I got home and started to ponder my find, I recognized it was not the dragonfly species I first had thought. I pawed through my books until I found the Ringed Boghaunter (Williamsonia lintneri). It was a perfect match. As I read more about this species, I realized that this was a pretty rare find in Michigan - only about a dozen sightings and only a few in the Lower Peninsula.
I had the chance yesterday to get back out to Rose Lake and I made sure to head back to where I had seen this first Boghaunter. Within twenty minutes I had chalked up several more, both male and female. I now have to fill out some paperwork for the DNR like I did last year when I found the Riverine Clubtails, as this is another species that appears on the Michigan Natural Features Inventory as a "special species". I seemed to have developed a knack for discovering these rare dragonflies, as this is the third one in as many years that I have located.
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