Pandemic distractions chasing Cruisers

After the stay at home started in March 2020, I stuck close to home as much as possible.  It took us quite a while before we were willing to drive an hour or more to explore nature even though this likely would have been an acceptable choice for many.  We chose to be cautious, yet still got out close to home even though we knew others that traveled even less than us.  As months passed we traveled to extended family and created a small bubble of close contact (limiting interactions with others to only outdoors) in the summer of 2020 and continued with that for the next year until vaccinations.  For the first time in almost 16 months, this summer I rode in the car with others outside of my immediate family. This time away allowed me to more easily which interactions I enjoyed as well as those on the other end of the spectrum. One of the activities that I thoroughly missed was time with birding friends exploring small water sources searching for Odonata. Carpooling allowed us to share checklists, chat while driving rather than being outside listening for birds, and have extra sets of eyes and ears to catch movement and track the flying dragonflies. 

Back in 2018 I set a goal for the next year to add 100 new county records of a dragonfly and damselfly species to OdonataCentral.  I achieved that goal with the help of friends and traveling. Along this journey we even found the first record of Plateau Spreadwings for the state with Jeff Calhoun.  At the time, a picture was required to submit a record and there was a real challenge to photographing certain families of dragonflies. Since 2019, an update to the website allows for submissions without photos, but they simply aren't vetted. 

There are ten families of damselflies and dragonflies within Kansas. The Macromiidae family (Cruisers) is one that has been quite frustrating for me.  Of the first 10 cruisers I saw, only two perched and both were ones found by Kathy Carroll near her home.  All the others were flybys and of those only a couple did I get identifiable fuzzy photos. I find that patience is needed for these species. They often return to the same area while patrolling larger areas. I also need more practice of in-flight shots and that I should celebrate the successes rather than focus on the many that are deleted.  Here is a recent success of a Swift River Cruiser (Macromia illinoiensis illinoiensis) flight photo from Wilson County Kansas this past weekend.  

A male Illinois River Cruiser.

We have the geogina subspecies of the Swift River Cruiser in Kansas as well. This poses an identification challenge to separate it from Gilded River Cruisers that overlap in range.  Hopefully more opportunities and more in-flight successes will allow us to fill in county records for these two species as well as other Cruisers (click this link for county level maps of all four cruiser species in Kansas).