Hi, Jeff.

That would be an extremely early record for a pondhawk (my earliest at Magnuson Park is June 3), especially a mature male. Dragonflies are just as picky about their seasonal appearance as birds are. I wonder if you might more likely have seen a male Common Green Darner, green eyes and thorax and bright blue abdomen. There are a lot of them around now, celebrating their status as our state insect. They have migrated up from the south along with Variegated Meadowhawks and are flying around together with California Darners, the first dragonflies that emerge from the water in this area.

Dennis
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Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net


On May 13, 2014, at 12:02 PM, tweeters-request at mailman1.u.washington.edu wrote:

> Date: Mon, 12 May 2014 18:16:17 -0700
> From: Jeff Gibson <gibsondesign at msn.com>
> Subject: [Tweeters] Dragonfly Weather
> To: tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Message-ID: <BLU178-W2650EF65990E4DE7357A6BC9340 at phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> A calm sunny day in Port Townsend. "Wow, this is like Summer!" I thought.
> It was warm enough for a dragonfly, my first of the year. Mid-sized, blue body, green eyes - I think that would be a Western Pondhawk - I just got a glimpse as it hassled a yellowjacket before zooming off.
> Neato.
> Jeff Gibsonin Port Townsend Wa