birding-aus

Dragonfly Watching - like birds but easier to identify!

To: <>
Subject: Dragonfly Watching - like birds but easier to identify!
From: Simon Mustoe <>
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2011 08:53:50 +1100
Okay, I'm baiting you a bit but Dragonflies are generally pretty easy to 
identify - once you have your eye in or have some simple reference material. 
There are also fewer species than birds. We have two small problems:

Female of some (but not all) species are considerably different. However, males 
are often present as well. A lot of the dragonflies in CSIRO's superb guide to 
dragonflies, are illustrated with museum specimens. Often field marks are not 
shown and it can be a bit tricky. However, a process of elimination can usually 
get us quite close. We went through the process in Victoria a couple of years 
back and on the whole, we found that we got things mostly right - at least, up 
until now, our assumptions seem to hold. 

The exciting thing is, getting fresh photographs of many dragonflies and 
damselflies that may have never before been photographed in the field. For 
instance, I just went through these photos by Deane Lewis 

http://dl.id.au/cw.php?c=images/temp/2011-09-26_5395.jpg

http://dl.id.au/cw.php?c=images/temp/2011-09-26_5396.jpg

http://dl.id.au/cw.php?c=images/temp/2011-09-26_5399.jpg

It appears to be a Blue Slim. It's not absolutely confirmed but quite likely. 

There is a dragonfly website at http://au.dragonflies.wildiaries.com that has 
reference material for most of the Victorian species and a scattering from 
elsewhere on the continent 
(http://au.dragonflies.wildiaries.com/species_groups). As this builds, it's 
becoming a great resource for birders. Reiner kindly added an electronic key 
(far top right) for Victoria, which helps catagorise them a bit. One day we'll 
try to extend this but we need more material. 

This article gives an intro to Victoria and for most of southern Australia, the 
common species mentioned are the ones you'll most likely see in ponds and 
wetlands in urban areas. 
http://bird-o.com/2011/01/03/dragonflies-a-victorian-adventure/. By the way, 
this is the 5th most popularly read article on Bird-O, which is amazing for a 
birding website! For Victorian birders, this makes for a great day out. 

So whatever you do, if you get out and take photos, sign up here 
http://au.dragonflies.wildiaries.com to add your photos and locations. If you 
want to discuss identification, there's a reasonably active group you can join 
by sending an email to: 

Happy hunting!

Simon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Simon Mustoe 
Tel: +61 (0) 405220830 | Skype simonmustoe | Email 


Visit BIRD-O at http://www.bird-o.com
Follow BIRD-O on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/birdodotcom
Like BIRD-O on Facebook? Visit 
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/Bird-O/117732794921095
Email BIRD-O at 



                                          
===============================

To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 

http://birding-aus.org
===============================

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
  • Dragonfly Watching - like birds but easier to identify!, Simon Mustoe <=
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU