Cobra Clubtails - Quyon Ferry Dock

[Bill Lamond]

Hi Everyone,    Kevin McLaughlin, Rob Waldhuber and I drove from Stonecliffe, Renfrew County on 22 June to look for Cobra Clubtails at the Quyon Ferry Dock (in Ontario) on the Ottawa River. We were following Kyle Holloway's Ont-odes post from last year on 17 July 2013. Although Kyle did not see any Cobras at this location on the day that he was there (12 July 2013), it is a known site and he did see two Cobra Clubtails a short distance away at Fitzroy Provincial Park. We were a bit apprehensive about driving the two hour distance with the risk of not seeing our target. We arrived at 9:30 a.m. and temperatures were certainly warm enough for odes. We parked the car on the road to the dock, about 250m south of the dock. We walked towards the dock, and I walked the wide grassy ditch. Within about 15m I flushed a dragon that landed after about a 5m flight. With binoculars it was clear that this was a Cobra Clubtail although quite teneral. Of course we were excited. We got good looks with binos and good photographs, and then we caught it for inspection. Rob soon saw another fly not far away. Then another, and another. I decided to walk the extensive old field area just to the west of the road. I gave up walking after counting about 30 Cobra Clubtails, all of them fairly teneral. I'm not sure if any of the ones I caught had hardened wings. All of course were very yellow in colour and none of the males seemed to have clubs as wide as they would be when fully "matured". Rob and Kevin had walked to the dock and witnessed some Cobras emerging in the rocks and taking their first flights. Rob walked the shoreline to the west and counted about 16 individuals for a minimum count of 46 Cobra Clubtails within 250m of the dock. I saw only one Cobra Clubtail that was perched on the rocks at the dock that was not teneral although I did not get a chance to study it as it was quite flighty.   The flight period of this species is supposed to be pretty much the same as that for its close relative, Midland Clubtail (according to the Algonquin guide). The guide shows an emergence date of early June. Certainly in Brantford, Midland Clubtails were on the wing by early June. It is possible that if we had gone the day before, or certainly the day before that, that we may not have seen any Cobra Clubtails at the Quyon dock. Perhaps this is a normal situation for Cobra Clubtails on the Ottawa River or maybe they are late this year. It is possible that the exceptionally cold weather of this past winter has kept water temperatures lower than normal even this late into the year. If this is the case, possibly this lowered water temperature has delayed the emergence of Cobra Clubtails this year?

Bill has a file to share with you on OneDrive. To view it, click the link below. Cobra Clubtails - Quyon Ferry Dock (in Ontario) 22 June 2014 folder