Potomac River in Frederick County yesterday

[odona...@comcast.net]

Bonnie Ott and I spent four hours yesterday (April 15th) on the Potomac looking for emerging dragonflies.  Overall, the river is still cooler that many of the surrounding smaller rivers and thus our day was pretty slow.  However, it was not uneventful.  For the first time in the last couple of years, we were able to find a cast skin of one of our rarest dragonflies, an Ophiogomphus susbehcha or near.  The bad news was that the cast skin was on a rock too far from shore to reach — See: Me Photographing a Rare Dragonfly | Me photographing a cast … | Flickr .  Still finding that single cast skin counts as a success.

ODONATES SEEN:

Chesapeake Snaketail (Ophiogomphus susbehcha subspecies or sibling species) — 1 cast skin  —  See: Distant Cast Skin of a St. Croix Snaketail on the Potomac | Flickr 

BUTTERFLIES SEEN:

Eastern Tiger Swallowtails — 6 — See: Swallowtails at the Edge of the Potomac River | Zebra Swallo… | Flickr 

Zebra Swallowtails — 3 — See:  Swallowtails at the Edge of the Potomac River | Zebra Swallo… | Flickr 

Spicebush Swallowtails — 2 — See: Spicebush Swallowtail | Male Spicebush Swallowtail Point of … | Flickr 

Cabbage Whites -- 10+

Clouded Sulphurs -- 2

Azure -- 1

Question Mark -- 1

Anglewings (not identified) -- 2

Silver-spotted Skipper -- 1

ADDITIONAL PHOTO

Peregrine Falcon — See:  Peregrine Falcon | Peregrine Falcon Point of Rocks. Frederic… | Flickr 

Richard Orr