Potomac River at mouth of Sideling Hill Creek July 5, 2025

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Bonnie Ott and I visited the Potomac River at the Washington/Allegany county line four several hours.  Unfortunately, the river was higher than expected and it limited the amount of shore that we could look for cast skins.  Still it was a nice day — See:  Hunter of Dragons with a Tolerance for Turtle Leeches | Flickr 

Not a large number of dragonflies or butterflies on the wing.  The main biodiversity for the river odonates has pasted and clubtail dragonflies (which the area is known for) were lacking.  Black-shouldered Spinylegs was the only clubtail seen on the wing.  To make up for the lack of dragonflies the patches of Water Willows were the source of countless (in the 100s) of emerging damselflies — almost all of which were not identified. 

The area where I visited about a month ago which had a good number of Northern Crescents yielded none, two individuals seen were suspect, but I could confirm they were Northern (they looked bigger) from the Pearl Crescents currently on the wing.

The highlight of the trip was an unusually colorful old male Northern Red-bellied Cooter with several Smooth Turtle Leeches attached -- See:

A Colorful Northern Red-Bellied Cooter | Old male Northern R… | Flickr  

Smooth Turtle Leeches on a Northern Red-Bellied Cooter | Flickr 

Smooth Turtle Leeches in Petri Dish | These Smooth Turtle Le… | Flickr 

ODONATA SEEN:

Blue-fronted Dancers -- 4

Violet Dancers -- 2

Powdered Dancers -- 100+

Blue-tipped Dancers -- 15

Dusky Dancers — 5 — See: Young Adult Dusky Dancer | Freshly emerged male Dusky Dancer… | Flickr 

Stream Bluets -- 25+

Familiar Bluet -- 1

Fragile Forktail -- 1

Black-shouldered Spinylegs — 4 adults — 20 cast skins — See: Female Black-Shouldered Spinyleg | Black-shouldered Spinyleg… | Flickr 

Swift River Cruisers — 1 adult — 1 cast skin

Widow Skimmers -- 3

Slaty Skimmer -- 1

Common Whitetail -- 1

BUTTERFLIES SEEN:

Zebra Swallowtail -- 1

Dark (not identified) Swallowtail -- 1

Cabbage Whites -- 2

Eastern Tailed Blues -- 2

Great Spangled Fritillary -- 1

Pearl Crescents -- 4

Little Wood Satyr  -- 1

Silver-spotted Skippers -- 3

Sachem -- 1

Dun Skipper -- 1

Richard Orr