Last Thursday (June 5th) Bruce Fall, Rick Smith, Jason Avery and I visited Cove Point LNG property in Calvert County located just south of Calvert Cliff Park. This was the first time that I had been back to Cove Point LNG since 2012 when I completed my third
and final odonate survey of the property. The property, due to its function of importing and exporting Liquid Natural Gas, is extremely secure and protected. The property also has some of the best freshwater habitats found on the Western Shore of Chesapeake
Bay.
Because of the uniqueness of habitats within the Cove Point LNG property the Cove Point Natural Heritage Trust (CPNHT) is assigned the responsible for overseeing these natural habitats for the State of Maryland. Our June 5th trip was made possible by the
(CPNHT) with the additional support of the Calvert Nature Society Calvert Stewards Volunteer program.
Because of restricted access, I have included photos of the habitats visited in the hope that you can get a feel for the types of freshwater habitats that we visited. The visit focused on dragonflies and therefore, we did not do justice to the butterflies
– but I have listed what I saw anyway. The photos I took are linked below. Additional photos of our trip taken by Jason Avery can be seen on Facebook’s “Maryland Odonata” page.
L5) Outlet Stream (Settling Pond) from fence boundary to Cove Point Marsh
OONDATES SEEN:
Ebony Jewelwings – 8 at L5
Skimming Bluets – 2 at L3 – in tandem
Orange Bluet – 1 at L2 – new early date for Cove Point
Fragile Forktails – 2 at L1
Rambur’s Forktail – 3 at L2
Common Green Darners – 10+ at L1, L2, L3, L4
Comet Darners – 3 at L1, L2 -- new early date for Cove Point
Swamp Darners – 2 at L2
Cyrano Darner – 1 at L2
Prince Baskettail – 1 at L1
Common Baskettail – 1 at L1
Calico Pennants – 6 at L1, L2, L3
Halloween Pennants – 2 at L2, L3
Eastern Pondhawks – 9 at all locations
Blue Corporals – 3 at L3, L4 – new late date for Cove Point
Spanged Skimmers – 5 at L1, L2 – all young adults
Widow Skimmers – 7 at L1, L2, L3 – all young adults
Great Blue Skimmers – 3 at L3, L5 – mature males
Common Whitetails –15+ at all locations
Blue Dashers – 25+ at all locations
Eastern Amberwing – 1 – L2
Wandering Gliders – 6 in open areas
Spot-winged Gliders – 2 in open areas
Carolina Saddlebags – 15+ at L1, L2, L3
Black Saddlebags – 25+ at L1, L2, L3
BUTTERFLIES SEEN:
Zebra Swallowtails – 2
Eastern Tailed-Blues – 6
Azures (Summer?) – 2
Variegated Fritillary – 1
Silver-spotted Skippers – 4
Zabulon Skippers – 2
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:
Richard Orr