Sunday 10-June we paid a visit to the Adirondack Interpretive Center at Paul Smith’s College, New York state. The site has some excellent trails although the actual trail map is terrible and it is best to navigate by the sun rather than rely on their map! The trail from the parking lot takes you through quality forest and then down to a fast river with pools and a vast, open fen (marsh). Our visit was limited to as far as the bridge over beaver Brook and adjacent pools and we found a very good selection of dragonflies.
To find the site from the Dundee crossing in Quebec go through passport control and to the T-junction. Go right and continue to the ‘village’ of Malone. Go straight on at the lights for about 20 miles until you come to the site entrance on the right. The visitor center has restrooms and displays but no odonata information (or useful maps). Visiting and parking are both free. There are also several odonata sites in the area, one nice spot is about four miles short of the park on the right where a turn bisects two lakes (Deer Lake I think).
We saw 24 species – new ones for me are marked*: Superb Jewelwing; River Jewelwing; Ebony Jewelwing; Emerald Spreadwing; Eastern Forktail; Aurora Damsel; Green Darner; Rapids Clubtail*; Beaverpond Clubtail; Harpoon Clubtail*; Lancet Clubtail; Dusky Clubtail; Twin-spotted Spiketail; Racket-tailed Emerald; American Emerald; Spiny Baskettail; Stream Cruiser; Hudsonian Whiteface; Dot-tailed Whiteface; Belted Whiteface; Chalk-fronted Corporal; Common Whitetail; Twelve-spotted Skimmer; Four-spotted Skimmer.
A selection of habitat views by Sandra.
Female Superb jewelwing.
Male Ebony Jewelwing.
Male River Jewelwing.
Chalk-fronted Corporal – abundant.
Racket-tailed Emerald.
Twin-spotted Spiketail – above and below.
Beaverpond Clubtail.
Harpoon Clubtail.
Rapids clubtail.
Looks a fantastic Dragonfly site. Weather has been poor here. Only seen Hairy Dragonfly and a handful of Damsels do far.