Fishing Opener

In Rochester for the day. During a break between Lida’s volleyball games, Lisa and I drove to Quarry Hill Nature Center for a hike.

Being an hour south of Northfield, I was expecting to see some dragonflies. We hiked around the fish pond, across some meadows, and searched the wetland in the upper quarry. And while we didn’t happen upon any dragonflies, we did find a few damselflies: several Eastern Forktails and one teneral Sedge Sprite, still translucent and white after its recent emergence.

We returned to the pond. Along the north shore where the sun warmed the shallows, Eastern Forktails were emerging en masse. An impressive number of American Toads dotted the shallows, waiting for teneral damselflies to fly near their mouths. The trail brought us to the fishing dock just as a young man reeled in a Yellow Bullhead. I walked up to admire the fish and he was kind enough to let me take a photo of it.

Evening mothing in Northfield.

Posted on May 14, 2017 02:49 AM by scottking