Two snaketails

The current spell of hot muggy weather brought an end to the garden stunting weeks of cool, foggy weather. Many of our resident dragonflies have emerged en masse. Among my favourites are the snaketails (genus Ophiogomphus).

Here are males of two species I encountered over the last week.

[click on images to enlarge]

Riffle Snaketail, Lake Superior Provincial Park, Algoma District.

Boreal Snaketail, Dead Horse Creek, Thunder Bay District.

While they are attractive and a challenge to get close to, it is perhaps their preferred habitat that most appeals to me. Along the north shore they are found in many of the rocky streams and rivers that empty into Lake Superior, habitat they share with our native brook trout.