Chichaqua Bottoms

I went down to Chichaqua Bottoms to look for butterflies, dragonflies, and damselflies.  For those of you who aren't familiar with where Chichaqua is, it is about 10-20 miles northeast of Des Moines.

Starting out with butterflies, I tallied about 20 species.  

I was happy to find 5-10 REGAL FRITILLARIES along the Sand Prairie trail.  But like normal Regals, they NEVER perched for me.  Oh well, here are the two best shots I could come up with:

Another fairly common species there was the GRAY COPPER.  These guys actually would sit still:

PEARL CRESCENTS were abundant, as normal.  Here is a picture of four:

I haven't seen many ladies this summer but maybe that's due to a lack of effort.  Either way, I managed this distant PAINTED LADY:

There were many BLACK SWALLOWTAILS around as well including this female (that I honestly tried to make into anything else):

So without further ado, here is the butterfly list:

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Black Swallowtail

Cabbage White

Clouded Sulphur

Orange Sulphur

Gray Copper

Bronze Copper

Eastern Tailed-Blue

Great Spangled Fritillary

Regal Fritillary

Pearl Crescent

Mourning Cloak

Red Admiral

Painted Lady

Common Buckeye

Viceroy

Monarch

Common Wood-Nymph

Common Checkered-Skipper

Switching to dragonflies now, there were several EASTERN PONDHAWKS along the trails:

... including this one with prey:

There were also a couple of EASTERN AMBERWINGS including this lazy-looking individual:

I was happy to find that DOT-TAILED WHITEFACES were common along the trails.  For the first time (for me), they were pretty agreeable and perched nicely.  Here are five different photos:

There were also a couple of BLACK SADDLEBAGS keeping their usual aerial watch over the grassland:

My total list of dragonflies:

Common Green Darner

Common Whitetail

Twelve-spotted Skimmer

Widow Skimmer

Eastern Amberwing

Halloween Pennant

Dot-tailed Whiteface

Eastern Pondhawk

Blue Dasher

Black Saddlebags

Lastly, I snapped a picture of a damselfly (bluet?) out in the grasslands that I haven't tried identifying yet:

Speaking of damselflies though, I recently (and unknowingly) took some pictures of a damselfly near my house.  Turns out it is a WESTERN RED DAMSEL: 

I have gone back to look for it but no luck yet.  In doing so, spotted this guy instead.  Maybe another SPRINGWATER DANCER?

I realized I have made no mention of this and I probably should:  

If you're interested in seeing more pictures of mine, visit my Flickr site.