Calico Pennant - Celithemis elisa

So a few years ago I spent a frustrating afternoon trying to photograph Celithemis elisa (calico pennant) dragonflies at my friend's cottage, from a kayak -- which is quite challenging. The best images I got of this species are in this post.

My husband and I went for a long walk yesterday along the trans Canada trail. The local portion of this trail is called le véloroute des draveurs in this region. Part of this trail goes along Lac du Castor Blanc, where I was lucky enough to come across a male Celithemis elisa and finally, finally get the photo I've wanted:

Celithemis elisa male

This species is distributed fairly broadly across North America (records map here) and is ranked as a species of least concern under the IUCN (which means there is no current evidence of threats against the populations) [1].

The short stretch of the trail that we enjoyed yesterday was lined with huge and delicious wild strawberries. It is a pleasant section of the trail for walking and cycling. We stopped by the gazebo on the Lac du Castor Blanc for a while and just watched the water for a while. I would definitely recommend this trail to others.

My husband and I will be travelling back to Montreal today so I'm not going to spend a lot of time writing up a blog post. We'll be back to the regular programming once I get settled back in Montreal.