Butte County Odes - June 26, 2024

Visiting a section of the county that we (Mike S. and I) have not previously covered for odes! Arrived at Strawberry Campground (Sly Creek Reservoir) some time around 9 AM.

Despite relatively early start at mid elevation, ode activity was already high. Water levels were perfect, exposing most of the large meadow next to the campground. Here we had:
Black Spreadwing 1
Boreal Bluet 2+
Boreal/Northern Bluet 15+
Western Forktail 4-5
Common Green Darner 3
Blue-eyed Darner 5-6
Variegated Meadowhawk 2
Striped Meadowhawk 4
Cardinal Meadowhawk 1
Common Whitetail 2
Eight-spotted Skimmer 2 (rare in the county)
Twleve-spotted Skimmer 15+
Four-spotted Skimmer 15+
Black Saddlebags 2
Wandering Glider 1

From here we made our way around the lake and headed for the South Fork Feather River. Pacific Spiketails were out in force - we had 5-6 hunting clearings along Mooreville Ridge Rd.

Our next stop was Golden Trout Campground - our first time visiting this hidden gem. Really neat set of odes here:
Vivid Dancer 5+
Walker's Darner 1 (2nd this June!)
Grappletail 2
Pacific Spiketail 2
Cardinal Meadowhawk 1
Red Rock Skimmer 4

I didn't really have any stops planned after this, but we happened upon two ponds on the way back that ended up being pretty productive. The first (39.622144, -121.189100) was decently large with a few patches of cattails. Here we had:
Vivid Dancer 5+
Common Green Darner 1
Blue-eyed Darner 1
Western Pondhawk 20+ (perhaps the highest elevation I have had these in the county)
Variegated Meadowhawk 4
Common Whitetail 2
Twelve-spotted Skimmer 3
Four-spotted Skimmer 5+ (perhaps the lowest elevation I have had these in the county)
Flame Skimmer 1

The last pond (39.616380, -121.202939) had a more barren shoreline, and far less activity. Here we had:
Pacific Spiketail 1
Variegated Meadowhawk 3
Common Whitetail 1
Flame Skimmer 1
Spot-winged Glider 15+
Wandering Glider 2+

Posted on July 1, 2024 09:45 PM by liamhuber