Dragonflies present some challenges, folks! The one on the gravel is a female of one of the various meadowhawk species. The prominent "sawtooth" pattern of black on the abdomen limits it to either a Striped Meadowhawk, a White-faced Meadowhawk or a Cherry-faced Meadowhawk. On this one, the lack of prominent light stripes on the thorax eliminates Striped Meadowhawk. To identify with certainty between White-faced and Cherry-faced Meadowhawk females, one would need to examine the shape of a particular body part with a hand lens.
Nice shot of the Paddletailed Darner! They are (in most locations around here) the most common darner flying in the fall season, though Shadow Darner is also common at this season, and is very similar in appearance. The dark horizontal line across the middle of the face points to Paddletail in this photo. Shadow Darner would show a fainter face line or none, and would also show blue dots along the underside of the abdomen, not found on Paddletails.
Randy, actually yours is by no means an easy one! It's a great photo of a male of one of the various Meadowhawk species, and shows the insect well, but with this group, distinguishing characteristics for identification usually include the pattern on the side of the abdomen (the "tail"), the pattern of stripes (or none) on the sides of the thorax (central part of the body where the wings are attached), the colour of the face (the big brown eyes show well, but not the face in front of and below the eyes), and the colour of the legs, none of which are well shown in this photo! [Of course, Randy, I know you will be familiar with insect body parts, but I suspect and hope that maybe some others who aren't might be reading this too.] There are 9 different species of Meadowhawk that are mostly red and that could be flying now in our area, any one of which this one could be. I can eliminate probably 5 or 6 of these, but I can't be more specific than that. If I had to guess, I would probably say Autumn Meadowhawk (called Yellow-legged Meadowhawk in older guides) but I'm not sure it looks quite right for that species either. They are common now around here.
As to field guides, there are only two major ones that I am familiar with. There is an old one of less than 100 pages called Introducing the Dragonflies of British Columbia and the Yukon, written by Rob Cannings, as a handbook for use in a volunteer survey project to get preliminary data on the status of dragonfly species in BC and the Yukon. It was published in 2002 by the Royal BC Museum where Rob was/is an insect expert. It has a lot of useful information but may be hard to find now.
The other is Dragonflies and Damselflies of the West, (Princeton University Press, 2009) by Dennis Paulson, probably the leading expert on dragonflies of North America. He also has a companion volume for eastern North America. Both are well over 500 pages and are a wealth of information (and can be overwhelming). It includes many species not found in BC but it also fills in gaps in the Cannings guide for local species.
There is a tremendously useful website produced by Dennis Paulson at the Slater Museum of Biodiversity based at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA, where Dennis was curator until his recent retirement, if I am correct. For most species of odonates found in the Pacific northwest, side and top view photos are shown of males and females, and immatures in some cases.
www.pugetsound.edu/academics/academic-resources/slater-museum/biodiversity-resources/dragonflies/image-collection/western-odonata-scans-in-life/I hope some of this is useful for some of you,
Stan
Unknown dragonfly on the ground by Jamie G, on Flickr
Paddle-tailed Darner hovering by Jamie G, on Flickr
