Okay, I’m baiting you a bit but Dragonflies are generally pretty easy to identify – once you have your eye in or have some simple reference material. There are also fewer species than birds. We have two small problems:
Female of some (but not all) species are considerably different. However, males are often present as well. A lot of the dragonflies in CSIRO’s superb guide to dragonflies, are illustrated with museum specimens. Often field marks are not shown and it can be a bit tricky. However, a process of elimination can usually get us quite close. We went through the process in Victoria a couple of years back and on the whole, we found that we got things mostly right – at least, up until now, our assumptions seem to hold.
The exciting thing is, getting fresh photographs of many dragonflies and damselflies that may have never before been photographed in the field. For instance, I just went through these photos by Deane Lewis
http://dl.id.au/cw.php?c=images/temp/2011-09-26_5395.jpg
http://dl.id.au/cw.php?c=images/temp/2011-09-26_5396.jpg
http://dl.id.au/cw.php?c=images/temp/2011-09-26_5399.jpg
It appears to be a Blue Slim. It’s not absolutely confirmed but quite likely.
There is a dragonfly website at http://au.dragonflies.wildiaries.com that has reference material for most of the Victorian species and a scattering from elsewhere on the continent (http://au.dragonflies.wildiaries.com/species_groups). As this builds, it’s becoming a great resource for birders. Reiner kindly added an electronic key (far top right) for Victoria, which helps catagorise them a bit. One day we’ll try to extend this but we need more material.
This article gives an intro to Victoria and for most of southern Australia, the common species mentioned are the ones you’ll most likely see in ponds and wetlands in urban areas. http://bird-o.com/2011/01/03/dragonflies-a-victorian-adventure/. By the way, this is the 5th most popularly read article on Bird-O, which is amazing for a birding website! For Victorian birders, this makes for a great day out.
So whatever you do, if you get out and take photos, sign up here http://au.dragonflies.wildiaries.com to add your photos and locations. If you want to discuss identification, there’s a reasonably active group you can join by sending an email to: ausodonata-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Happy hunting!
Simon.
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Simon Mustoe Tel: +61 (0) 405220830 | Skype simonmustoe | Email simonmustoe@ecology-solutions.com.au
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