{"id":103883,"date":"2022-07-05T04:43:25","date_gmt":"2022-07-05T10:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=103883"},"modified":"2022-07-05T04:46:12","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T10:46:12","slug":"california-darner-dragonfly-in-the-wasatch-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/07\/05\/california-darner-dragonfly-in-the-wasatch-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"California Darner Dragonfly In The Wasatch Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CaliforniaCalifornia Darner dragonfly resting on honeysuckle \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 400, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

On the 26th of June I had a darner dragonfly land on a honeysuckle in front of me, that dragonfly was a California Darner. I wrote a post about the dragonfly on the 29th of June where I misidentified it as a Blue-eyed Darner<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

I shared the image above on iNaturalist soon after I came home from the mountains. Yesterday I noticed that two people had correctly identified the dragonfly I photographed as a California Darner. Blue-eyed<\/span><\/a> and California Darners<\/span><\/a> do look similar. Blue-eyed Darners are far more common in Utah whereas California Darners are not.<\/p>\n

Both darner species have blue eyes and black and turquoise blue markings on their abdomens but there are differences which I didn’t notice until after I had posted this darner and was corrected on iNaturalist. This post is about sharing the correct identification of this stunning dragonfly.<\/p>\n

I learn something new everyday!<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my insect and spider images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the 26th of June I had a darner dragonfly land on a honeysuckle in front of me, that dragonfly was a California Darner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":103879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13027,1731,26,773],"tags":[4004,6601,6603,13032,3940,13034,13035,5366,2204,6608,1799,6600,4069,2558,4156,13033,9626,2315,6420,3896],"class_list":["post-103883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-california-darners","category-summit-county-utah","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-adult","tag-black-twin-berry","tag-black-twinberry-honeysuckle","tag-california-darner","tag-canyon","tag-darner","tag-darners","tag-dragonflies","tag-dragonfly","tag-honeysuckle","tag-insects","tag-lonicera-involucrata","tag-mountains","tag-odonata","tag-resting","tag-rhionaeschna-californica","tag-riparian-habitat","tag-summer-3","tag-uncommon","tag-wildflower"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/california-darner-dragonfly-mia-mcpherson-2340.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-r1x","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":103712,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/06\/29\/blue-eyed-darner-dragonfly\/","url_meta":{"origin":103883,"position":0},"title":"Not A Blue-eyed Darner Dragonfly – Other Things With Wings","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I love photographing dragonflies so when this darner dragonfly landed in front of me near a creek in the Wasatch Mountains I was delighted.","rel":"","context":"In "Blue-eyed Darner Dragonflies"","block_context":{"text":"Blue-eyed Darner Dragonflies","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/blue-eyed-darner-dragonflies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Not a Blue-eyed Darner dragonfly resting on honeysuckle","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/not-a-blue-eyed-darner-mia-mcpherson-2340.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/not-a-blue-eyed-darner-mia-mcpherson-2340.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/not-a-blue-eyed-darner-mia-mcpherson-2340.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/not-a-blue-eyed-darner-mia-mcpherson-2340.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":94056,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/08\/26\/summer-dragonflies-and-butterflies-at-bear-river-mbr\/","url_meta":{"origin":103883,"position":1},"title":"Summer Dragonflies And Butterflies At Bear River MBR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 26, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I am sharing some of the dragonflies and butterflies I've found at Bear River MBR in the summer.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Two Clouded Sulphur butterflies on a Common Sunflower, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/clouded-sulphur-butterfly-on-common-sunflower-mia-mcpherson-4408.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/clouded-sulphur-butterfly-on-common-sunflower-mia-mcpherson-4408.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/clouded-sulphur-butterfly-on-common-sunflower-mia-mcpherson-4408.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/clouded-sulphur-butterfly-on-common-sunflower-mia-mcpherson-4408.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":104416,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/07\/20\/female-eight-spotted-skimmer-dragonfly\/","url_meta":{"origin":103883,"position":2},"title":"Female Eight-spotted Skimmer Dragonfly","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this week my last subject of the morning was a female Eight-spotted Skimmer dragonfly that landed in front of me next to a creek in the mountains.","rel":"","context":"In "Davis County"","block_context":{"text":"Davis County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/davis-county-utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Resting female Eight-spotted Skimmer dragonfly, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Eight-spotted-Skimmer-Wasatch-Mountains-mia-mcpherson-6272.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Eight-spotted-Skimmer-Wasatch-Mountains-mia-mcpherson-6272.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Eight-spotted-Skimmer-Wasatch-Mountains-mia-mcpherson-6272.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Eight-spotted-Skimmer-Wasatch-Mountains-mia-mcpherson-6272.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":59233,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/07\/29\/unidentified-fritillary-butterfly-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle\/","url_meta":{"origin":103883,"position":3},"title":"Great Spangled Fritillary Butterfly Resting On Black Twinberry Honeysuckle","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 29, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm confident in my North American bird ID abilities but when it comes to Fritillary butterfly species ID in the Wasatch Mountains I feel stymied a lot of the time.","rel":"","context":"In "Great Spangled Fritillary Butterflies"","block_context":{"text":"Great Spangled Fritillary Butterflies","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterflies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly butterfly resting on Black Twinberry Honeysuckle, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-2508.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-2508.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-2508.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterfly-resting-on-black-twinberry-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-2508.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":90020,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/06\/07\/spring-female-black-chinned-hummingbird-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":103883,"position":4},"title":"Spring Female Black-chinned Hummingbird Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 7, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I took my first Black-chinned Hummingbird of the year photos in the middle of May but it wasn't until the end of the month that I took some that I liked.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Female Black-chinned Hummingbird hovering by honeysuckle, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-chinned-hummingbird-adult-female-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-0495.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-chinned-hummingbird-adult-female-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-0495.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-chinned-hummingbird-adult-female-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-0495.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-chinned-hummingbird-adult-female-honeysuckle-mia-mcpherson-0495.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":102501,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/05\/19\/female-black-chinned-hummingbird-with-honeysuckle\/","url_meta":{"origin":103883,"position":5},"title":"Female Black-chinned Hummingbird With Honeysuckle","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"When I spotted this tiny female Black-chinned Hummingbird yesterday high in the Wasatch Mountains I hoped she'd begin to feed on some nearby honeysuckle.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black-chinned Hummingbird female hovering by a honeysuckle flower, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/black-chinned-hummingbird-female-spring-mia-mcpherson-6439.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/black-chinned-hummingbird-female-spring-mia-mcpherson-6439.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/black-chinned-hummingbird-female-spring-mia-mcpherson-6439.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/black-chinned-hummingbird-female-spring-mia-mcpherson-6439.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}