River Jewelwing

While looking for wildlife along the Pigeon River last week I wasn't expecting to find so much damselfly activity along the banks of the river.  In the past it seems as though the highest damselfly activity was always on really hot and sunny days.  Maybe there is no correlation there, but it seems like I've always seen the highest numbers of them on those kinds of days.  Last Wednesday, however, was not necessarily all that sunny and certainly wasn't hot.  The temp was in the mid 60's and the intensity of the sun was softened by a haze caused by the smoke of Canadian forest fires.  About halfway through our 8 mile journey on the river we noticed our first River Jewelwing darting amongst the grasses at the river's edge.  Soon we were seeing them everywhere we looked.  I've seen these damselflies before, but typically only 2 or 3 at a time.  On this day there were too many to count!  They certainly are beautiful creatures.  In my opinion they are one of the most beautiful damselflies in existence and seeing so many of them certainly makes for a memorable day on the river!