Black Beach—Not for the Birds: The Significance of Black Beach, New Brunswick, Canada, as a Feeding and Stopover Site for Migratory Dragonflies

Jake H. Lewis*

*Canadian Museum of Nature, 1740 Pink Road, Gatineau, QC J9J 3N7, Canada, and New Brunswick Museum, 277 Douglas Avenue, Saint John, NB E2K 1E5, Canada.

Northeastern Naturalist, Volume 27, Issue 3 (2020): N48–N52

Abstract
Feeding swarms of dragonflies generally form during prey-accumulation events and can be very large (1000+ individuals), dense, composed of multiple species and both sexes, and persist for hours. In the first published account of such a site from Atlantic Canada, I report the regular, yearly occurrence of large, diverse dragonfly feeding swarms at Black Beach, NB, Canada, in September 2014, 2015, and 2019, and also present the species, sex, and relative ages of specimens collected in swarm surveys. I discuss the significance of Black Beach not only as a feeding site during prey-accumulation events, but also secondarily as a stopover site for migratory species.

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