green darner perched on a dead stem by andrewdressel on iNaturalist

Green Darner Dragonfly

Green Darner is one of Kingston's more-than-human neighbours, a dragonfly who has been migrating through this place for 300 million years. No individual ever completes the journey. Their grandmother left Kingston last August, flew to the Gulf Coast, laid eggs, and died. Green Darner is the grandchild returning. These kin cards are an invitation to get to know them: who they live in relation with, their gifts, and what they're asking of us.

Green Darner Dragonfly kin card

Green Darner spends their first years as a nymph underwater in fishless ponds across Katarokwi, hunting mosquito larvae, mayflies, and caddisflies. In spring they crawl out, shed their skin, and emerge as adults. Their relational web includes Mosquito, Purple Martin, Merlin, Wood Frog, Spring Peeper, and Water. The back of the card tells you how to find them through the seasons and how to tend their habitat.

Green Darner Dragonfly at the planning table

What sustains them, what they give to this place, what threatens them, and what a workable Biodiversity Action Plan looks like from where they stand. This season, this decade, this century.

Get to know Green Darner. Return through the seasons. Record what you observe on iNaturalist.

Notice: Watch for their migrating swarm in September, after a cold front, moving southwest along Lake Ontario's shore or the mouth of the Cataraqui River. In May or June, look for shed nymph skins clinging to emergent vegetation at the water's edge.

Act: Build a pond or pocket wetland. Keep it fishless. Stop using road salt, it runs into storm drains then into streams, ponds, and wetlands killing dragonfly nymphs. 

Kingston is drafting a Biodiversity Action Plan. Pin a place that matters to Green Darner.

Get involved: Little Forests Kingston is growing. We're looking for people who want to build relationships with the land and tend them over time. Forest Stewards, Neighbourhood Weavers, Community Scientists, Seed Keepers and more. You don't need to arrive knowing everything. Do any of these roles call to you?