Aeshna palmata
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
The paddle-tailed darner (Aeshna palmata) is a species of dragonfly in the family Aeshnidae. It is common throughout western Canada and United States. This species is named after its distinctive paddle-shaped appendages. It lives in many habitats, particularly lakes, ponds, and slow streams, usually with dense shore vegetation. Aeshna palmata was scientifically described for the first time in 1856 by Hermann Hagen. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rocky Mountain National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Grand Teton National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Glacier National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Jasper National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | Banff National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 7 | Yosemite National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Olympic National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Yellowstone National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Paddle-Tailed Darner sighting in Olympic National Park on a given day, based on 12 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 98th most-seen of the 207 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July to October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Paddle-Tailed Darner in Olympic National Park on a given day, against under 5% in November to June, the lowest months. Those are among Olympic National Park's driest months, with about 110 mm of rain a month against 370 mm in November.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Paddle-Tailed Darner sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 9 parks where we can rate Paddle-Tailed Darner sightings, Olympic National Park ranks 8th at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Rocky Mountain National Park (United States, about 10%), Grand Teton National Park (United States, about 10%) and Glacier National Park (United States, about 10%).
Same order: Odonata
The closest relatives of the Paddle-Tailed Darner that you can see in Olympic National Park (order Odonata, Dragonflies and Damselflies) are Black Petaltail (about 10%) and Eight-Spotted Skimmer (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Paddle-Tailed Darner is recorded against all the insects logged in Olympic National Park (12 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
