Palamedes Swallowtail

Erika and I spent the night of 22 March 2015 in Daphne, Alabama. Upon our arrival at our motel, I took a short stroll, but saw little of interest—an ubiquitous Eastern Pondhawk (a female in the photo below) and a Yellow-rumped Warbler—before I discovered a Palamedes Swallowtail, a new species for me. This butterfly is common in the American southeast. Typical of swallowtails, Palamedes visit flowers and mud. The larvae feed on laurels. Adults fly all year in southern Florida, but from March through fall elsewhere in the south.

Eastern Pondhawk / Orange Bluet

On 20 March 1015 at Louisiana's Avery Island gardens, Erika and I saw our first dragonflies of the year—if you don’t count an unidentified dragonfly being eaten by a Great-tailed Grackle near Dallas and a dead Common Green Darner along the Texas coast. Our first Odonata was a the male Orange Bluet, a rather striking damselfly known by its orange10th abdominal segment and wide, orange thoracic stripe. Orange Bluets fly in Louisiana from February through November. They usually hunt in the late afternoon, causing them to be missed by midday censuses. The species is found across much of eastern North America, west across the Great Plains, and south into Mexico. I have seen them at various locations in Minnesota.

We also listed Eastern Pondhawks. Judging by the numbers we saw almost everywhere we subsequently visited in the South, pondhawk populations must be huge. They are found across eastern North American and south through Costa Rica. We have often seen this species in Minnesota. Paulson (2011) describes them as being “superabundant” and “voracious.” As with the bluet, Louisiana pondhawks fly from February through November. In Florida, we took the bottom photograph of a male Eastern Pondhawk hitching a ride on an alligator’s back.

Red-cockaded Woodpecker

As John Holden and I attempted to photograph nuthatches at Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge near Covington, Louisiana on 21 March, Erika came running back down the Boy Scout Trail. She and Kathy had discovered several Red-cockaded Woodpeckers about a quarter mile further up the road.

Red-cockaded woodpeckers are found from eastern Texas to southern Virginia, but their range is quite fragmented. They require old-growth Long-leaf Pine, which has been lumbered, converted to Slash Pine, and otherwise destroyed by human and environmental factors (such as bark beetle infestations and hurricanes). As a result, only about 10,000 adults survive across their range. These birds breed in family groups, called clans, near clusters of older, but living, trees. Breeding pairs are often assisted by offspring, almost always males, hatched in previous years (Jackson 1994; Birds of the World—Alive; Costa 2002).

Red-cockaded are one of our most studied woodpeckers. The species is nonmigratory, and nesting colonies are usually known to local birders. Indeed, most of these woodpeckers persist in scientific study areas, often on Federal land. Look closely at the bottom photograph and notice that the bird is adorned with at least two leg bands.

Brown-headed Nuthatch

On 21 March we searched for Brown-headed Nuthatches and Red-cockaded Woodpeckers near Covington, Louisiana. The night before we hooked up with our Northfield friends, John and Kathy Holden. We headed out to nearby Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge, knowing from fellow birders in Baton Rouge that the refuge harbors both birds.

Brown-headed Nuthatches are found only in southeastern pine forests, where the species is common. Kathy and Erika were happy to escape their slow-walking husbands and power-walked down the Boy Scout Trail, which led through Long-leaf Pine—perfect habitat for our target species. These nuthatchs' preference for mature forests make this an indicator species for the health of the forests they inhabit (Slater et al. 2013).

John and I were  almost immediately greeted by a large flock of nuthatches. The only problem for me, the photographer, was that the birds scolded us from high in the trees and did not come close to check us out. Later we found the bird in this photograph. It stuck around low in a lone pine in a nearby marsh. I suspect it had a nearby nest. The species is known to nest lower in the trees than in the canopy where it forages.

Brown-headed Nuthatches are remarkable because of their using tools and cooperatively breeding. They often use pine bark chips to pry off other pieces of bark. Up to a third of breeding pairs enjoy helpers at their nests. These helpers are generally related to the breeding pair and “assist with territorial defense, nest construction (excavating and nest-building), nest sanitation, and feeding of nestlings, fledglings, and the female at the nest” (Slater et al. 2013).

American Avocet

Late last March, we raced across southern Louisiana so that we might have time to explore the Avery Island gardens. Along the way we came upon this flock of American Avocets. A quick guess suggests that only about 15% of these birds retain their winter (basic) plumage, with little or no trace of orange on the heads or breasts. The others are well on the way to their spectacular breeding (alternate) plumage. This percentage of winter-plumaged birds may be a bit higher than expected, as Ackerman et al. (2013) report almost 90% should be in full breeding plumage by early March.

Avocet sexes are identified by the bill shape—shorter and more strongly up-curved on the female. Unfortunately, all but one of these birds (the second to the left) are sleeping with their bills tucked under their scapulars. Without bills to compare, separating avocet sexes can be a challenge.

Bonaparte’s Gull

After leaving Texas in March, we raced across our old stomping grounds in southern Louisiana. Our goal this day was Covington, Louisiana, and, along the way, we wished to visit Avery Island, famous for their gardens and for being the home of Tabasco Sauce. The McIlhenny family subsidized many of our graduate expeditions to Peru during our years as graduate students at LSU.

Our coastal route required several short ferry crossings. At one of these ferries, we were followed by a small flock of Bonaparte’s Gulls. These birds are among the smallest of North American gulls. Despite their being common, I had only once previously photographed one. Small fish make up the bulk of their diet, and here they were attracted to fish and small invertebrates caught in the ferry’s wake. These are basic (winter) plumaged birds. Later they will sport black heads. In all plumages, they can be recognized by the long, white triangles on their outer wings.

Prince Baskettail

Scott King alerted me to the presence of Prince Baskettails at Carleton College’s Lyman Lakes. After one unsuccessful search, I found these two, a male and a female I think, near the bridge separating the two lakes. The dragonflies’ presence here was curious, since Barn Swallows, with a definite appetite for dragonflies, bred under the bridge. The swallow ate an Eastern Forktail perched nearby.

These baskettails never perched, but returned repeatedly to the water along the bridge. Indeed, Prince Baskettails may seldom land—spending most of the day in flight (Mead 2009). They fly under six feet above the water, and, when they do land, it is often in tree tops (Paulson 2011). Paulson also warns that Prince Baskettails, which range across eastern North America,  are much more heavily spotted on the wings in the south and may be a distinct species.

Barn Swallow with Forktail

At the bridge separating the two Lyman Lakes on Carleton College’s campus, I photographed this Barn Swallow with an Eastern Forktail grasped between its mandibles.  Look closely at the damselfly’s blue tail tip—it has a black notch on the underside, a field mark of the forktail. Another swallow, which appeared to be the mate, perched on the same branch. I was standing on the bridge, and my guess was that the swallows were waiting for me to move before feeding the damselfly to their young under the bridge.

Although flying insects make up almost all of Barn Swallow diets (99.8%), Damselflies are actually not their preferred prey. Flies are their preferred prey (about 40%), along with beetles (15%), hymenoptera (13%) , with odonata coming in a distant third at 4%; other flying insects make up the remainder of their favored diet (Brown and Brown 1999).

Great Egret

Great Egrets breed around the world—North and South America, Europe, Asia, China, Australia, New Zealand and Africa. The fact that this species was decimated during the plume-hunting era is hard to remember. American populations recovered only after changes in women’s millinery habits and the passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1913. (To think that some of our politicians today would gladly gut this act.)

Last March, Erika and I often saw Great Egrets as we drove up the Texas, Louisiana, and Florida coasts. The bird in the top photo was photographed at Avery Island, Louisiana. The egret in the second photo was displaying on a windy day at High Island, Texas. This behavior is called a “Bow Display.”  The head is lowered while the bird grasps a branch—a male advertising display and also perfomed by paired egrets before their first copulation (Mccrimmon et al. 2001).

Rainbow Bluet

On Sunday, 28 June, I explored Lyman Lakes, small bodies of water on the Carleton College campus here in Northfield. A good number of Odonata flew about the lakes, and I took over fifty photos, including this one of a Rainbow Bluet. I had not seen this damselfly since 2012, when I enjoyed my first encounter in the nearby St. Olaf College wild area. Male Rainbow Bluets, with their orange face, greenish thorax, and blue on the abdomens are unmistakable. Note the reddish-orange dots at the wing tips. Both of the Rainbow Bluets I have seen have been perched on pond-side vegetation. Females sometimes submerge to lay their eggs inside aquatic plant stems (Dubois). Dubois’s excellent guide, Damselflies of the North Woods, is out of print, but I understand that a new edition is planned.