Common Green Darner

Photographing flying dragonflies boils down to dumb luck. On Sunday, Erika and I visited the Northfield Garden Club’s annual garden tour. This Common Green Darner patrolled a water feature at one of the gardens. I only got one shot off, and to my amazement, the image is more or less in focus.

Elsewhere in this blog, I have written about green darners. They tend to be migratory and serve as a major food source for kestrels and martins. These dragonflies, in turn, consume mosquitos and other arthropods.

Savannah

We spent 25 March exploring Savannah, Georgia. As big cities go, Savannah is fascinating. Established in 1733, the city consists of 24 parallel park squares. Public buildings and churches are on the east and west sides of the parks, the north and south were reserved for private homes. “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the City of Savannah,” wrote Sherman to Lincoln in 1864, breaking the general’s usual custom of torching Southern towns.

With its grid of parks, architecture, and Live Oaks, the city has an almost European air. “Almost” being the operative word. I doubt many European cities have mysterious lines in front of Paula Deen restaurants, that dezien of Southern fried, fat-landen food—at ten in the morning. We can only assume the woman sitting on the curb has just exited Paula’s.

I suspect that Europeans do not display their expertise in Dog Beers, although certainly not all are adverse to a morning beer. This city even has birds. We photographed this Carolina Wren as it sang in downtown Savannah.

Blue Dasher 2

I have gazed into the eyes of many a Blue Dasher, but never one with such emerald eyes. 8 July 2016, River Bend Nature Center, Rice County, Minnesota.

Green Heron

As even casual readers of this blog must realize, lately I spend a lot of time chasing dragonflies. That is exactly what I was doing on 2 July 2016, when I came face-to-face with this Green Heron. This small heron is often hidden in marsh vegetation, but it is common across most of North America.

Green Herons stalk fish, invertebrates and amphibians. Unlike most birds, they sometimes drop various baits to entice fish to come close enough for the heron to grasp or spear. Bait includes feathers, pieces of plants, bread crumbs, mayflies, worms, and even plastic foam. Live bait works best (Davis and Kushlan 1994).

Killdeer

On 29 June, John Holden and I visited the 180th Street March in Dakota County. This Killdeer greeted us with a distraction display. The plover walked up to us, turned around, and lifted its tail towards us. Then it spread its tail at an angle and dropped its wings on the road. Several fledglings ran about in the roadside grass. These birds are famous for their attention-getting broken wing act that draws predators away from their young. I have no images of the chicks, but here is one from last year.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

My banding activities have slowed to less than a trickle. Finally, on 5 July 2016, I banded the first of the young birds of the year. The red underwing feathers, barely visible in this photo, indicate this Rose-breasted Grosbeak is a male. The striking red, white, and black breeding plumage will be more or less acquired from January into April.

Widow Skimmer

This series of photograph shows maturing, male Widow Skimmers. As they age, the wings become darker and acquire a white pruinescene. The first picture was taken on 12 June in the St. Olaf College Natural Lands. We encountered the next skimmer on 6 June in the Carleton College arboretum.

We found this last Widow Skimmer on 27 June near Red Wing, Minnesota. I noticed in Odonata Central that Goodhue County lacked a record for this abundant species. Erika and I easily rectified this cataloging omission. Scott King wrote me that searching for these skimmers was akin to picking “pretty low hanging fruit.”

Blue Dasher

Last March, while at the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, we saw Blue Dashers. These were our last dragonflies of our trip—days of rain and snow were to come. These dragonflies are common across most of the United States, except in the northern Great Plains. They do not like unvegetated shorelines. Blue Dashers are tolerant of poor water quality, a trait which probably contributes to their abundance.

We found this last Blue Dasher in June at the Lebanon Hills Regional Park here in Minnesota. 

Black Horsefly

Dragonflying with Scott King is always entertaining. Scott is also aware of all of the other insects—like this Black Horsefly that we found at the Koester Prairie last Monday. This horsefly was a mind-boggling inch-and-a-half long.

Fortunately Black Horseflies do not usually bite people. It hurts like hell if they do. Perhaps worse, their bite can transmit bacterial, viral, and protozoan diseases—such as anthrax or Trypanosoma. These horseflies pose serious threats to livestock (Bugguide.net).

Western Red Damsel

For some time, I have been telling Scott King, my dragonfly guru, about the spring in the Koester Prairie (Prairie Creek Wildlife Management Area). This grassland is fairly pristine, and the spring runs all year. Scott said, “This sounds perfect for finding Rice County’s first record of the Western Red Damsel.” I had to agree, despite my seeing this damselfly only twice before. Red damsels love marshes. Their small size and their reluctance to leave the vegetation make these damsels hard to see.

We immediately found dozens of red damsels, male (upper photo) and female (lower photo). The taxonomy of these little creatures is a mess. Western Red Damsels are found in the western United States. Eastern Red Damsels are found in the east. Red damsels from Indiana to western Colorado and from southern Saskatchewan to Missouri and Kansas are intermediate in their field marks.

Three solutions exist for this problem.

1. Recognize three species.

2. Call Eastern and Western Red Damsels just Red Damsels, recognizing but one species.

3. Ken Tennessen studied this problem and reported to the Dragonfly Society of America. He concluded that there are but two species. Characteristics used to separate the two species include “the ratio of hind femur length to abdomen length, setal color, and hind femur color pattern.” Unfortunately, the abstract describing his work does not include details. Tennessen does write that the red damsels in Wisconsin are Eastern. But Hummel writes me (pers. com) that Tennessen identified Hummel's Iowa damsels as Western. Scott King tells me that all his Minnesota records are also of Western Red Damsels.

Without further input from the experts, comparing my photographs from those on the Internet, I suspect mine are Western Red Damsels. Note the white tips to the male’s abdomen. This color is obvious on Internet photos of Westerns. On the other hand, if my photos are of Eastern Red Damsels, I will add a new species to my Odonata list.