Slaty Skimmer

10 August 2018 found Erika and me meeting our son, David, in Denton County, Texas, at the Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area (LLELA). I have no idea why it took David 40 years or so to become passionately interested in birds and dragonflies, but, hey, better late than never! We had a blast searching this wildlife preserve alongside the Lewisville Lake Dam.

David pointed out Slaty Skimmers which were new to us, although abundant in many parts of the Southeast, Well, not quite new, since Erika and I found the female Slaty Skimmer in eastern-most Oklahoma the day before. At LLELA, Salty Skimmers were everywhere. Most were males and all perched low in the trailside vegetation. Their dark faces and brown eyes separate them from similar species.

House Wren

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This House Wren obligingly posed for me, while I walked in Northfield on 6 August. House Wrens range across much of North and South America. They are common near people. Populations often increase when forests are cut for housing developments. In fact, populations in Rhode Island actually decreased when human development was in the form of clustered subdivisions that left intact small areas of forested land (Johnson 2014).

Common Yellowthroat

A female Common Yellowthroat along a Northfield lakeshore on 6 August. This species can be difficult to identify, but can be told by their yellow throats an brown crowns. Yellowthroats are widespread and common across most North America, breeding from Alaska through central Mexico. The Common Yellowthroat is one of the first North American birds described by European ornithologists. Linnaeus named it in 1766.

Solitary Sandpiper

Continuing my eBird 50 bird photographs in August challenge, I happened upon a Solitary Sandpiper. Seeing this shorebird was a delight, since  I inexplicably missed seeing one this spring. It probed the shallow water, as sandpipers often do. Looking at my photos, however, I was surprised that the bird apparently shut its eyes as it made its probes. Many shorebirds have tactile sensors at their bill tips. It would appear that they do not have to depend on eyesight. The first image suggests that the sandpiper does initially locate prey by sight, since the head is slightly turned to the side.

Hooded Merganser

On 6 August I found an immature Hooded Merganser in a Northfield pond. In its mouth, the duck carried a crayfish. Suddenly the crayfish was in the air. I thought of calling this post "Who Knew Crayfish Flew?

I am not sure how this crayfish became airborne. The merganser may have simply dropped the crustacean. Possibly the bird may have shaken the crayfish in an attempt to kill it, and accidentally lost grip. Or perhaps the bird intentionally threw the crayfish into the water to drown or clean it. The crayfish submerged and the merganser dunked its head under the water to retrieve its prey.

The Hooded Merganser carried the crayfish for several minutes, until the crustacean was finally swallowed. These mergansers are known to be particularly fond of crayfish, and are also known to take fish and insects. Dugger et al. 2009 write that Hooded Mergansers, compared to other ducks, have thicker gizzards to grind and digest crustaceans. Further, the serrated bill edges are used to grasp and handle mobile prey.

Double-crested Cormorant

I keep my birding records on eBird. This digital app keeps track of when and where I see birds. Every month. eBird puts forth a challenge, the winner to receive a pair of binoculars. Your chances of winning an eBird challenge are worse than picking a minimal Powerball number. That doesn’t matter too much, since I have no interest in the eBird prize. Photos are deposited in Cornell University’s Macaulay Library—they currently have 7.5 million photos submitted through eBird. Curiously, their most photographed bird is Red-tailed Hawk, with over 63,000 submissions.

This month’s challenge is to submit 50 bird photographs (or other media formats). Photographs are easily submittable, and can verify many of your less common bird sightings. The challenge has me running around the county taking pictures of common birds. There is nothing noteworthy about a Double-crested Cormorant in Rice County, Minnesota. But the cormorant bathing is of passing interest, and well described in the literature. When bathing, “the body rolls back and forth in a rocking-horse motion, while the wings splash loudly on the water, throwing a spray onto the back of the bird” (Dorr et al. 2014).

Veiled Lady

This image of a Veiled Lady fungus is perhaps my last photo from Costa Rica. We found it along the roadside at the Laguna del Lagarto Lodge in northern Costa Rica. Although we lack the expertise to determine the species, this fungus is classified with the stinkhorn mushrooms in the genus Phallus, obviously an appropriate name (unless you are describing a lady). Most of this genus have a white veil, which may serve as a ladder for insects attracted to the fetid odor that the stinkhorn emits. The insects spread spores that pass through their digestive systems. We do not know if this mushroon’s yellow veil is typical for this species.

White-nosed Coati

I found a couple of additional photos we took during last year’s Costa Rican trip. These are images of White-nosed Coatis. These mammals are found from New Mexico and southeastern Arizona through Panama and, perhaps, into Colombia. Feral coatis also roam about Florida, where they have escaped from captivity since 1928.

Coatis are in the same family as Raccoons, but are more arboreal. They are similar, however, in their omnivorous diet. They consume small vertebrates, fruits, carrion, insects, snakes and eggs (Wikipedia). Like Raccoons, they habituate to humans and raid campsites, trash, and even, such as these coatis at the Laguna del Lagarto Lodge in northern Costa Rica, visit bird feeders. Adult males tend to be solitary, but other ocatis travel in social groups.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

This female Ruby-throated Hummingbird perched on our hummingbird feeder during a rainstorm on 1 August 2018. She held her bill skyward and appeared to have her eye closed. Perhaps she was resting in these cool, wet conditions. Hummingbirds are able to generate heat via their hovering. Females are more efficient heat generators than males. During really cold weather, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds become torpid (Weidensaul et al. 2013). I doubt, however, that conditions were sufficiently stressful for torpor on this day.

Giant Swallowtail

A Giant Swallowtail in Erika’s Northfield garden. They have probably visited before, but they don’t appear every year. They disperse to the North Country sporadically in different years. This unusually hot summer would seem to be a candidate for their appearance. The fly all year in the southernmost United States, but only during the summer further north. Rescently they have become common in the Los Angeles Basin, and are their caterpillars are accused of destroying ornamental citrous leaves (Brock and Kaufman 2003).