northeast-flora-and-fauna

Why were there a bunch of male Common Whitetails around on this day (see this post )? It's because this is also where the female Common Whitetails were. These particular females probably weren't looking for companionship, at least when they were photographed. My understanding is that she'll usually find a territory she likes over water and mate with its corresponding male while hovering over the water. They'll probably head to water every couple of days for the purpose of breeding. I read she'll lay up to 1000 eggs each time she breeds. Certainly she needs to lay a lot of eggs; it's estimated that 99.9% of the eggs she lays won't reach adulthood. June 29, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 301252225, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) June 29, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 301252261, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

I met a lot of Common Whitetail dragonflies on this day; here are some of the males. I'm not convinced I've got anything new to say about these robust-looking dragonflies with the sometimes blindingly white pruinose abdomens, but they photograph pretty well so here are some more. I guess I'll remind you though that scale matters. While to us they're interesting looking but (essentially [1]) harmless flying insects, if you were small enough they would be terrifying predators. June 29, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 301249848, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) June 29, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 301250020, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) June 29, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 301250043, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] On a butterfly count 1 of the participants complained about being bitten by a dragonfly. He seemed to resent them after this so I didn't ask if this was a justified bit

Here's a male Eastern Pondhawk (top picture) and an egg-laying female Eastern Pondhawk (bottom). I apparently like showing the differences between male and female Eastern Pondhawks; I've done it here and here . While some of this is due to there being quite a few of these dragonflies kicking around in New Jersey, there are other reasons I do this a lot: Both the males and females are quite colorful, making them more photogenic than some insects. Both the males and females are fairly distinctive-looking; I know who I'm seeing right away without any meaningful doubts. There are some dragonflies that rarely stop flying, meaning my only chance at an in-focus picture is if they hover for a while in 1 spot. Other than females laying eggs, that rarely hover long enough for me to get them in focus. Note that the female actually is laying eggs. She might look like she's "testing the water" before going in for a dip, but she's only interested in dipping the end o

A fair amount of the time when I see similar-looking creatures in the same picture they turn out to be of the same species, but in this case we have a Familiar Bluet (top) and a Skimming Bluet (below). Frequently I'll use the presence of a distinctive male bird to identify a far less distinctive but nearby female bird. And the dark bird among the European Starlings is usually ... another starling! But this isn't a perfect strategy. At a casual glance you might think these are the same species. You might even think that the extra blue on the top bluet is just natural variation. But there are times when these instincts lead you astray, and the odonate world is probably 1 of them. All damselflies and dragonflies lay eggs in water, so a good body of water frequently attracts multiple species, and at least some of them look similar. In our defense, sometimes the odonates themselves get confused; some of them will chase of "rivals" that don't really compete against t

Here are a couple female birds who look quite a bit less gaudy and distinctive than their male counterparts. The top is a Red-winged Blackbird (not quite black, not close to red-winged) and an Indigo Bunting (no visible indigo). (Technically it can be tricky to distinguish adult females with immature birds of both sexes, but I'm going with female IDs unless someone can say otherwise.) Of course, I've shown female Red-winged Blackbirds and Indigo Buntings before, and they're certainly not the only sexually dimorphic birds flying around (including but not limited to Brown-headed Cowbirds ). It may seem chauvinistic to name birds after the appearance of the males, but: Most of the time the males are more distinctive-looking, leading to more unique names. Imagine names like Beige Bunting #2 and Dark-streaked Bird #4 as names instead. What's the alternative? Naming the birds after people comes with a whole other set of baggage . June 29, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserv

These Eastern Amberwing dragonflies were hovering over the water, though I'm unsure what else was going on in the 2nd picture. The 1st picture looks like a male that's hovering over water; the only thing that's a little unusual there is that he's got his "tail" (really the abdomen) held nearly straight up, a position I usually see only when they're perched somewhere. I believe they do that to limit the sunlight/heat they're absorbing, so I'm guessing this little fella was trying to cool off a bit. June 29, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 301249237, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) In the 2nd picture it looks like a 2nd dragonfly is photobombing in front of the 1st. The size and wing pattern seems consistent with a female Eastern Amberwing ; perhaps the 1st dragonfly caught her eye and she's looking for a "date"? Of course, if I'm wrong about the 2nd dragonfly being a female Eastern Amberwing, then the expl