northeast-flora-and-fauna

Who's the most dashing dragonfly at the pond? Maybe the Blue Dashers , at least if you're 1 of these Blue Dashers . Besides the light blue pruinose that goes almost to the end of the abdomen, these gentleman warriors will definitely fight for the honor of their ladies. They're even known to fight other blue dragonflies, though that's usually considered to be a case of mistaken identity; incompatible anatomy prevents maybe dragonflies from breeding outside their own species. June 29, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 301249878, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

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

This Eastern Kingbird is definitely on the fence, though it's (probably) not about indecision. While many of us are on the fence about who to vote for or what path to take in our social or professional lives, it seems like Eastern Kingbirds tend to be on the fence because ... (wait for it) ... they like fences [1]. More generally, these feisty birds seem to like being out in the open. Many birds seem to feel safer in hidden or obstructed spots but these birds - known for fighting significantly larger birds - are almost daring enemies to come out and challenge them. June 29, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 301252575, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] They also like telephone lines and treetops that don't imply indecisiveness.

Here are a couple butterflies I saw last summer that don't have a lot to do with 1 another, but were both too photogenic not to share. The first is another Red Admiral butterfly while the 2nd is an Eastern Tailed-blue . Since I don't see a hint of violet/blue on the top of the wings of the Eastern Tailed-blue, I'm pretty sure this is a female butterfly; here are some males for contrast. (AFAIK there isn't an easy way to tell the gender of Red Admirals ... though the butterflies themselves do it pretty routinely.) June 24, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 301212473, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) June 24, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 301212623, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's 1 of last year's Gray Catbirds . After yesterday's Brown-headed Cowbirds , you might be asking yourself, besides cats and cows, are there a lot of mammal names starting with C that form a name of a bird? I can't think of any, though I did check to see if there was anything called a Coyotebird (I got some roadrunner hits), Capybarabird (you'll find pictures of a Capybara with a bird on its head/back), or Chimpbirds (you'll learn that some birds have as much impulse control as chimpanzees).  Catbirds derive the cat part of their name based on a cat-like vocalization they make while cowbirds get the cow part of their name for hanging around bovines. It would appear that many birds being named didn't get associated in the human mind with this category of mammals. This individual was doing a good job of showing off the crisp light gray feathering covering most of their body and the dark gray cap.  June 24, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 301212523, (c) jpviolett

Here were a couple of Brown-headed Cowbirds  (perhaps our favorite brood parasites [1]) from last summer. Note that these are pictures of a male (top) and a female (bottom). While the males have a strikingly brown head on a basically black body, the females are more of a uniform beige; if the species had been named after the females, they'd probably be called something like the Beige-bodied Cowbirds. While writing this blog, MS Copilot - the AI associated with their Bing search engine - told me that they collect milk for cows to feed their young. This sounded stupid since, as brood parasites, cowbirds don't even raise their young, leaving that job to unwitting "foster parents". Searching a little more, I found articles that told me that birds never drink milk in the wild and are actually lactose intolerant , yet another reason to doubt the cowbird/milk claim. Finally I found what was intended to be a light-hearted joke in this article that claims cowbirds collect mi

A Peck's Skipper was checking out a daisy last summer. I think this skipper was named after an entomologist, George William Peck, who died in May of 1909 based on this: We regret to record the death of another of our veteran entomologists, in the person of Mr. George W. Peck, of Roselle Park, N. J. He died on the 18th of May, at the age of seventy-two; he was born in Boston and was a descendant of one of the Mayflower Pilgrims. After being engaged in business in Boston for some years, he removed to New York and became the part owner and head of a wholesale business in glass and tin supplies.  His heart, however, was engrossed with nature studies, and he acquired no little reputation in his own neighbourhood as an entomologist and horticulturist. His collection of Lepidoptera is one of the best in New Jersey.  He never made any contributions to entomological publications, but, being an enthusiastic collector, he was well known to a great many. Despite the kind words from a fellow e

From Common Jewelweeds to Ebony Jewelwings  (not to mention Ruby-throated Hummingbirds ,  Golden-backed Snipe Flies , Great Golden Digger Wasps , and Silver-spotted Skippers ), there's treasure out in nature. These damselflies (relatives of, but not dragonflies) are likened to jewels because of the blue-to-green sheen that the males have. (Females look similar except they lack the sheen.) Odonates seem to have different preferences regarding perches. Many like low branches over water, others like hanging on reeds at/near water, a few are happy on the ground, and others seem content near to top of smallish plants. I'll frequently see Common Jewelwings on the leaves of low-hanging trees and shrubs. (Of course there are places they could be hanging out that I wouldn't notice, like if they enjoyed the top of tree canopies.) June 21, 2023 at Fairview Farm Photo 301211287, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here are some Little Wood Satyrs from last year. You could quibble with the name: They aren't horse/man hybrids exhibiting loutish behavior ; they're actually butterflies . 😉 They're not made of wood. (Admittedly they do prefer wooded areas though.) Though they're a lot smaller than you and I (unless my readership includes small arthropods), there are a lot of smaller butterflies that don't have the "little" modifier in their name. (And it's not like we have similar-but-larger Giant Wood Satyrs flying around here.) Though far from being the "flashy dressers" of the butterflies, the contrast of the eyespots with their grayish-brown wings probably makes them good-looking in an understated way. June 21, 2023 at Fairview Farm Photo 301211200, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) June 21, 2023 at Fairview Farm Photo 301211416, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a Common Jewelweed from last spring. Besides what I've said in the previous post/link, there's a fair amount to like about these wildflowers. They are basically natives [1], they generally produce a high-sugar nectar that powers our pollinator friends, and they're actually pretty good at competing against aggressive invasive plants like Garlic Mustard . It makes me wonder whether we should be trying to plant jewelweeds wherever Garlic Mustard is dominating the ecosystem; maybe we could restore a native ecosystem with the help of these guys. (Of course, nothing is stopping the jewelweeds from growing where the Garlic Mustard is, so maybe their ability to compete against Garlic Mustard is overrated.) June 20, 2023 at Washington Valley Reservoir Photo 301113330, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] It's been said that the jewelweeds are fairly good at hybridizing amongst themselves, so it's possible that some of the jewelweeds you see might h

Here are a couple Zabulon Skippers from last spring. It's weird that this is one of our most common local butterflies but we still don't know common things about them. For example, we don't even know how the species survives the winter. (You'd think that some poor postdoc would get the assignment of following 1 of them around all winter, but no! Nobody got that assignment.) These knowledge gaps are somewhat inconsistent. The Zabulons have a close relative - sometimes they're mistaken for 1 another - called the Hobomok Skipper , and we know that as partially grown caterpillars they'll make a silk tube to overwinter in. If I had to guess, I'd be suspicious that Zabulon Skippers do the same, but that's just a guess. June 20, 2023 at Washington Valley Reservoir Photo 301112431, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) June 20, 2023 at Washington Valley Reservoir Photo 301113311, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a Summer Azure showing how they got the azure part of their name. (Since this picture is from June, I'm considering it to be a Summer Azure rather than a Spring Azure.) Though I'm sure I benefited from particularly favorable lighting, this picture shows off the blue you can see when they open their wings. (I wish I had gotten a fully-open wing shot, but this was the best I could do.) This is a butterfly that would probably impress people more if they were larger and thus harder to overlook. Similar to birds, I'm fairly confident that the brightness of the blue in this picture indicates this is a male; generally I'd expect females to be drabber in color. This individual also has a more vibrant look than their distant cousins, the Eastern Tailed-Blues . June 20, 2023 at Washington Valley Reservoir Photo 301112499, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a pair of Eastern Amberwing butterflies, 1 male and (maybe) 1 female. The male is an easy identification; size, shape, and those translucent amber wings are present in no other local dragonfly. The 2nd picture is a bit harder to ID, looking only vaguely like the females in this picture or this picture . This could be because this is a relatively rare andromorph female; unfortunately andromorph females probably look quite a bit like juvenile males: I think a juvenile male would look like a paler, drabber version of a male, without any spots other than red stigmas on their wings. I think I see faint hints of the dark patches that most females have. Based on the picture alone, I'd lean towards this being an andromorph female. But Eastern Amberwing andromorph females are supposed to be very rare, while pretty much every vibrant male was once a drab juvenile male, so I suspect that a juvenile male is the stronger ID. June 20, 2023 at Washington Valley Reservoir Photo 30111