northeast-flora-and-fauna

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...

For Throwback Thursday, here's someone who you might feel like you should recognize, at least once you hear it's a Familiar Bluet . Although I don't have tons of Familiar Bluet pictures, they are considered common and widespread enough to earn the "familiar" part of their name. They and the other bluets get the "bluet" part of their name from "bleuet", an Old French word for "blue woolen cloth". Compared to yesterday's bluets , note that the Familiar Bluet has way more blue on its abdomen. Perhaps that more striking blue appearance helped in getting people familiar with them. August 15, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 152590451, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)