Dragonfly Eye

Today we took advantage of the nice weather and went for a walk at the Jamestown Audubon Society. I was hoping to find some Eastern Forktail damselflies, but instead found a much larger critter. The Common Green Darners were flying around the ponds. I even got to see a few tandem pairs. They were flying around before the cold spell hit us two weeks ago, but I never got to see them. They are typically the first dragonfly of the year. This is because they are one of the few that migrate. I didn’t get any pictures, but I will leave you with this one from last year.

Even though it is still snowing outside I was still able to find a new Chautauqua County dragonfly record.  Last year in late July I happened to pick up an interesting dragonfly exuvia.  It was on the side of a concrete bridge embankment.  It has been sitting under my monitor ever since.  I happened across it again last week.  I decided to ask the Northeast Odonates list serve on Yahoo.  This is the place to go if you have questions on anything involving dragonflies.  My inbox started filing up imediatly with responses.  They all said one thing “Stylurus spiniceps (Arrow Clubtail)”.  This is an intesting dragonfly.  It is one of the Arigomphus clubtails.  They are rarely seen “on the wing” since they spend most of their time in the upper canopy of trees where they make quick flights to snag passing insects.  Most records actually come from exuviae which are quite easy to find.  In New York this is a species of special concern.

This brings me to a new project that I will be working on next year.  I have decided to try my hand at raising dragonfly nymphs next year.  I was inspired by Nick Donnelly’s article in the Spring 2006 Boghaunter.  This is a great way to survey rivers and streams.  I’ll keep everyone posted on how it turns out.

The large amount of snow that we have been getting has had one upside for me.  My backyard bird feeders have been as busy as I have ever seen them.  I live on a small plot (~150ft x 55ft) that is right in the middle of town.  Most of the nature I get to see is mice and squirrels.  Shortly after I moved in I started putting up bird feeders.  Now I have quite a collection in the backyard.  They have been relatively dead all winter.  I had a juvenile Coopers Hawk that spent the winter feasting on the pigeons that lived in my neighbors attic.  Either the songbirds got smart or got eaten, but either way they weren’t eating at the feeder.  The day after the snow though my feeders came to life again.  I saw all my old friends, the Slate-colored Juncos, the Chickadees, and the ever present House Sparrows.  I also got a few greedy Blue-Jays and a pair of the always stunning Cardinals.  At the suet feeder I started seeing the Starlings again, and the Downy Woodpecker even dropped in for a snack.  I also saw a lot of sparrows that weren’t house sparrows.  I decided that it was a great time to grab the camera and find out what I was looking at.  After snapping a picture of ever bird that I didn’t recognize and then breaking out the field guide I found that three new sparrows were at the feeder, the Chipping Sparrow, the American Tree Sparrow, and the Song Sparrow.  There may have been more, but I didn’t feel like I had enough knowledge to ID them correctly.  Slowly I keep learning the names.   I find that when I can assign a name to something I am much more interested in leaning about it.  You can believe that I will be reading about my three new friends in the coming weeks!

Chipping Sparrow

Song Sparrow 

I had the day off of work for Good Friday.  Since we have a foot of snow on the ground right now, we decided to take Noah and his cousins over to the Audubon to get out of the house.  The Jamestown Audubon is a second home for us most of the summer.  Karen & I always enjoy walking the trails.  We have also met many new friends who share our interest in nature and photography.  I am active in their photo club and also do a lot of my dragonfly research there.  On the first floor of the building they have a wonderful area to look at the bird feeders that they maintain.  The diversity of birds and the ability to get close makes this a great place to do a little indoor photography out of the cold.  Today seemed to draw in all sorts of birds.  I was most impressed with the variety of woodpeckers that I got to see.  In addition to the regular Downy and Hairy woodpeckers, we also saw a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and a Red-bellied Woodpecker.  This was the first time I was able to photograph these two species.  We were also treated with a nice view of four Whitetail Deer that came for a quick meal.  They were spooked almost as soon as we were able to see them, but the kids sure were excited.  We were also treated to the regular Cardinals, Blue-jays, and LBBs (little brown birds).  Someday I will know my birds as well as dragonflies, but that day is still a ways off.  Until then enjoy these pictures!

Read the rest of this entry »