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!

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Spring has got to be my favorite time of year.  It seems like every day a new nature event is taking place.  I find myself impatiently waiting for the first dragonfly, but I know I have another two or three weeks until the Common Green Darners come back and the Eastern Forktails emerge.  Until that time, I keep myself busy with other persuits.  I found wildflowers last year, and have manged to learn a little and enjoy them a lot.  This year I have been busy with “herps” as all my friends down at the Audubon call them.  Walking through the woods behind the factory I work at I found my first snake of the season, a garter snake.

My friend Jennifer Schlick gave me a little tidbit on these guys, all garter snakes have a red tongue with a black tip.  If you would like to get more fun nature facts just click on her name and it will take you to her new blog.  A very exciting first for me this year was the salamander migration.  I have never seen this before, but the way that people talk you might think that it is better than Christmas.  Well I managed to miss the first night mostly due to my complete ignorance on the subject, but the next night I was still able to get out and see some spotted salamanders.  These are really fascinating animals.  My friend Tom did an amazing job writing up a blog entry on them.  I also saw my first spring peeper!  Who would think that such a little frog could make such a big noise?

I was able to find twenty-seven new species to add to my New York life list this year. Fourteen of these were new county/species records! This brings the total count of new county/species records for Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties up to thirty. Several of this year’s records were notable. The Double-striped Bluet (Enallagma basidens) has made its first appearance in western New York. It has been found further east, and its expected expansion into our area has now been confirmed. The Midland Clubtail (Gomphus fraternus), a species of interest for the New York survey, was found with healthy populations at two locations in our river system. The Blue-tipped Dancer, a species of interest found last year, was found again in abundant numbers around the major rivers and streams. In some locations it was the most populous damselfly.
I had some personal goals for this season that included finding more spreadwings and clubtails. I was also interested in looking for some of our bog species. Finally I was hopeful that this year I would be able to locate the American Rubyspot. I did not have as much luck as I would have wanted on the spreadwing front. I was able to find two new species. One of these, the Spotted Spreadwing, was only found once in Erie County.
I did much better with the Clubtails adding five to my list for a total of seven. This was partially due to my increase in survey locations on rivers and creeks. To further increase this number next year I will be adding the Allegany River to my list of survey sites, and I will attempt to raise dragonfly nymphs to find some of the more elusive species. I know of at least one species that I was not able to net this season.

Midland Clubtail

The bog species was also a success story for me. I was most interested in find the Ebony & Ringed Boghaunters and the Elfin Skimmer. While I did not find these, I did find the American & Rack-tailed Emerald, several whitefaces, and some Darners I was not able to net. My bog surveying was mostly done at the Allenburg Bog. I think that the darners were not breeding at the bog, but at Waterman’s Swamp located a few minutes walk away. The darners I suspect I may have seen include both the Comet Darner and the Splatterdock Darner! I will be back net year

Rack-tailed Emerald

Allenburg Bog & Waterman Swamp

My rubyspot dreams fell victim to the September curse of school. It seems every year I am more determined to keep surveying into September and October only to have a tough class to deal with. There is always next year though!

THE 2006 LIST!

Calopterygidae
Calopteryx maculata (Ebony Jewlwing)

Coenagrionidae
Argia apicalis (Blue-fronted Dancer) <Chat>
Argia fumipennis violacea (Variable Dancer)
Argia tibialis (Blue-tipped Dancer) <Chat>
Enallagma antennatum (Rainbow Bluet) <Chat>
Enallagma basidens (Double-striped Bluet) * <Chat>
Enallagma carunculatum (Tule Bluet) <Chat>
Enallagma civile – Familiar Bluet <Chat>
Enallagma Cyathigerum – Northern Bluet * <Catt>
Enallagma ebrium (Marsh Bluet)
Enallagma geminatum (Skimming Bluet)
Enallagma hageni – Hagen’s Bluet *
Enallagma signatum (Orange Bluet) <Chat>
Enallagma traviatum (Slender Bluet) <Chat>
Enallagma vesperum – Vesper Bluet * <Chat>
Enallagma exsulans (Stream Bluet)
Ischnura posita (Fragile Forktail)
Ischnura verticalis (Eastern Forktail)
Nehalennia gracilis – Sphagnum Sprite *
Nehalennia irene (Sedge Sprite) <Chat>

Lestidae
Lestes congener – Spotted Spreadwing *
Lestes inaequalis (Elegant Spreadwing)
Lestes rectangularis – Slender Spreadwing * <Catt>
Lestes vigilax (Swamp Spreadwing) <Chat>

Aeshnidae
Aeshna constricta – Lance-tipped Darner * <Chat>
Anax junius – Common Green Darner
Basiaeschna janata (Springtime Darner) *

Corduliidae
Cordulia shurtleffii – American Emerald *
Dorocordulia libera – Racket-tailed Emerald * <Catt>
Epicordulia princeps – Prince Baskettail *
Epitheca (tetragoneuria) cynosura – Common Baskettail <Chat>

Gomphidae
Arigomphus villosipes (Unicorn Clubtail) <Chat>
Arigomphus furcifer – Lilypad Clubtail *
Gomphus fraternus – Midland Clubtail * <Chat>
Gomphus lividus (Ashy Clubtail) * <Chat>
Gomphus spicatus (Dusky Clubtail) *
Gomphus exilis – Lancet Clubtail *

Libellulidae
Celithemis elisa (Calico Pennant) <Chat>
Celithemis eponina – Halloween Pendant * <Chat>
Erythemis simplicicollis (Eastern Pondhawk) <Chat>
Leucorrhinia frigida – Frosted Whiteface * <Catt>
Leucorrhinia glacialis – Crimson-ringed Whiteface *
Leucorrhinia hudsonica – Hudsonian Whiteface *
Leucorrhinia intacta (Dot-tailed Whiteface)
Libellula (Ladona) julia – Chalk-fronted Corporal * <Catt>
Libellula luctuosa (Widow Skimmer)
Libellula pulchella (Twelve-spotted Skimmer)
Pachydiplax longipennis (Blue Dasher)
Pantala flavescens – Wandering Glider * <Chat>
Pantala hymenaea – Spot-winged Glider *
Perithemis tenera (Eastern Amberwing)
Plathemis lydia (Common Whitetail)
Sympetrum obtrusum (White-faced Meadowhawk)
Sympetrum rubicundulum – Ruby Meadowhawk * <Chat>
Sympetrum vicinum – Yellow-legged Meadowhawk *
Tramea lacerata – Black Saddlebags * <Chat>

* – New species for 2006
<XXX> – New county/species record according to Odonata Central

Found last year, but not this year.

Coenagrionidae
Amphiagrion saucium (Eastern Red Damsel) <Chat>
Chromagrion conditum (Aurora Damsel) <Chat>

Gomphidae
Stylogomphus albistylus (Least Clubtail) <Chat>

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