We got back yesterday from camping near Baldwin at Nichols Lake, in the western central LP. The birds were about what one would expect. I didn't see the
Common Loons I've seen there before, but July 4th weekend boat traffic may have had something to do with that. Work kept me from getting up there last year and I was curious to see what the red dragonflies I remembered from past years were. I was mostly expecting meadowhawks; they turned out to be Calico Pennants, a species I don't see very often down here.
I ended up wading out and hunkering down in the water for those shots.
I pretty quickly noted a clubtail on the sand at the beach, the appropriately named Common Sanddragon.
I tried to catch one to look at it closer, and unfortunately whacked it with the side of the net, destining it to be a specimen. As it turns out it's a first county record (all hail the lack of effort at odes), so only the end of the world for it to be soaking in acetone. ID points for this species seems to mainly be the pale tips protruding from the end of the abdomen. This is one that's needed for Berrien as well, I'll have to think about sandbars by inland lakes that could be checked since they were common up there right now.
I think this is an Emerald Spreadwing damselfly. You need really good hand lens to do these things justice and I didn't bother netting one to confirm the ID.
Here's a tandem pair, I really had to play with the settings to try to get a decent depth of field to make both reasonably in focus.
Finally a Variable Damselfly, a species I've seen but never gotten a decent pic of in Berrien.
