Odds and Odes

With the breeding season winding down but migration not going in earnest yet I've been carrying a net when I've been inland.  Tim and I waded out into Brown recently.  It was rank sulfuracous muck that I sat down in once.  I think this Marsh Wren was rooting for the tar pit.

We caught a few odes, Common Green Darner, Slender Spreadwing, and White-faced Meadowhawk.  The Meadowhawk was a lifer for me, though it's the best represented meadowhawk in the specimen record for Berrien Co.  He got released.

Also released was this Wandering Glider I snagged at Sarett Prairie.  Last year I made about 4 trips and spent a decent amount of time at the Harbor Shores puddle where there were a lot of gliders before I finally snagged one.  This is the first one I've seen this year and was caught on the first swing.

The kids were excited to hold this one, much larger than the meadowhawk.  Check out the broad trailing edge of the rearwing allowing it its namesake flight.  Hazel netted a Tawny-edged Skipper butterfly as well that we released after identifying.

Finally a mockingbird that popped up by the airport that Tim had mentioned has been around.  I didn't notice until I edited the images into a montage this evening that it was carrying food.  Perhaps breeding season isn't quite done after all.

Newaygo Co Odes

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.