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Spotted (or Not) and Streaky
Spotted Sandpipers (Actitis macularius) — no spots once they’ve moved out of their breeding plumage — are patrolling the edges of fresh water bodies now during migration. Also along the watery edges these days are Northern Waterthrushes (Parkesia noveboracensis).
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Venation
Male Great Blue Skimmer (Libellula vibrans).Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia) male.Forewings of female Twelve-spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella). I found this with a little bit of thorax exoskeleton a few blocks from home. Extremely lightweight, and prone to blowing away in a weak breeze.Some magnification. Black Saddlebags (Tramea lacerata) female. Hindwings are especially wide on this species.
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Eastern Forktail
A male Eastern Forktail (Ischnura verticalis) showing off the characteristic and unique solid green shoulder markings and blue on segments 8 and 9. An inch long; you really have to get close to see the jewel-llike details. And, oh, look, an exuvia I didn’t even notice in the background when I took this picture.
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Robin Spotty Breast
Late brood young American Robin. The binomial Turdus migratorius may raise an eyebrow, but Turdus is just the Latin for “thrush.”
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Not So Fragile Forktail
This female Fragile Forktail (Ischnura posita) has captured a just-emerged damselfly of unknown species. She is eating it, as these serious inch-long predators will do. The teneral damselfly, meaning one that has just emerged from the exuvia, is ghostly pale; its exoskeleton has not yet hardened and it’s coloring/patterning has not developed. This is when…
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Fragile Forktails
A mature female Ischnura posita. An immature female. Inch-long damsels, these. Eat more mosquitos, ladies! A mature male. The exclamation mark on the shoulder is tell-tale for this species, but it can fade with age.
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Oyster Toadfish
Last night as I watched the sun tuck behind the embankment of New Jersey, a fisherman beside me on the end of Pier 5 reeled this fish out of the dark water. He thought it was a Sea Robin, but I didn’t. It wasn’t that weird. Some research reveals it to be an Oyster Toadfish…
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Downy Heron
One of a trio of young Green Herons (Butorides virescens) on a snag in the Lullwater this week. This one was sitting: I’ve never seen a heron sit before. It was a month ago that I saw this fledgling Green Heron in Green-wood. That bird looked a little older. I wonder if this trio is…
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Backyard and Beyond 