One of easiest to identify has to be the Aurora Damsel (Chromagrion conditum). The Aurora Damsels are one of our first large damselflies to emerge. They are big  (for a damselfly), and the thorax, with its wavy blue pattern on top and wash of yellow below, is diagnostic.

The combination of the yellow and the wavy blue line are diagnostic.

Note also the nifty black spats on the blue section of the abdomen.

Aurora Damsel (Chromagrion conditum), male.

The Aurora is the only member of its genus in North America.

Aurora Damsels in tandem.

They can mate for more than a half an hour, and have been observed flying in tandem for more than an hour while the female lays eggs. The females will completely submerge their abodmens, and I have often seen them ovipositing on submerged vegetation.

Aurora Damsels laying eggs.

Locally, I find them in still water settings. Several references list them in streams, but I have only seen them in backwater. Apparently, the nymph is unique, but I have yet to see one. Odonate (dragonflies and damselflies) immature forms are on my photographic “to do” list—maybe next spring.

If you’re interested in Damselflies, we are fortunate in the Northeast to have an outstanding reference by Ed Lam:

Last night, they broke out.

When I visited the park this morning, there was birdsong everywhere. Blue-winged Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Yellow Warblers, and numerous others that I could not identify in the early morning fog.

And there were orioles. It was not a good morning for photography, dark, gray, and foggy, but I ran the ISO up way high and managed to capture a few images.

Baltimore Orioles (Icterus galbula)

Most obvious were the flamboyant Baltimores.  Milord was decked out in jet black juxtaposed with hot orange. They carolled and sang,  chasing and flashing through the new leaves like roman candles. They did not allow for a close approach.

Baltimore Oriole, shot at a distance at a very high ISO.

But we have two flavors of orioles. Where the Baltimore Oriole is all flash and fancy, the Orchard Oriole is elegance and reserve, tastefully decked out in black and chestnut.

Orchard Oriole (Icterus spurius)

I got to spend some quality time fairly close to one of these, just back from Central or South America.

Orchard Oriole (Icterus spurius)

We usually have one or two breeding pairs at the park every summer, and this lad was singing his heart out. Looks like he’s going to stay.

Orchard Oriole singing in the rain

Folks, we need more of that.

Painted Turtles like to bask on logs.

The pattern of plates (scutes) on the shell may be different.

The turtles in the lake are mostly Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta) and an occasional Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta). I suspect that we have Red-bellied Turtles in our local lake, but I have never seen one that I was certain of.

Turtle hatchlings are ridiculously cute. Painted Turtles are no exception.

Painted Turtles are by far the most common, and they are the ones usually seen basking on logs and along the bank. Some of the Painted Turtles have red bellies. However, it is “a truth universally acknowledged” that a turtle with a red belly is red-bellied turtle, but not necessarily a Red-bellied Turtle (Pseudemys rubriventris).

The one on the left is not a Red-bellied Turtle, only a red-bellied turtle.

Painted Turtles are accomplished swimmers.

Coming

Going

The Red-eared Slider is actually an invasive species in our part of the world. They are a problem because they often out-compete native turtles for resources. Red-eared Sliders are very popular in the pet turtle trade, but few folks are up to keeping a turtle for the long haul—they can grow to be a foot long and live up to 40 years. They also carry salmonella. It is against the law to release them into the wild, but folks do it all the time.

Red-eared Slider. Note the red "ear," which is diagnostic.

Now for Piper, and for Piper’s Momma, and for all the other mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and anybody elses willing to do the good work of getting the young’uns out into the wild places, here is something I’m sure will be a great help.

It’s not about turtles; it’s about birds, and birds are a great introduction to all that is wild and beautiful. Bill Thompson has just released a new book, The Young Birder's Guide to Birds of Eastern North America. It covers 300 birds that are most likely to be encountered in our area. The text is engaging, and the layout of the book invites learning and wonder.  This is a Peterson Field Guide, and in the Peterson tradition, it is simply excellent.

Thompson knows birdwatching; it’s in his blood, his parents started Bird Watcher's Digest, and Bill is the current editor.  He is a renowned international authority, lecturer, and author, and he has poured that knowledge and experience into a book specially crafted for young people.

This is a great book, it will make a great birthday present, or a great present for any other reason.

Henry’s Elfin (Callophrys henrici) is one. They should be flying in April, and I have checked several sites where they are supposed to be.

No joy.

I have defined the areas that should harbor them—Redbud (Cercis canadensis) stands, particularly those on limestone ridges, and I have identified a number or potential sites.

Redbud ridges are a highlight of spring in the mountains.

We have lots of Redbud along our ridges, and we have a narrow belt of limestone that wiggles its way through the county. The problem, of course is getting access to private ground.

Red Cedars and a Redbud

The other problem this spring has been the wind, which blew pretty much constantly for the first half of April; it was like being back in Oklahoma. Small butterflies don’t much like the wind.

I have permission for one limestone ridge close by, and I had been checking it for several windy days—no joy. Luckily, on Friday the 13^th of April, the wind died down for a couple of hours. I happily abandoned my yard work and a long list of chores to drive over to the ridge.

No joy.

I decided to practice my “craft” on some bumblebees that were busily exploring the Redbuds.

Bumble bee, probably Bombus impatiens--our most common bumblebee.

About that time a small, Elfin-size butterfly flew in and landed on the Redbud.

Nope, not an Elfin, but a Juniper Hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus).

Juniper Hairstreak on Redbud

The Juniper Hairstreak is another quest bug. It is found, as the name implies, in the vicinity of Junipers (Eastern Red Cedar, Juniperus virginiana).

There are plenty of cedars on that ridge.

This is an unmistakable bug, even for me.

It was in shadow, which was a shame, and it left just as suddenly as it came.

Juniper Hairstreak, colors are muted in shadows.

And just as suddenly, it came back, and it perched in full sunlight. It wouldn’t give me that quintessential, full underwing in focus, head in profile, hairstreak pose. it just kept spinning into the shadow, or turning his butt towards me. Still, look at those colors. How absolutely perfect for blending in with the cedar trees: the rust, the cedar-green—marvelous.

Juniper Hairstreak

Once again, it disappeared.

For the next few days, I re-visited that ridge, but so did the wind.

No joy.

Finally, on 17 April, the wind calmed down, the sun came out, and I went back to the ridge.

Four of them, I saw four of them. They are fluttery little things, hard to see, harder to get close to, but I got one pretty good shot.

Juniper Hairstreak

A quest has ended. Let another quest begin.

Still looking for those Henry’s Elfins.

The Brown Marmorated Stinkbug  (Halyomorpha halys) is hardly one of the best things in life. It is an invasive species from Asia that has become a nuisance to homeowners and fruit growers alike. They damage crops, making fruit unpalatable and unmarketable, they like to spend the winters (in very large numbers) in houses, and they actually do—really—stink. They also like to defecate on freshly painted surfaces. They look a lot like several native stinkbugs, but they can be distinguished by the light bands across the antennas. They also have creepy red eyes.

Brown Marmorated Stinkbug--note the light bands on the antennae.

Brown Marmorated Stinkbug. Creepy red eyes.

Now a lot of people don’t like these stinkbugs; in fact, many people have an aversion to all stinkbugs, stripes on the antennae, Asian or otherwise. Often, these same folks don’t like spiders. Therein lies a choice.

I recently spent a blustery April day searching far and wide for good photographic subjects. I had come up empty until I came home to find, literally at my front door (at least on the brick wall right beside my front door), a scenario that could qualify for those in the know as one of the best things in life: a Brown Marmorated Stinkbug in the embrace of death.

Death, in this case was a hairy little spider that had Mr. Stinkbug by the butt. I think, at first, the spider had the bug by just a wing tip. The bug was very actively trying to get away. Eventually the spider worked its way up to juicier parts, and that quelled the stinkbug fairly quickly.

Jumping Spider with Brown Marmorated Stinkbug

I identified the stinkbug easily enough, but what about the spider?

I thought this would be an easy identification, a hairy little spider with an orange dot that hunted by day. I was wrong.

The eyes and the habits said Jumping Spider (Salticidae), and I immediately thought of the genus Phidippus, a common flavor of jumping spider. So my first stop was the wonderful website BugGuide—which also covers spiders—but nothing quite matched.

Jumping Spiders have a unique eye arrangement.

I went back and cropped and enlarged several of my photos to see if I was missing something, and I was. On one of the worst photos in the series there was a flash of iridescent green.

The clue: an iridescent green chelicera.

Gotcha.

Phidippus it was. The members of the genus Phidippus are renowned for having iridescent green chelicerae (jaws, basically). The most common is the Bold Jumping Spider (Phidippus audax). I know that P. audax is famously variable in its patterns, but I couldn’t find anything with just a single orange dot on the abdomen. So crop and enlarge again: and and there it was, the rest of the pattern hiding under all that hairiness.

Bold Jumping Spider, enlargement of abdomen.

So, I’m calling this Phidippus audax, the Bold Jumping Spider.

What’s the choice?

Well, I understand that a lot of people are afraid of spiders, and we do have a couple that are pretty toxic, but the Jumping Spiders are not toxic at all. According to Dr. Arthur Huntley:  “The bite is usually asymptomatic to slightly painful and subsequently results in a local reaction such as an erythematous papule [red bump] or a small urticarial wheal [itchy red bump].”

That said, the same article states that jumping spiders “are the most common biting spider in the United States.” This is an interesting bit of information, and it is repeated verbatim in several places on the net. However, I have never found an original source.

So the choice is yours,  the possibility of an occasional itchy red bump, or stink bugs.

Bold Jumping Spider (Phidippus audax)

As for me, well, I like spiders.

Generally the first ephemeral to appear is Hepatica  (Hepatica nobilis), usually a flower of the deep woods.

Round-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica nobilis)

Hepatica is followed closely by a personal favorite, Trailing Arbutus (Epigaea repens). Look for it on warm roadside banks.

Trailing Arbutus (Epigaea repens). They are not always so pink.

Then comes Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica), look close for the pink pinstripes on the petals.

Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica)

The second “flush” of wildflowers includes Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), a member of the Poppy family that likes moist–but not wet–conditions.

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

Cutleaf Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata) is a member of the Mustard family (note the cross-shaped four-petaled flower).

Cutleaf Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata)

Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum), also known as Dog-tooth Violet, also prefers moist woods.

Yellow Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum)

Early Saxifrage (Saxifraga virginensis) blooms along road cuts and exposed banks.

Early Saxifrage (Saxifraga virginiensis)

Look close to the ground to find the flowers of the Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense) under the heart-shaped leaf.

Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense)

We have two look-alike members of the Buttercup family: Rue Anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides) and False Rue Anemone (Enemion biternatum). The False Rue Anemone has five part flowers, while the Rue Anemone has up to ten. Additionally, the leaf of the False Rue Anemone looks somewhat like chervil or flatleaf parsley. The leaf of the Rue Anemone looks like some kind of weird green mitten.

Rue Anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides)

False Rue Anemone (Enemion biternatum)

Finally, there is Dutchmen’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria), which often blooms in along the sides of our woods roads.

Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)

There will be more to come as the season progresses. Watch this space.

Went to the lake first thing this morning to try and get some shots of Ring-necked Ducks that were there last night. Well, the Ring-necks had departed, but there were some very nice Ruddy Ducks.

Ruddy Ducks

There was also a nifty little Pied-billed Grebe, although he stayed well away from me.

Pied-billed Grebe

After lunch, I headed up to a local ridge-top to see what butterflies had emerged.

The first thing I saw was a dragonfly, Green Darner. Actually, there were several hawking above the service road. One finally landed, and I grabbed a couple of pictures.

Green Darner

There was another predator haunting the roads, the Six-spotted Tiger Beetle. I have a devil of a time getting good photographs of these little guys–this is an extreme enlargement.

Six-spotted Tiger Beetle

There were still Mourning Cloaks hanging around.

Mourning Cloak

This particular ridgetop hosts a colony of Falcate Orangetip butterflies, and I always find them there this time of year.

Falcate Orangetip

I saw my first Black Swallowtail of the year.

Black Swallowtail

And there was good news. The future of Tiger Swallowtails on that ridgetop seems secure. This was the first time that I had ever seen a Black form female mating with a standard yellow male.

Tiger Swallowtails mating

The swallowtails weren’t the only butterflies ensuring the survival of their species. These are (I believe) Juvenal’s Duskywings.

Juvenal's Duskywings mating

The thing about duskywings, they can be very hard to identify. I think this is a different species, but I’m not sure. Looks different!

Duskywing spp.

There were also a couple of day-flying moths. The first was the ubiquitous Bluish Spring Moth.

Bluish Spring Moth

There was also an Eight-spotted Forester.

Eight-spotted Forester

The Red-breasted Merganser is more of a sea duck, and I usually just see them loafing far out on the lake, sleeping birds with bad haircuts.

Red-breasted Mergansers (Mergus serrator) loafing

They don’t lay over long, and they prefer to stay right out in the center of the lake, but on a couple of occasions, I have been fortunate enough to be able to photograph one close to the shore.

Red-breasted Mergansers (Mergus serrator), male

In most lights, the male’s head looks almost black.

Red-breasted Mergansers (Mergus serrator), male

In just the right light, the male’s head shows a splendid irridescent green, a popular color among ducks (Mallards, Shovelers, Common Mergansers).

Red-breasted Mergansers (Mergus serrator), male showing irridescense.

Not all of the males show up fully attired for their nuptials.

Red-breasted Mergansers (Mergus serrator), male incomplete molt

The female is more humbly colored, in the general mode of ducks.

Red-breasted Mergansers (Mergus serrator), female

They are primarily fish eaters. They dive often and, therefore, they spend a lot of time preening.

Red-breasted Mergansers (Mergus serrator), male preening

They spend the winter south of here in the large estuaries of the Atlantic Coast. The Red-breasted Merganser breeds in boreal forests and up into the tundra. Unlike the Hooded and Common, it is not a cavity nester, but nests on the ground, often under low-hanging conifer boughs or other shrubbery and rocks. There are not a lot of cavities up north, so I guess that is as close as they can find.

These birds form their pair bonds during spring migration, and the birds that drop in to the lake are often paired up. Polygamy is fairly common, but mostly I observe pairs.

Red Salamander (Pseudotriton ruber)

Like many salamanders, Red Salamanders are most easily seen when they are on the move. Look for them on warm, rainy spring nights as they move from the streams where they spent the winter to more terrestrial habitats where they will stay until they return to their streams for breeding in the fall. They will overwinter at or near the streams until the first warm rains of the following springs call them to move onto land again.

They prefer forested streams, medium to high gradient, clear and clean. I tend to find them crossing roads on wet spring (late March–early April) evenings.

Red Salamander (Pseudotriton ruber)

Red salamanders are reported to feed on other salamanders (including the Red-backed Salamander—Plethodon cinereus—our most common terrestrial salamander), as well as the usual suite of insects, worms, spiders, etc. They are, in turn, fed on by snakes, despite the fact that they secrete a toxin that makes them unpleasant (at least to mammals).

Red Eft, terrestrial stage Red-spotted Newt (Notopthalmus viridescens)

As they are terrestrial, red, and spotted, it has been posited that Red Salamanders are mimics of the terrestrial larvae of the Red-spotted Newt (Notopthalmus viridescens), which is also red and spotted (hence, the name). If correct, this would be an example of Müllerian mimicry, in which both species share a common trait with a similar effect (in this case, toxic skin secretions).

I have never witnessed the autumn move back to the water for the winter. I will keep an eye out for it this fall.

Or take pictures of.

So, in late March, on a warm day, I found myself turning slowly in a windless clearing, nose up, seeking the source of the scent of death warmed over.

It was—or had been—a deer. It was now a banquet. There were flies aplenty. There were also beetles, a type of carrion beetle I had never seen before, and they were busy.

The funny thing about a stinking carcass, it draws you, up to a point, and then it repels you. I was not committed to close examination, so I took some photos with a long lens and went home to see what I could learn.

Margined Carrion Beetles (Oiceoptoma noveboracense) mating.

First, thanks to the marvelous website BugGuide, I learned that these were Margined Carrion Beetles (Oiceoptoma noveboracense). 

They are active in the spring, so I figured that they are former-frozen-food specialists. There is, however, some uncertainty over what they actually eat—rotting meat, fungus, maggots, or all of the above. I suspect it is all of the above, regardless: tough rations.

Margined Carrion Beetles (Oiceoptoma noveboracense) on White-tailed Deer carcass.

As I scanned through the photographs, I also found these little guys—Oiceoptoma larvae.

Carrion Beetle larvae (Oiceoptoma spp).

These were extremely active little insects, constantly exploring at a high rate of speed.

Carrion Beetle larva (Oiceoptoma spp).

I’m not sure what they were looking for. I saw a couple hitching rides with the adults.

Carrion Beetle with larva

Obviously, the beetles had been getting busy for quite a while, for these larvae seemed fairly well along in their journey through life.

Now, why didn’t I just say they were Margined Carrion Beetle larvae?  Because I’m not quite sure; I also found this guy hanging out in a photograph.

Ridged Carrion Beetle (Margined Carrion Beetle ). No orange on the pronotum (bit behind the head).

This is a Ridged Carrion Beetle (Oiceoptoma inaequale). According to Bugguide, the adults eat maggots. The larve feed on carrion. Apparently, the under side of the elytra is iridescent blue, which causes a “”disappearing effect as the beetle lands.” I didn’t get to see that.

Now the small sample of photos I found on line show the larvae of the Margined Carrion Beetle to have a racing stripe right down the middle of its back, the larvae of the Ridged Carrion Beetle seems to lack the stripe. I’m not sure that is diagnostic; to my eye, none of these seem to have the racing stripe. While the other larvae I photographed seemed dark matte brown, this little guy was hanging out near the Ridged Carrion Beetle adult.  It seems shinier and more black. That said, I found it hiding out in the out-of-focus and under-exposed part of one of my photos–the color may only be an artefact of poor photography. It might also represent a different instar.

Oiceoptoma larva

The members of the genus Oiceoptoma are Silphids in the sub-family Silphinae of the Carrion Beetle family (Silphidae). Here is what the folks at NC State have to say:

Silphids… are ecologically beneficial as decomposers and are important for maintaining ecosystem health and productivity.  For the most part, both larvae and adults feed on carrion. There are two subfamilies of Silphidae, the Nicrophorinae and Silphinae.  Members of the two subfamilies are attracted to carcasses at different stages of decay. Silphinae feed on carcasses in a more advanced stage of decay, while Nicrophorinae need mostly fresh carcasses for reproduction.  Most Nicrophorinae bury small carcasses and exhibit biparental care, but species of Silphinae lay eggs just beneath the surface of the soil near a larger carcass without burial. Many silphid species also have potential importance for forensic investigations, but post-mortem estimations are difficult due to the unresolved natural histories of many Silphinae species.

By the way, the NC State article started with the line, “I like poetry, long walks on the beach, and poking dead things with a stick.” I wish I had written that.