Black Spreadwing - Lestes stultus

Damselflies are tough for a beginner like me, as the difference in the species are often subtle. Identification best performed by examination of a specimen "in hand", but sometimes a digi-scoped view gets me close enough to see some subtle features.

Most damselfly species rest with their wings folded near the body, but the Spreadwings (family Lestidae) usually perch or hang with wings in an open position. Here is what I believe is a male Black Spreadwing, Lestes stultus, one of many seen at Nagasawa Community Park in Santa Rosa, California. Photos are from a visit on May 10, 2016.

The male above has started to briefly fold the wings. The sexual appendages at the end of the abdomen are curved inward, with the cerci above framing a window showing the the club-shaped paraprocts below. Here the paraprocts are reflecting white, but in fact are black. Note the black panel near the ends of the wings, the pterostigma, here with a narrow white border.

 

This was the only time I saw this spreadwing with the wings folded, albeit briefly. The head and thorax have a hint of purple iridescence.

A crop of another view shows a bit more detail in the appendages:

Many of the 20+ Black Spreadwings gathered near a small ponded area in the center of the swale, most either in tandem or in the wheel position, as here. The abdomen segments near the end of the male are flexed sharply forward, allowing him to grasp the female just behind the head in an area that I believe is called the prothorax. The female's entire abdomen is curled forward to complete the wheel (or "ring"), allowing her to receive the sperm stored in secondary genitalia of the male on the undersurface of segment 2.

Cropped view of the male grasping the female, showing how the appendages have spread apart to firmly grasp the prothorax.

Blue Grosbeak - Passerina caerulea

While watching the panoply of nesting birds at HAS's Smith Oaks Rookery in High Island, TX, we heard someone call, "Look at that blue bird." Not 15' below our viewing platform there it was, an male Blue Grosbeak, chomping down on grass seeds.

The bird stayed for at least 20 minutes, sometimes obscured by the blowing grass leaves, but then suddenly providing an open view. Note the bicolored bill and reddish wing bars, easily separating it from another Passerina cousin, the Indigo Bunting.

The Blue Grosbeak is a widespread breeder across the southern U.S, as well as Mexico. Map from Cornell Lab of Ornithology:

As I understand it, terms like "bunting" and "grosbeak" refer to a variety of seed-eating songbirds, and are descriptive rather that taxonomic terms. In other words all buntings are not in the same family or genus. In fact the Blue Grosbeak is the only "grosbeak" in genus Passerina, while the other six species there are called "buntings".To make matters more confusing, most birds named "bunting" are in the family Emberizidae, which includes Old World and New World sparrows, among which are 39 bunting species in the genus Emberiza. Other species with the common name of Grosbeak are in several different genera in the family Cardinaidae, such as Saltator, Pheucticus, etc.

Maybe questionable, but see Cardinalidae of North America. I wondered about the accuracy of this site since it lists "Len Blumin" as a source of information on the genus Passerina! They used text I wrote in 2008 for a Flickr posting a grainy photo of the Varied Bunting.

Horned Grebe - Podiceps autitus

In April our smaller Podiceps grebes, Horned and Eared, molt dramatically into alternate plumage. In winter it can sometimes be a challenge to distinguish the Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus), from the Eared Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis), but no difficulty now. On April 19th our birding group of Vagrants spent time at Bodega Bay. The highlight for me was this cooperative Horned Grebe swimming in the channel by the sportfishing boats at Porto Bodega, accessed from Bay Front Road. We watched it from the dock just aft of the New Sea Angler.

The white tip on the bill is actually a very good field mark for the Horned Grebe, as the white tip is not seen on the Eared Grebe. The light orange feathers on the side of the head form a solid swath (wispy in Eared), and the black of the cheek transitions sharply to a rufous neck.

A second photo give us a better look at the red pupil. Many grebes have red pupils, but in Horned Grebe the inner margin of the iris next to the pupil has a white margin, something I had not noticed before. Best seen in a cropped view here. The white margin is not present on the Eared Grebe. Better use a scope if looking for this field mark!

One last shot of the same Horned Grebe, showing rufous on the flank and some gray in the back. Note how the Horned Grebe can also have a "high-riding" rear end, as seen in the Eared. The unfeathered fleshy bare tract from eye to bill is seen in a number of grebe species.

To end on a confusing ironic note, the scientific name for Horned, Podiceps auritus, translates to "Eared Grebe"! And of course the Eared Grebe, Podiceps nigricollis means "Black-necked Grebe", which is the name used in Europe for Eared Grebe.