Clubtails along Bear Creek

On our July 16 visit to Bear Creek with Tim Manolis and Leslie Flint we were happy to find 2 species of clubtails, The White-belted Ringtail and the Gray Sanddragon.

The White-belted Ringtail, Erpetogomphus compositus, has an well-chosen scientific name, as "compositus" suggests tit has multiple varied features. Indeed, it looks like a colored drawing filled in by a artistic youngster. Gray face, blue-gray eyes, multi-colored stripes on the thorax, white rings on along the black abdomen, and yellow-orange on the last 3 segments of the abdomen that form the "club" on the male. The female otherwise looks similar. 

They often pose for a while on the same rock. This one turned to face the audience. Dragonflies have quite a range of rotation between the head and the thorax. The widely separated eyes is a common feature of the clubtails (see text at end).

The Ringtails, genus Erpetogomphus, make up one of about 13 genera of dragonflies in the family called Clubtails, the Gomphidae (see below). There are 22 species in genus Erpetogomphus, of which 6 are seen in Western U.S. (Paulson) with only 2 in California (Manolis). Ringtails are restricted to the Americas, whereas other clubtails may have a worldwide distribution. Like most Clubtails, the Ringtails are found along rivers and streams. Most of the 22 species have more green color.

A marginal shot of a female White-belted Ringtail found by Leslie.

There is a bridge along the road to Wilbur Hot Springs (resort destroyed by fire), which allows access to gravel-lined shoreline below it that is a favorite habitat of the Gray Sanddragon, Progomphus borealis. This may be a female, lacking a clubbed tail. Note the prominent light-colored flat cerci at the end of the abdomen.

From a 2013 post:

The Clubtails as a family are indeed very diverse, with at least 13 genera seen in the U.S., including Sanddragons, Leaftails, Forktails, Hanging and Pond Clubtails, Common Clubtails, Least Clubtails, Spinylegs, Dragonhunters (gotta love that one!), and Grappletails. All Clubtails have widely separated eyes (check out the close-up here), compared to the eyes of most dragonfly families where the eyes are close and often touch at the midline, and most are found along rivers and streams where they choose a horizontal perch. Worldwide, there are a total of about 90 genera in the Clubtail family, numbering some 900 species. Quite a group to study, although not nearly as numerous as the Skimmer family, Libellulidae.

Dancers along Bear Creek, California

On July 16th Leslie Flint and I joined Tim Manolis on an ode trip along Bear Creek. It's along route 20, west of Williams, and just past the junction where route 16 t-bones into route 20. The day started warm and reached 90+ when we quit at 2 pm. Not a place to go as a first-timer, or alone. Cell service non-existent and access to creekside habitats can be dicey.

We saw 20+ species of odes that day, including 15 dragonfly and roughly 5 damselfly species.

The three main genera of our Pond Damselfies (family Coenagrionidae) are the Bluets, Forktails, and Dancers. The Dancers, genus Argia, hold their folded wings above the abdomen, while Bluets and Forktails hold folded wings alongside the abdomen. Paulson informs us (Dragonflies and Damselflies of the West) that there some 111 species of Dancers in the world, of which 32 are seen in North America. We have 10 dancers in California (Manolis - Dragonflies and Damselflies of California). We tallied 4 of those along Bear Creek that day.

My favorites was Emma's Dancer, Argia emma. which we found along Bear Creek on the west side of route 16 on our way home. the male is a pretty light purple, with blue at the end of the abdomen at S-8-10. The 4 wings neatly overlap each other, which makes for less than clear venation patterns in a photo. Emma's Dancers are damsels of the northwest, extending down to Central California. Found mostly along rivers and large streams.

We found the Sooty Dancer, Argia lugens, at several locations. It's also a dancer of western states, but with a more restricted distribution than Emma's. The lack of color makes for less dramatic photos. Rounded forms on the bottom of S-2 may be water mites.

Another Sooty Dancer posed for a bit. Perhaps someone out there can tell us what the white bits hanging from the end of the abdomen are all about. The perch here may be on Dallis Grass, an invasive weed in wet areas.

Final dancer photo of the day is a marginal shot of what is likely a California or Aztec Dancer. The 2 species are quite similar and require close examination "in hand" by someone with a hand lens and strong experience for an accurate ID. Note how the abdominal segments are mostly blue, and how the black stripe on the side of the thorax is both slender and forked. Both Aztec (Argia nahuana) and California (Argia agriodes) are western species with considerable overlap in their distributions. Aztec's range extends well into Texas.

Lastly, I remembered that the Vivid Dancer, Argia vivida, was the first damselfly I ever photographed. This from a 2005 trip with Rich Stallcup to Mono Lake and points south.

Bluets - genus Enallagama

Note - most of my Odonata research relies on Denis Paulson's great guides, The Dragonflies and Damselflies of the West -- and of the East).

The bluets are members of the genus Enallagama, the American Bluets, and I blame them for discouraging me from exploring more deeply into the damselfly suborder. I learned early on that many bluet species are similar in appearance and often cannot be accurately identified unless they are captured and examined with a hand lens, not something I do when birding.

There are about 37 American Bluets in the US, 25 of them seen in the "west", and 33 in the "east". I checked all my nature photos (25,000) and found that almost all my bluets were tagged as "bluet sp.", reflecting my failure to learn how to sort them out. I took a few shots of bluets on our Florida trip in early April, at the same pond where we found the Eastern Amberwing.  Yesterday I decided it was time to take the plunge and see if I could learn more. 

Here's the first shot, from a pond in Palm Harbor, FL. Looks like a "typical bluet", a damselfly with blue/black eyes, blue and black stripes on the thorax, and a variable pattern of blue and black on the 10 abdominal segments. Here the abdomen pattern is more blue than black, until you get to the 7th segment, which shows more black than blue. S-8, S-9 and S-10 are mostly blue, with some black on S-10. The wings are held to to side of the body, as with most bluets. Immediately behind the eyes there appears to be a pale blue line, in the area where one sees the post-ocular spots on a damselfly. Note also that the terminal appendages at the end of the abdomen appear quite small.

Nearby I photographed another bluet, perhaps the same species. The thorax stripes and the pattern of black and blue on the abdomen segments is quite like the first photo. The appendages here look a bit larger (different perspective?) and the post-ocular spots, now more visible, seem to form a dumbbell shape. You can get a better view of these photos by going the link to my Flickr photos , then clicking on the photo there to enlarge it.

Next I consulted Paulson's book on the Dragonflies and Damselflies of the east, focusing on the bluets. The range maps for each species were a good starting point, and it showed that there were only about 10 Enallagama species found in central Florida west of Tampa Bay. Of these 10 the color of the thorax and the pattern of black/blue on the abdomen quickly eliminated 7 species. That left only Big Bluet, Familiar Bluet and Atlantic Bluet. Hey, it's easier than I thought! I eliminated Big Bluet in part because it favor large lakes, but mostly because the black rings on the big extend forward more along the top of the abdomen segments. The Familiar and Atlantic Bluets share the same pattern on the thorax and abdominal segments. In Familiar the post-optical spots are usually not joined in a line or by a bar, so I favored Atlantic Bluet as the ID. The Atlantic also favors small ponds.

Looked though my older bluet photos and found this one, which I thought was probably a Familiar Bluet, from Marin County, CA. Note the larger terminal appendages, as well as the how the post-ocular spots are not connected by a bar. I'm not real confident with my conclusions and would welcome a review by more experienced eyes.

Chalk-fronted Corporal - Ladona julia

On the advice of Leslie Flint a few years ago we visited Sand Pond to search for dragonflies. We found many Four-spotted Skimmers there then, but dipped on our target species, the Chalk-fronted Corporal, Ladona julia. Perhaps I failed to get the proper search image into my brain, because they are common at Sand Pond starting in mid-June.

On June 14 we walked the trail around the pond and spotted a number of male Chalk-fronted Corporals, mostly in open sunny areas not far from the water. The males are distinctive, with a light blue waxy coating (pruinosity) on the top of the thorax and  the proximal abdominal segments. The wings are quite plain, in contrast to many more ornate species in the skimmer family (Libellulidae).

I enlarged the above photo to show the base of the wings where they join the thorax, to show small black areas with some adjacent brown color., the only markings on these otherwise plain wings, but all the better to show off the venation.

After some searching I finally found a Chalk-fronted Corporal perching briefly on some vegetation near the water. 

The Corporals, genus Ladona, are a small North American genus sometimes placed with the King Skimmers, Libellula. There are 3 species of Corporals, but this in the only one whose range extends to Northern California.

For esoterica-inclined souls (you are probably one if you read this far), the rank of corporal has an insignia of two bars. I figured that referred to the 2 broad white bars on the top of the thorax as seen above. Then I read that the use of "corporal" for this genus refers rather to the 2 narrow bars on top of the thorax seen in females and immature of the genus, and not to the broad white bars in these photos, which actually do look like a corporal's bars. I was still puzzled, as the top of the thorax is clearly not the "front", so why call it chalk-fronted? Well, turns out that the "top" here is also the "front", as it refers to the part of the thorax in front of the wings! Go figure.

Give me a simple name like Exclamation Damsel any day.

Rambur's Forktail - Wheel

In summertime birding slows down while we await the returning shorebirds, but hopefully we still get to enjoy the species that breed in our area. The warm days may not be ideal for birding, but the dragonflies love it, and many birders take time to look for them near creeks and ponds.

Ishnura is the genus of the Forktails. Of the 14 forktail species seen in the U.S. 8 can be found in California. I think the mating pair here are an example of Rambur's Forktail, Ishnura ramburii. It''s range barely includes southeast California, but is a common across the southern tier of the U.S, including this twosome we found in Palm Harbor, Florida, early April 2016..

The male (above) is clasping the female behind her head, while she bends her abdomen sharply forward to receive sperm from where they have been stored in his second abdominal segment. This "ring", or "wheel" position is seen in many species of damselflies and dragonflies during mating.. Note how the coloration of the female here strongly mirrors that of the male, a color phase describe as "andromorphic". Andromorph females are supposed to be pretty common among Rambur's Forktails.

There are 69 species of forktails worldwide (Paulson, Dragonflies and Damselflies of the West). Many have largely black abdomens when viewed from above, often with blue in the last few abdominal segments.

Butterflies - Sachem and Acmon Blue

We visited Nagasawa Park in Santa Rosa July 8th to check on the dragonflies. The highlight of our outing turned out to be butterflies, and 2 species in particular caught my eye. 

The first is a small orange and brown butterfly in the Skipper family (Hesperiidae). After checking my regular sources (books by Bob Stewart have the best photos) I favored Sachem as the ID. I uploaded the photo to Bug Guide and quickly received confirmation. Then I did a web search and found a great source called Birds and Moths of North America (BAMONA). This BANOMA account for the Sachem told me just about all I might want to know. This is the male Sachem. After mating the female will lay her eggs on certain grasses to feed the caterpillars after they hatch. The species account (above link) has all the details.

Along the same trail, which is on the west side of the pond at Nagasawa Park, we spotted a good number of small blue butterflies. The view of this one through the scope was rather stunning. The photo barely hints at the awesome shimmering pink/violet color on the hindwings. The butterfly is almost certainly the Acmon Blue. They measure one inch or less, and don't usually land for very long. This was nectaring on a weedy mint named Pennyroyal, which is toxic to the liver of higher animals. 

My equipment yields "soft" photos of most small creatures, which to my eye sometimes look prettier than tack-sharp images from a DSLR.

Black-necked Stilt at Frank's Dump

When we arrived at the impounded area known as Frank's Dump on July 13th the relative paucity of birds there made it easier to sort through them. Best were 30+ deep rufous Red Knots, forming 2 groups on the main mud island. Other birds included 3 Red-necked Phalaropes on the island and 3 Snowy Plovers on mud bars just a bit north. At high tide there will be thousands of birds packed cheek-by-jowl on the island, and the Red-necked Stint found there recently might be present in the northwest corner. 

As we scanned the birds (never did see the Stint!) we heard a Black-necked Stilt chirping to 2 of its chicks along the shore just below us, almost too close to keep in a scope view. Managed this shot of a juvenile, perhaps 3-4 weeks old. The buff fringed feathers will soon be replaced by gray and black. The legs are a dull gray-pink and were too long to fit in the composition.

In Black-necked Stilts both parents share the brooding and subsequent guard duty. The youngsters are precocial and feed themselves. Juvenile stilts have brown irises, which will become deep ruby red with age.

To get to the Hayward Regional Shoreline take 880 south toward Hayward, exiting at Winton Ave. Follow W. Winton west toward the bay end and park at the end. Don't leave valuables exposed in the car. Walk out to the bay (.5 mi) and then north on the levee for about .7 mi. Scope is helpful but not necessary.

Texas Shorebirds in April

The Gulf Coast provides many accessible site for watching shorebirds, so I thought I'd share some photos from our recent trip to Florida (Tarpon Springs) and East Texas (Bolivar Peninsula). Have written about these species at some length in the past, so today I'll stick with pictures. Many of the birds are in transition from winter (basic) to breeding (alternate) plumage.

Ruddy Turnstone - Arenaria interpres - Breeding

Dunlin - Calidris alpina - Winter

Western Sandpiper - Calidris mauri - Breeding. Blurry Sanderling in background.

Sanderling - Callidris alba - Molting into breeding plumage.

Texas - Terns in Context

Recently mentioned that the Black Tern is one of the smallest of the terns, but I didn't really place that in context. A photo from Rollover Pass on the Bolivar Peninsula may give you a better idea. Here 3 small molting Black Terns are in the center, dwarfed by 3 large Royal Terns to the right with their orange bills, and 2 medium-sized Sandwich Terns on the left, with yellow-tipped black bills. The Royal Tern at 20" is almost as large as the 21" Caspian Tern.

At Bolivar Flats the Black Terns were seen with the slightly smaller Least Terns. I thoughtlessly tried to frame the Black Terns by themselves, but did find the 2 small tern species together. The bill of the Least is yellow in breeding plumage, with a touch of black at the tip. No other terns seen in the U.S. have yellow bills.

Terns were once grouped with the Gulls in the family Laridae but DNA analysis convinced the taxonomists to give terns their own family, Sternidae. There are about 44 species of birds in the tern family, including 5 species with the name noddy.

We did get to see a few distant Gull-billed Terns on the Bolivar Peninsula along Yacht Basin Road, a new species for us. They have relatively longer legs that most terns, as well as thick black bills, and are not usually seen along the shore with other terns.

American Alligator - Alligator mississippiensis

During our April visit to east Texas we stopped several times at the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, not far from High Island. The highlight there is a great loop drive around "Shoveler Pond", not unlike the drive around the Colusa National Wildlife refuge in the Sacramento Valley. At Anahuac visitors are permitted to walk along the levees. As we rounded a bend on the route we spotted this imposing beast sunning along the shore. I got out of the car to take a photo, but kept my distance. Viewing and photographing through a scope certainly lowered any stress.

The American Alligator shown above was about 9 feet long, perhaps a male. They increase in size with age, and can reach 15+' in length and a weight of 1,000 pounds! Pretty common in fresh water habitats of Florida and other gulf coast states. The bulge below the mandible is a feature that varied from minute to minute, perhaps helpful with thermoregulation. A friend wrote that the sense prey from receptors on floor of the mouth, so maybe this one was checking the air the way a snake extrudes its tongue.

Black Tern - Chlidonias niger

The timing of our Texas birding trip in early April preceded the peak of spring migration for the songbirds and others, but we did get to see a strong pulse of Black Terns passing through, with many present at both Rollover Pass and Bolivar Flats. Most birds we saw were in the middle of their pre-alternate molt, presenting interesting mixtures of black and white. This one apparently has a long way to go....

The birds at Bolivar Flats (a sanctuary managed by Houston Audubon) were pretty oblivious to our presence, so we had prolonged opportunity for viewing. This second bird has developed more black, but still far from the beautiful sleek finery it will obtain over the next month.

The Black Tern is a small tern, less that 10" long including those long wings. Compare to the Least Tern, 9" long. Overcast sky added to the pleasing monochromatic composition. 

Last shot shows one of the birds stretching. The black "band" is simply the tips of the secondaries on the trailing edge of the right wing. 

All birds we saw were simply resting on the beach or shoreline. Our only previous experience with the Black Tern was on a Rich Stallcup outing to Moonglow Dairy about 10 years ago, where we watched several of them flying like swallows over a marshy area and deftly snatching insects from the water's surface.

Wilson's Plover

One reason I like plovers is that they are pretty tolerant of humans, so they can be closely observed and photographed. On our Texas trip in May we observed 7 species in the family Charadriidae, which includes the plovers, sand-plovers, lapwings, and dotterels. One of the best spots was Rollover Pass, where we watched Wilson's Plover, Charadrius wilsonia. In the shot below the duller female Wilson's is on the left, the male with the rufous eyebrow and wide breastband is in the center, and the slightly larger Dunlin is on the right. The long thick bill quickly separates Wilson's from otherCharadrius plovers.

Here's a better shot of the male. The pink legs also set it apart from other plovers.

The plovers are usually grouped with the large family Scolopacidae, the Sandpipers. It was interesting to read in Sibley's Guide to Birdlife & Behavior that the plover family may be more closely related to the Gulls and Terns than to the sandpipers!

The list of plovers we encountered in Texas included Black-bellied, American Golden, Piping, Semipalmated, Snowy and Wilson's Plovers, along with the Killdeer.

Some past plover photos.

Upland Sandpiper - Bartramia longicauda

During our 6 day visit to Texas in April we concentrated on sites known for birding diversity and good viewing. For us that meant Bolivar Flats and the Houston Audubon Society's preserves at High Island. On the morning of April 8th we decided to explore the local backroads in search of the Upland Sandpiper, a species we have never seen. Our search grid included the area south of I-10, west of route 124, and north of White's Ranch Road (rte 1985). Tired without success to find some flooded fields for shorebirds, but mostly looked for grassland habitats preferred by the Upland SP.

Driving slowly on Fairview Road we spotted a few medium sized shorebirds foraging in the grass near the roadside, and watched them as they flew into a nearby field. There we followed a loose flock of 10+ Uplands as they searched for invertebrates. Often we saw only their heads, but occasionally a few provided a decent view, although at some distance.

Their big eyes contributed to the choice of their old name, the Upland Plover, although it was recognized that they belonged in the sandpiper family rather than with the plovers (see below for taxonomy). Their small rounded heads have been described as "pigeon-like".

Their long necks are like those of larger sandpipers, but since they don't forage on mudflats they don't need long bills like their curlew cousins.

Taxonomy, from Birds of North America Online,  #580, C. Houston and D. Bowen:

Related Species

Although it is placed in a monotypic genus, Bartramia longicauda could be considered a small curlew (Numenius spp.) with a short, straight bill; the two genera are sisters (see Sibley and Monroe 1990, Thomas et al. 2004, Baker et al. 2007). The curlew radiation lies squarely within the family Scolopacidae, the shorebirds, where it appears to be basal to a radiation that includes many of the familiar genera in the family (Baker et al. 2007), such as Limosa (the godwits), Gallinago (the snipes), Calidris (the “peeps” and stints), and Tringa(the shanks).

The Upland Sandpipers spend 8 months of the year "wintering" in grassy fields of South America, where of course it is "summer" down there. They migrate north through the central and eastern US. Populations have declined in the past because of hunting (said to be very tasty) and habitat loss.