Surprise—birds today, but also two dragonflies.
First, two species of jays. Reader Ronaldo Bartl sent a photo of a species that was new to me, but was beautiful:
Hope you like it; a group of 3 plush-crested jays (Cyanocorax chrysops) taken at the Parque Nacional Iguazú (Argentina). Although there was a sign saying not to feed them, or any other animal life,it was obvious they were used to people doing so…
Taken with a Panasonic FZ7 compact superzoom,
Another jay from reader Glenn Butler, who did a good deed:
Here’s a friendly juvenile blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata). This bird was apparently orphaned and decided to rely on humans for food. This brave little blue jay followed me around for perhaps an hour, persuading me to offer some lunch bread. Convinced our feathered friend wouldn’t survive we both made a trip to a local, Chesapeake, Virginia songbird rehabilitator.
We don’t often get photos of dragonflies on the wing. Reader Stephen Barnard has sent two. His notes:
Dragonfly in flight — unidentified species. I’m pretty sure it’s a darner, but the only close matches I can find are
for species outside this range.
Can anybody help?
Very nice, thanks for sharing thee. Stephen: Amazingly good IIF shots. Wow.
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The Plush-crested Jays are gorgeous. New bird fr me, too.
Stephen’s in flight shots are impressive, especially if you’ve ever tried you hand at it yourself. I’ve been trying to get some nice ones for a while now and my best are nowhere near this good.
Indeed. Great shots (as always), kudos to Stephen. My own few naive attempts at photographing dragonflies in flight resulted in, at best, pictures of some non-distinct winged blur.
Also, beautiful jay pictures! Some of my favorite birds. Always looking forward to these “Readers’ wildlife” posts.
The dragonfly photos were accidental and unplanned. I was in a float tube, trying to photograph some warblers on the other side of the creek. The dragonfly stopped and hovered (checking me out, I think) exactly the right distance away and I had the right gear and the right settings, and I had just enough time to get autofocus. So much about action wildlife photography is like that.
Definitely some species of Mosaic Darner, genus Aeshna, but difficult (for me, anyway) to get it to species.
Could it be a male Variable Darner, Aeshna interrupta? http://bugguide.net/node/view/235273/bgpage
I think you nailed it with Variable Darner, Aeshna interrupta. It’s supposed to be found throughout Idaho. The thorax stripes didn’t seem green enough, but maybe they’re variable. 🙂
From the bug guide link supplied by Mark at comment #7, it certainly looks like the female has more green than blue, so there must be variability between gender, and perhaps age.
The female: http://bugguide.net/node/view/440870/bgpage
The paddle shaped male appendages (cerci) would limit it to one of three species that are native to Idaho: A. constricta, A. palmata or A. umbrosa. A. interrupta males have differently shaped appendages from the one in the photo. A. umbrosa is eliminated because it has pale spots under the abdomen and lacks a dark line on the face. A. constricta also lacks a dark line on the face or at most has a thin, paler line. It also has wider thoracic stripes with a deeper notch in the forward stripe. This leaves A. palmata as the best fit, as it has a black line on the face and thin, straight thoracic stripes.
Descriptions taken from Dennis Paulson, “Dragonflies and Damselflies of the West” by Princeton University Press. This book and its companion volume for the East are the best introductory field guides for North American odonates.
Astounding dragonflies in flight!!!!
Amazing pictures. The plushy jays are gorgeous, and Glen, you saved the life of a juvie jay! That is heartwarming.
Amazing dragonfly pix. I hope you try your hand at other flying insects, Barnard, b/c you are of course amazing at it.
I agree with Kurt that it seems to be a mosaic darner, but I do not have time to try for identifying the species. Perhaps someone else can have a go. Here is a useful site.
Without an ID, can we just call it ‘Mo?
The geographic location of the individual in question might also help with the ID. I like ‘Mo’!
The plush-crested jays look sad no one is feeding them and the branch the top right plush-crested jay is sitting on, looks like a creepy hand. 🙂
My parents had friends who took in a juvenile blue jay. They tried to release him but the jay would have none of it so they ended up keeping him. They also had a parrot & the blue jay would fly onto the outside of the cage & shake it to rile up the parrot. 🙂
:)))when I was a kid, we called the dragonfly “blue dragonfly”, a rare version of the dragonflies. “Red dragonfly ” was also rare. The most common seen dragonfly were the green ones, which we normally called them “dragonfly”. Dragonfly and cicada were the most popular toys in summer, specially for boys.
DIF — impressive! Those suckers are quick and unpredictable.
…but they’re also often rather friendly, and happy to stay perched on a finger long enough to admire them and maybe even get some one-handed snaps.
b&
Nice pictures all, but I wonder about the ethics of taking an uninjured bird from the wild? what do others think?
It may not seem believable, but this little blue jay followed me persistently. He even flew inside a building and perched on a chainsaw handle. I strongly suspect this bird had some previous interaction with humans, otherwise why would it have been so friendly? I’ve fed plenty of adult blue jays and they never allow me closer than one to two feet.
The only sensible course of action was to turn the little jay over to a rehabilitator. The plan was to release the bird as soon as it could feed itself.
According to Glenn’s comments he believed it to have been orphaned and acted to give it a home. Whether or not he was correct in his assumption it is pretty clear he didn’t just take an uninjured bird from the wild.
I would agree that taking wild birds into captivity simply for the pleasure of owning them is an undesirable act (and in at least some countries with some species also illegal) but I don’t think that is what Glenn did.
…but I don’t think that is what Glenn did.
As confirmed by Glenn’s own reply which he sent simultaneously with mine.
Taking it out of the wild, “to a local, Chesapeake, Virginia songbird rehabilitator,” is very ethical in my opinion given the circumstances described.
I can’t think of a better course of action than taking the bird to experts who are best capable of determining any issues the bird might have, addressing those issues successfully, and best capable of determining when to return the bird to the wild with reasonable confidence it is capable of surviving without direct human intervention.
Nice job Glenn.
I concur.
The plush-crested jays are spectacular. The thrill of seeing a species for the first time never grows old.
Thanks for the new-bird introduction. Beautiful jays.
Good job Glenn, saving the bird. Rehabilitation centers do a real good job bringing birds to health and setting them free. I had a friend that did it with an injured crow. They called him when the crow was released, and he said he flew off cawing into the distance.
Funny, just last week I was trying to photo a dragonfly in flight with my micro lens. I didn’t even achieve a blurry photo… It did land on my arm, but the kit is too heavy for one handed shots. I got some good shots of it perching, though not nearly as impressive as Stephen’s in-flight shots.