Readers’ wildlife photos

Today we have a potpourri from several readers; their captions are indented. The first is from Barbara Wilson:

These dragonflies were photo’d August 8 at Boyle Reservoir, southern Oregon, at the same place, within minutes of each other.  Different damage on the wings indicates that they are different individuals.  Botanist that I am, I thought they were the same species.  However, posting them on iNaturalist taught me that one is the 8-spotted Dragonfly, Libellula forensis, and the other is the 12-spotted Dragonfly, Libellula pulchella.

Count the spots of both to see which is which:

From Lee Beringsmith:

 I have a small ranch in Northern California and love to see the Killdeer (Charadrius vociferous) nest in the gravel near my barn. Their broken-wing antics to lure predators away from the nest is a good way to bring a smile to my face. This year our free range roosters decided Killdeer eggs were on the menu and the first nest did not survive as the roosters were too smart to fall for the broken wing display.

To my surprise the Killdeer changed strategy and with the next brood they stood right next to the nest (4 eggs just behind him, her?) to defend it from all threats, both roosters and myself. This new tactic proved to be a success and I saw four chicks running around the ranch with mom or dad a few weeks later. I have never seen this change in behavior before, but it just shows you how nature will find a way.

From Christopher Moss:

A  yellow warbler (Setophaga petechia) taking shelter from the rain under large sunflower leaves:

From Michael Glenister:

A few photos of Columbian ground squirrels (Urocitellus columbianus) from our annual road trip to Manning Park [British Columbia].