Blue-Headed Blackbird: Lack of Warblers, Plenty of Dragon/Butterflies

Due to a number of forces that conspired against me (whether, scheduling, internships), I somehow managed to not see a new species of warbler for myself this May. That might not be a big deal for many experienced birdwatchers, there are a number of seemingly common and easy to identify species that I have managed to not see in 2 springs of birdwatching, including Chestnut-Sided, Magnolia, and Black-Throated Green & Blue Warblers, plus American Redstarts. Some of this must be chalked up to my inability to go ~~birdwatching~~ naturewatching in many spectacular places for long periods of time. Anyways, enough ranting, here's a show case of some of the wildlife I have taken decent pictures of the last 4 weeks (mostly Odes, Leps, and Herps{and mostly at Ames Nowell, Burrage Pond WMA, and Oak Knoll Wildlife Sanct.}).

We'll start with Ames Nowell: (As always, click the images for larger because they're all uncropped, because that's just how I roll)

Canada Goose

There were 2 Canada Goose pairs with a total of 11 chicks between them (4 & 7) on May 6th, though I haven't seen any sign of the chicks since then (?)

Canada Goslings

On the 24th I found this freshly emerged Baskettail dragonfly all shriveled up under a bush. It's probably a Common Baskettail but it's hard ID Baskettails even when they're not all shriveled up.

Freshly emerged Baskettail sp.

Later in the same day I was swarmed by several Common Baskettails (99% sure), which was very convenient because I was under gnat-attack at the time, though some came pretty close to nailing me in the face.

Common Baskettail

Common Baskettail again

I stumbled across this Toad, but (s)he has stumped me as far as an ID goes. Here in Massachusetts we have American Toads and Fowler's Toads. Fowler's Toads, among other things, have 3 or more warty bumps in the largest brown spots and have an unspotted belly, but this guy/gal didn't give me a good view of his belly, and his spots seem to be inconclusive. For now I'm going to go with just Toad species, Bufo sp., but I'm always open to corrections.

Mystery Toad

Coming into this year, there were 2 species that I really wanted to get great pictures of during this year. One is a picture in situ of a Black-Fingered Mud Crab (any of the 4 species around here) and the second is a male White Corporal (one of my favorite dragonflies, if not my favorite). I saw several of the bright white males last year at my local Ames Nowell several times before I started bringing my camera with me, and so I never got a picture of them. White Corporals are a restricted range species, being found in a narrow band from Virginia in the south to Nova Scotia, and there are only a handful of pictures of them, with only one picture of a male not in the hand on Buguide.net.

White Corporal (either immature male or female)

I did come across several White Corporals on the 24th, despite being eaten alive by gnats. I believe both of these individuals whom I got pictures of are immature males (females look very similar), with one appearing to have a forewing that hasn't dried out yet. I haven't had much chance to get back to the location where I saw these 2 to try to photograph them in their shiny white garment, but I will try again asap. From what I gather from books and my our observations, they have a very brief flight period. I can almost literally hear the clock ticking in my head.

White Corporal (I think the right forewing hadn't dried out yet)

So while I didn't quite get the picture I was hoping for for one restricted range species, I did manage to get several pictures of what I'm fairly certain (I'd say about 97% or so) are New England Bluets, both male and female, the following being a female.

New England Bluet

Ames Nowell has plenty of duskywing butterflies, but duskywings seem to be extra skittish, so getting close enough to get decent pictures with my easyshare camera is particularly difficult, but all the more rewarding.

Dreamy Duskywing

This picture of a Juvenal's Duskywing, and the others not posted taken right before and after it, is one of the best pictures I've taken so far, though not quite as good as my photo from last fall of an American Lady butterfly.

Juvenal's Duskywing

After a very noteworthy day at World's End (more on that in a later post) I decided to quickly see if there were any White Corporal males by the waterfall at Ames Nowell. No dice, but there were however several Dusky Clubtails (again, ID'd to the best of my ability, but with Dragonflies {especially drab clubtails} I guess you never know) and a possible Blue Corporal, though the one time I had an opportunity to get a picture of one it was too far for a remotely good picture and too close even for my 7X50s.