Unidentified late summer flycatcher

Even with my new North American Flycatchers field guide, I am unable to identify this little flycatcher.  It was quite far away for these photographs.  It was also actively flycatching so it did not remain perched long enough for me to move closer, or give an opportunity for views of the wings.  This bird was seen at the lake community I belong to and which I have visited about a half-dozen times this summer.  

Small bird, slightly flat to rounded head, sloped forehead, both mandibles dark, no eye ring, shortish to medium primary projection, medium (?) length tail, brown buffy breast, brown-toned in color overall.  

I believe I saw Eastern Phoebes (Sayornis phoebe) in this location earlier in the season.  But Cin-Ty Lee's book does not include Sayornis flycatchers.  Maybe it should have?  Anyway the forehead slope does not appear right for Eastern Phoebe, but the all-dark bill does.  This bird was not doing any tail pumping.

I have heard Willow Flycatchers (Empidonax traillii) vocalizing here which, for the habitat, seemed right..  The habitat is also perfect for Eastern Wood Pewee (Contopus virens) (Cin-Ty Lee, pages 68-70), although I don't recall hearing Eastern Wood pewee vocalizations over the summer, I may have just tuned them out secondary to my expectation that Eastern Wood pewees would, absolutely, be present.   

If someone said to me that I must identify this bird or else, my guess would be first year Eastern Wood Pewee.  This ID does not account for the dark bill or some other field marks, but as a first year bird, adult field marks may not yet be in place.  It wouldn't take much arm twisting to convince me that it's an Eastern Phoebe.  Too bad I did not get a photo of the wings.  Suggestions and corrections are always welcome.

In an earlier post I gave a very positive review for the Field Guide to North American Flycatchers Empidonax and Pewees by Cin-Ty Lee. When I sat down to actually use it, it was somewhat hard.  I stand by my review, but it will take time to become accostumed to the structure of this guide.  I can't really see its practicality in the field but that may be me.  I'm just not very quick.  But, when good photos are being evaluated (mine are not good), I think the likelihood of a difficult identification being correctly made will be greatly enhanced by this field guide.

Eastern Spiny Softshell turtle

I was thrilled to find this little turtle in the sand at the beach edge of Clark Lake in Jackson County.  I have seen Eastern Shiny Softshell (Apalone spinifera spinifera) turtles many times but always a lot larger.  Never a new hatchling.  As a child my father would catch much larger ones and we marveled at how they looked.  I recall they were quite docile. 

Eastern Spinys like to bury themselves in the sand and as soon as I released it back into the lake it buried itself in the exact same place I found it.  I think it is pretty obvious, but just in case some eyes can't see it, I have included the photo below.  The arrow points to its buried head.

After releasing this little turtle, I walked back to the road and found a squished new hatchling.  I have a photo but won't include it here.

Later, I saw a three inch in diameter, so a small turtle, crossing the road when two trucks, drivers completely oblivious, zoomed over it - but missed hitting it!  I raced out to the road before the next car or truck came by, picked it up and released it into the lake.  It wasted no time disappearing into the water and sand.  I should have taken a photo but was only thinking of rescue.  It was a Northern Map turtle (Graptemys geographica).  There are two other kinds of map turtles, False Northern Map (Graptemys pseudogeographica pseudogeographica) - now there's a name - and Ouachita Map (Graphemes ouachitensis) turtles, neither of which are found in Michigan.

Always remember and take the time to stop and rescue any turtle from the road (it might require stopping traffic); and yes, even snappers. When you see those huge snappers resting on a log, or head above water looking around, or crossing the road, remember they are probably 100 years old or at least very near to that age.

Want to learn more about turtles and turtle rescue?  Cannot recommend enough:  Of Time and Turtles:  Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell by Sy Montgomery and illustrations by Matt Patterson, 2023, Mariner Books, HarperCollins Publishers.

For that matter, I recommend any book by Sy Montgomery!

I found an essay in The Art of the Personal Essay compiled by Phillip LaPate titled The Courage of Turtles by Edward Hoagland.  I looked on-line and found a blog titled The Value of Sparrows: Writing of a Christian Mystic which reprinted Edward Hoagland's essay The Courage of Turtles.  The Courage of Turtles is a beautifully written and swift moving essay, but it's also a sad essay.  For many of us, we won't be surprised by what Hoagland writes.  Especially those of us who know and love turtles.  As the oldest child of eight, turtles were the only childhood pets I was allowed to have.  Dogs and cats were too much in a small house with ten people and, anyway, my parents were not pet people.  So I counted myself lucky when each summer we went turtle hunting with my father who was an excellent swimmer himself and also excellent at catching turtles, even those swimming across a lake of open water.  When we got one, usually a Painted turtle, of suitable size to fit comfortably in a large tub, I would get to keep it for the summer.  I didn't know if they were male or female.  I fed them raw hamburger which they ate voraciously.  I placed a rock in the center of the tub for them to climb on and sunbath as turtles love to do.  But I don't recall that they ever did much sunbathing as they were always trying to escape their tub, constantly swimming and scratching against the enamel sides, and this saddened me.  At the end of the summer I returned them to the lake where each wasted no time swiftly swimming away.

Blue-fronted Dancer color change?

I've been photographing dragonflies and damselflies for some years. My interest began in an opportunistic way, usually when out looking for birds.  When I saw this beautiful dragonfly perched on a stem on June 12, 2015, I had no idea what it was and didn't find out until 2023!  I have often admitted to being a poor archivist of my photos and, by accident, came across this photo again and pursued the ID.    

Four-spotted Skimmer (Libellula quadrimaculata), Upper Peninsula, Michigan

This remains the only Four-spotted Skimmer I have ever seen, but my interest in Odonata has increased and my knowledge base has improved slowly since 2015.  Not just in identification, which some would argue remains poor, but in other areas of recognition as well.  

Still, because of the judgment from others that comes with being a novice, I am often reluctant to draw attention to some observations that have intrigued me.  Whether identifying an odonate, a bird or a bumblebee incorrectly, no one likes being treated dismissively.  I love learning so I press on and try to ignore the noise.

Today while perusing some odonate websites, articles and literature I found this blog post: Physiological Color Change in Argia Apicalis, by Dr. Amanda Whispell of Rutgers University (PhD); I believe she now lives in Virginia.  I recalled the Blue-fronted Dancers (Argia apicalis) I found in early July (2024) at Lower Huron Metropark in Michigan.  When it came time to enter my location list into Odonata Central (OC), I held back on entering an unexpected sighting and stuck with the more typical-appearing Blue-fronted Dancer for the OC photo entry.

All of my photos below are of Blue-fronted Dancers seen on the same day, in the same area and around the same time generally.

Above and below:  Typical male Blue-fronted Dancer (Argia apicalis)

But it was the Blue-fronted Dancer in the photo below that intrigued me.  A green thorax on a Blue-fronted Dancer?       

In the field, I distinctly recall thinking that the brown-form damselfly above was a female Blue-fronted Dancer.  But when I downloaded the photos and was able to look more closely at them it did not match the female photos I had or of others that I found on-line.

Females do not have the little dark notch (arrow) on their thorax - (I would describe the female mark as more of a "sliver") - and it is really not a notch but appears so in the lateral view.  Nor do they have the extensive color in abdominal segments 9 and 10.  If I use my imagination, it even appears that S9 and S10 are in the early stages of turning blue.  So is this an immature male?  For now, this is my guess.

Above and below:  So is this brown-form Blue-fronted Dancer an immature male or an adult female?  The arrows show the differently-shaped thorax mark - the "sliver" - and the abdominal segments 9 and 10 also appear different.  S9, S10 appear more swollen and the tan color is less extensive.  So, is this an adult brown-form female?  For now, this is my guess.  (I don't have a photo of a blue-form adult female).

But what about the Blue-fronted Dancer with the green thorax?  In her study, Dr. Whispell writes:  "A. apicalis males possess the unique ability to change color, from BP to DP, (BP = blue phase; DP = dark phase), in response to copulation, and given the past research into the selective advantage of physiological color change, the ability to change color in direct response to copulation could provide them with a significant adaptive advantage."   The author makes no mention of the male's thorax turning green with mating.

However, Dennis Paulson in his 2011 tome Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East, page 149, describes female Blue-fronted Dancers as follows:  "Polymorphic, eyes brown darker above; lack of blue in eyes in andromorph good distinction from male."  He concludes his description with:  "Ovipositing blue females also become duller, blue-gray.  Some females are green and color change with age documented in individual females."

Based on my interpretation of Paulson's description, this seems to be an aberrantly colored thorax of a female Blue-fronted Dancer, a recognized variant.  I found this female before she had aged into the more typical color with either brown-form or blue-form thorax.  Also, S9 and S10 do not yet show tan coloring; although the abdominal tip is not well-focused, it appears to show signs of color changing.     

Why did I even bring up the research article in this photo discussion? Had it not been for Dr. Whispell's brief blogpost with her research, I would never have gone back to take a second look at my green Blue-fronted Dancer.  It would still be the same mystery is was on the day I saw it. Will I see this variant again?  So, far I haven't.  It also goes to show how tricky damselfly identification is.  I have made significant strides this summer, but not enough to move me from novice to intermediate.  The more I see, the more I'll understand and recognize in future sightings.

This is how learning goes.  Impatience and irritation does not help. This is a reminder to me to avoid the impatient, irritated approach with both myself and others.     

Other references:

1.  In addition to Dennis Paulsen's well-known Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East, 2011, Princeton University Press, I also use Damselflies of Minnesota, Wisconsin & Michigan by Robert DuBois with photos by Mike Reese.  Remarkably the DuBois book can be purchased at Target which I have linked above.  It is also on the Kollath & Stensaas Publishing website.  (An earlier edition titled Damselflies of the North Woods covering 44 species is purple.  Don't buy that one,)

2.  For this piece I also used the brand new A Naturalist's Guide to the Odonata of Ohio, by Dave McShaffrey, Malisa Spring and Jim McCormac, Ohio Biologic Survey, 2024.  The photographs of A. apicalis on page 88 are large and clear.  Describing female Argia apicalis the authors write:  "Females are trickier to recognize."  They go on to describe blue and brown morphs, but make no mention of a green morph.  They also write:  Blue forms of both sexes can noticeably darken the thorax from light blue to dark gray.  Many observers notice this darkening when the dancers are in tandem; however, a published study did not find such a correlation."  I recommend this guide for the excellent and large photos, but also for the extensive, clear and very well-written species descriptions.  I try to avoid linking any book to Amazon, but unfortunately this book is quite expensive on the publisher's website.  It will be cheaper purchased elsewhere.

3.  I found this excellent website, Delmarva Dragonflies and Damselflies by Mike Moore. which I keep going back to over and over, sometimes just to look at the photos, but also to use for identification assistance.  I used to live in Baltimore and was a frequent visitor to Maryland's Eastern Shore.  In the summer of 2018 I returned and, along with friends, rented a house on the Chesapeake Bay in Talbot County.  Finding and photographing odonata species new to me made it an extremely enjoyable vacation.  Mike Moore is an Odonata Central Admin reviewer and helped with several of my Talbot county submissions.  He also recently helped me with some of my Midwest submissions.     

No photo guide or website is going to be 100% useful for making identifications.  The experts will tell you that, when in doubt, you need to net the odonate and use a magnifier.  True enough, but easier said than done - at least for me.  I recently caught two red meadowhawks by hand and took poor photos of the gentalia with my iPhone 14.  I still could not make the field marks match an ID with confidence.  The only thing to do is continue trying and learning.  

All comments are welcome, but comments with corrections are especially welcome!

"Garden" beauty

This beautiful creature speaks for itself.  While looking for other things, it was an unexpected surprise to find this female Black Swallowtail (Papilio polygenes) nectoring on thistle flowers at Belle Isle park.  It's a tiny bit worn, but otherwise with wings and tails fully intact.

 Kaufman Field Guild to Butterflies of North America, 2003, describes P. polygenes as A "garden" butterfly widespread in the east ... "