Another Green Heron Generation

Greetings from apparently the least vigilant but possibly the most hopeful phenologist ever.

What: A Green Heron chick, pretty far along developmentally and capably (though cautiously) flying from one pine bough to the next.
Where: East border of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
When: 8:30 am, Friday, July 26
Observer: Abbie
Conditions: Comfortably cool and mostly cloudy sky but with patches of cerulean blue. Lovely indeed.

As readers know, last year a pair of Green Herons nested and attempted to raise a brood in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. This year, in mid-May, Christina and I again saw herons and even observed strange behavior which we surmised was a form of courtship. But despite our expeditions and upturned faces, we didn't find their nest this year. Throughout the summer, I've seen a heron in the Garden about once a week. What's worth noting is that every time I saw the bird, it was perched atop a linden tree, not hunting in the pond where I'd expect to see it. I asked myself, "If not exclusively for food, why is it hanging around here?"

Fast forward to today. The adult bird not far away, a fuzzy-headed chick is hopping and making short flights, about 15' up in the pines. It gave me hope to see such a confident and apparently fit fledgling. I imagined its migration, picturing this new bird in a new land for the winter, and then, maybe, returning to the Garden next spring.

Odonata Proliferation, and Lil' Ground Squirrels

As summer comes to its middle, much of the fresh new life in the Sculpture Garden has moved on; the ducklings are gone, as are the tadpoles, presumably turned now to toads and setting out to find their fortunes in the big city. But phenology moves on! That's what phenology means! Kinda!

What: A couple of new sorts of dragonfly - the Odonata of the title. The one with the striped wings in the middle, above, that's been around for quite awhile; I just finally got a decent picture of it. The red and the yellow-striped ones are new, though. Where do they come from? What do they want?
Where: In the reeds on the west side of the pond, mostly, though of course they can fly! Fly through the very air!
When: 1:00 PM, Tuesday, July 23rd
Observer: Matt
Conditions: Sunny with a breeze and just as pleasant as anything ever

What: Little thirteen-lined ground squirrels; probably a couple of weeks old by now but still small and youthful. Two of them were chasing each other around the grass and AWWWWWW.
Where: Southeast corner of the Garden.
When: 1:00 PM, Tuesday, July 23rd
Observer: Matt
Conditions: So nice, you guys

Odonata Postscript

Thanks to Matt for his humorous and informative post! As for the dragonflies we saw but didn't manage to net (yet): We saw a Green Darner. This I say with fair confidence. And we saw a skimmer, though as to what species of skimmer it was, I am exceedingly uncertain.

Providing me a constant reminder and temptation, the net remains at my desk. Also, I brought that jeweler's loupe that will afford us a magnified view of damselfly abdomens. And I have quite a bit of studying to do, too, so I can become more facile with the identification key.

Another field note: I have searched the pond's perimeter for exuvia (empty exoskeletons from dragonfly and damselfly nymphs) but I don't yet see them. Perhaps I'm overlooking them, especially likely since a segment of the pond's edge is made inaccessible by a temporary fence. But once a generation of Green Darners emerges, I expect it will be more evident since their nymphs are so large.

Another field note: Linden trees have been blooming this past week, in the Garden and around town.

New Pond Life, and Insect Capturing

Today Abbie brought in an insect net for the purpose of catching some dragonflies and damselflies from the Spoonbridge pond area. (At least, I assume that was her original purpose. Maybe she brought it in for some reason I dare not guess and then thought, "Hey, wait a minute!") So that's what she and I set out to do. What we learned: Dragonflies are super hard to catch.

Before we became acquainted with this lesson, however, we saw some delightful new life in the pond!

What: Ducklings! Seven of them, I believe. Presumably from the nest previously under the Spoonbridge, though oddly, the nest had gone vacant during the past week, with no sign of the hatchlings; we'd all assumed it had simply failed. But here they were! Perhaps last week they were being kept in the reeds on a side of the pond currently fenced-off?
Where: North side of the Spoonbridge pond.
When: 5:00 PM, Tuesday, July 2nd
Observers: Abbie and Matt
Conditions: Warm, clear, a bit of a breeze

What: A very large painted turtle, maybe about a foot long. Abbie said she didn't think she'd ever seen a turtle in the pond before. I certainly hadn't, but I'm new at this.
Where: The pond, mostly swimming about the east side.
When: 5:00 PM, Tuesday, July 2nd
Observers: Abbie and Matt
Conditions: Warm, clear, a bit of a breeze still

What: The two sorts of insects we did manage to catch. No dragonflies, I'm afraid, though we could see there were two varieties present (Abbie, I have forgotten what species you believed them to be; perhaps a comment or a new post?). We did catch a damselfly, whose species we narrowed down to one of four of a subcategory of damselflies called bluets. This failure of specificity was in spite of the fact that I was holding the damselfly and we could observe it closely and at length, and the fact that Abbie had a comprehensive field guide to such on hand. Which is to say: There are a lot of species of damselflies that look more or less identical. It seems that what we needed was a magnifying glass. After I let it go, it perched itself comfortably on my fingertip for a time; apparently you can befriend damselflies by catching them in a net and then holding them by their wings for a few minutes. I also inadvertently caught a tiny water scorpion while catching the bluet, and even more inadvertently killed it when Abbie passed it to my clumsy mitts.
Where: Southeast end of the pond.
When: 5:00 PM, Tuesday, July 2nd
Observers: Abbie and Matt
Conditions: Warm, clear, a bit of a breeze; for the bluet, uncomfortable