There was a major influx of Seaside Dragonlets this morning. I have been seeing this miniature dragonfly regularly this spring and summer in small numbers in and around the wetlands but this morning they were everywhere. My first thought was that this was a hatch but many, perhaps most of these individuals were all black which is, if I am not mistaken, the 'plumage' of the mature male. There was also a good mix of brightly colored individuals, some with yellow on the upper side of their abdominal segments and more than a few with yellow-and-black striped thoraxes (thoraces?). All with beautifully venated clear wings and a black patch on the upper edge of each wing. A migration? Or some kind of mating assemblage? This last might be seem to be the most likely explanation but I didn't see any actual mating.
Skippers are starting to appear and, as usual, I have had a lot of trouble figuring out what they are. This morning's example was darting around in the phragmites often stopping to perch: a classic medium-sized skipper whose dark upper wings had orange edging on top and an orange stripe coming in through the middle. Maybe Dion's Skipper or something similar.
I was at the martin colony the other day and I could see the young martins sticking their heads out the opening of their nest gourds. In spite of my earlier concerns, the colony seems to be doing okay and a few of the young martins appear to be ready to fly (perhaps some of them are already on the wing).
An Eastern Phoebe has been hanging around the house; the screens, windows and clapboard as well as the pebbly/sandy 'lawn' outside provide some good hunting grounds for insectivorous birds from jays to catbirds to flycatchers to sparrows. They nab spiders (or perhaps spider prey) from the webs that appear in the windows or against the eaves; I don't know what they're getting on the ground
Eric Salzman
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