Monday, July 16, 2007

Marmots, Flowers, and Dragonflies

Friday I was feeling kind of crummy, but I headed out to Branched Oak Lake. I sat for awhile in an area where I have seen Lark Sparrows. Really would like to get a photo of one. I saw them, but they were always out of range of the camera. Finally decided to move on. Had not gone far when I spotted a brown furry lump in the tall grass. So I stopped and watched for awhile to see if I could figure out what it was. The brown furry lump was foraging and moving slowly. Finally the little guy put his head up and it was a marmot.


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Moved on to a field of wildflowers. Got this really neat picture of a Black-eyed Susan.


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And then this picture of a dragonfly. I have just about given up on dragonfly and damselfly identification. I have three insect id books that all have very small sections on dragonflys and damselflys. I can't find any books dedicated to them only. Anyhoo, here's the unidentified dragonfly.


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Update (June 17, 7:30pm CDT) A commenter has suggested my brown furry critter is a woodchuck. When I saw this critter, I was unsure what it was. I have two books with critter pictures. The pictures in one book made me think it was a marmot, the other book made me think it was a woodchuck. So I wandered around the internets looking for pictures. I still wasn't sure, so when I uploaded my photos over on the photo site, I entitled it Marmot? Within an hour, I had a commenter that said that id was correct. I've had no other commenters on that site, and I haven't yet removed the question mark from the title. If my commenter wants to articulate the difference, (or anyone else reading this site) I would be delighted. I really would like to know for sure what what this brown furry critter is.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Would that marmot perhaps be a woodchuck?

J Paseka said...

Your dragonfly is a Variegated Meadowhawk.

Try the Nebraska dragonfly and damselfly website for ID help:

http://museum.unl.edu/research/entomology/Odonata/index.html

Also, a good book for this area is Dennis Paulson's Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East (Princeton Field Guides).