How to make mistakes...
This post is half funny and half serious. I make a lot of mistakes and made one recently that made me wince in retrospect. Almost all of my mistakes follow the same general pattern of behavior and thought processes.
Background: I was looking for late-season dragonflies and damselflies and was thrilled to find some at a pond on some nearby gamelands. While I was there, I thought I'd seen: Carolina Spreadwings - Lestes vidua ; Southern Spreadwings - Lestes australis; Citrine Forktails - Ischnura posita; Common Green Darners - Anax junius ; and Little Blue Dragonlets - Erythrodiplax minuscula.
So, I took photos and upload a sampling, figuring that I didn't need more than 3 or 4 observations per species.
While uploading the photos and filling out the observation information, I always let the "Computer Vision AI" (CV) come up with a suggestion in case I've had a temporary (hopefully temporary) bout of insanity and didn't see what I thought I saw.
All was going smoothly and I was ready to identify my observation as a Carolina Spreadwing until...
CV suggested a Swamp Spreadwing - Lestes vigilax
My mental processes skidded and slid sideways.
A what?
I looked more closely at the photo.
Bright blue eyes, thorax metallic green with reddish-brown stripes...
Okay, wait...
It has blue eyes...bright blue eyes... I must be wrong about it being a Carolina Spreadwing. They have dark blue or even dark purple eyes on top with blue below. This spreadwing has really bright blue--not dark at all--eyes...So, yeah. I must be wrong.
Southern Spreadwings have blue eyes...but they also have pale greenish blue shoulder stripes, not reddish-brown. So I don't think it's that...
Could the Computer Vision AI be right?
I've seen Swamp Spreadwings at this pond during the summer.
But it's really late in the season for them.
On the other hand, our basil is still green in the garden, so there have been no frosts here. Maybe it's just a late season Swamp Spreadwing, even though they are kind of uncommon at this specific pond which is really open and sunny. But I have seen them there before. During the summer...
What do I know after all?
Anything is possible. Kind of.
And I really don't know that much about damselflies. Or dragonflies for that matter. I've got to be wrong. Heck, I have no idea what it is now. I'm totally confused.
I read up on Swamp Spreadwings again in my dragonfly book. Their eyes are dark blue-green with pale blue highlights over yellow-green.
That doesn't sound right for my damselfly either.
Those blue eyes are really bothering me.
So I throw up my hands and select the CV-suggested species.
And I'm wrong. Again.
Sigh.
I just hope all the folks who correct my identifications aren't getting tired and frustred with me. Or think I'm a complete idiot--incomplete idiot--whatever.
It's so easy to make mistakes. I can talk myself into almost anything for an ID, but in this case, I should have stuck with my original thought that it was a Carolina Spreadwing.
Now...on to less silly things...
Late Season Odonata
Seems that once the temperatures reach 60 degrees F, there might be a few species of Odonata left to find especially along the coast where it is more temperate. I was actually really surprised to see both the Carolina and Southern Spreadwings, Citrine Forktails, Little Blue Dragonlets, and Common Green Darner at the gameland pond. In fact, I wasn't expecting to see anything like that and had left my boots back at the car and had to trudge back to put them on so I could get some photos. Here it is, the first week of December and there are still Odonata to be found!
Checking the NC Odonate Website yielded the information that the Carolina Spreadwing is virtually year-around at coastal areas like that gameland pond. The other species I saw can be found until at least mid-December on warm sunny days.
It's too bad that the water on our property is mostly in the form of streams that have fish since the Carolina and Southern Spreadwings don't seem to like those streams. I've never found any at those streams. The few I've found have been around small temporary ponds/puddles without fish, although I have found both Swamp Spreadwings and Elegant Spreadwings along the streams at the edge of and within the wooded swamp areas. I also seem to be able to find Furtive Forktails, Ischnura prognata, almost all year around in the swamp as long as the weather is above 60F and sunny.
That's another weird thing that I wanted to note.
In most of the literature I've read, folks specify that Furtive Forktails are in shady, wooded areas. The wooded part is true, but I've almost never (or actually--never) found them in a shady area. I always find them in the low-growing vegetation such as Lizard's Tail that grows in areas near the streams where the sunlight breaks through the canopy. Those areas are mostly created by falling trees/storm damage. So while they are technically in the woods/swamp, the area where the Furtives lurk is actually quite sunny.
So I don't know what to make of that.
Comments
Nice story.
I have only barely stuck my toe in the waters of Odonata identification,
found myself out of my depth,
and leave to those with more knowledge of that beguiling realm.
We all make errors in identification.
For starters, nature provides continuums of variation that do not fit well with dichotomous keys.
That makes it difficult for the person trying to write a key,
and for the person trying to use said key.
Therefore,
we must be comfortable with the difficulties,
and neither be too hard on ourselves,
nor anyone else.
It is good you found humor in the situation,
and took the time to share it.
Very much appreciated.
@mjpapay thank you for understanding and your thoughtful comments. That is so true about variations on a continuum and it makes it difficult for sure. I get confused very easily, but I just have to learn from the experience and hopefully be able to laugh about it.
I wish I knew more about lichens as your photos are so beautiful and we have lovely lichens in the woods but those, as well as the mosses are extremely challenging.
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