This is off topic, but for the benefit of some birders -- those that took interest in a dragonfly that I pointed out at the Mississippi Kite spot the day I was there (May 31). I had called it an Illinois River Cruiser, which made sense as that's the only River Cruiser so far recorded in New York State. Illinois River Cruiser (Macromia illinoiensis illinoiensis) is considered the northern subspecies of what's now called Swift River Cruiser. I noticed something was amiss when I edited a picture for posting on a dragonfly e-mail list (you can see it (not a bad picture considering it was 40 feet up in a tree) at my web site http://www.stevewalternature.com/ by clicking the dragonfly tab) . Then I got feedback from the leading expert in the state on dragonfly identification. He is of the opinion that this is either the southern subspecies Georgia River Cruiser (M. i. georgina) (which ranges from central New Jersey southward) or a hybrid (wouldn't that be fitting in an area where Blue-winged and Golden-winged Warblers mix it up). So it just might be that some of you went to see a rare bird in New York and saw a dragonfly even rarer in the state.
Steve Walter Bayside, NY -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
