Swamp Animals

Home	Field and Swamp: Animals and Their Habitats

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Bird pages: Land Birds Shore Birds Red-shouldered Hawks Duke Gardens exotic ducks Audubon Swamp Garden Zoo Birds Insect (by taxonomic order) pages: Archaeognatha (Jumping Bristletails) Coleoptera (Beetles) Dermaptera (Earwigs) Diptera (True Flies) Ephemeroptera (Mayflies) Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha (Cicadas and Hoppers) Hemiptera: Heteroptera (True Bugs) Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha (Aphids, Scale Insects, Whiteflies, and Jumping Plant Lice) Hymenoptera (Bees, Wasps, Sawflies and Ants) Isoptera (Termites) Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea (True Butterflies) and Skippers (Hesperoidea) Lepidoptera: Moths Mantodea (Mantids) Mecoptera (Scorpionflies) Mecoptera (Hangingflies) Megaloptera (Fishflies, Dobsonflies) Neuroptera (Lacewings and Antlions) Odonata: Anisoptera (Dragonflies) Odonata: Zygoptera (Damselflies) Orthoptera (Stick Insects, Grasshoppers, Katydids and Crickets) Psocoptera (Bark Lice) Plecoptera (Stoneflies) Raphidioptera (Snakeflies) Thysanoptera (Thrips) Tricoptera (Caddisflies) Zygentoma (Silverfish) Reptile/Amphibian/Alligator pages: Snakes Lizards Alligators Audubon Swamp Garden (Alligators, turtles) Turtles Frogs and Toads Salamanders Zoo Reptiles Spiders, other animal pages: Spiders Ticks and Mites Mammals Zoo Mammals Fish Crustaceans Springtails Centipedes Millipedes Pseudoscorpions Harvestmen Annelids (segmented worms) Mollusks Horsehair Worms Plants: Wildflowers by Classification Wildflowers by Flower Color Non-flowering Plants Natural areas: Habitats: Main Page Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula (NC) American Tobacco Trail (Durham, NC) Audubon Swamp Garden (Charleston, SC) Bay St. Louis and Waveland (MS) Bogue Banks (barrier island, NC) Boone and surrounding areas (northwest NC) Buccaneer State Park (Waveland, MS) Carolina Beach State Park (New Hanover County, NC) Carolina Beach: Carolina Lake (New Hanover County, NC) Cedar Island National Wildlife Refuge (NC) Duke Forest (NC) Duke Gardens exotic ducks (Durham, NC) My Durham drainage ditch (NC) My Durham neighborhood swamp (NC) My Durham neighborhood power line cut (NC) Ebenezer Church Recreational Area (Chatham County, NC) Eno River State Park (NC) Flat River Impoundment (Durham County, NC) Fort Fisher (New Hanover County, NC) Francis Marion National Forest (SC) Greenville (NC) Goose Creek State Park (NC) Gulf Shores National Seashore (Ocean Springs, MS) Gulfport (MS) Hanging Rock State Park (Stokes County, NC) Haw River State Park (Rockingham/Guilford Counties, NC) Indian Creek Wildlife Observation Trail (Chatham County, NC) Johnston Mill Nature Preserve (Orange County, NC) B. Everett Jordan Lake Dam (Chatham County, NC) B. Everett Jordan Lake near 751 bridge (Chatham County, NC) Lake Crabtree County Park (Morrisville, NC) Marin County, CA and Nearby Areas Mason Farm Biological Preserve (Chapel Hill, NC) Montreat (NC) Nags Head Woods Ecological Preserve (Dare County, NC) North Carolina Botanical Garden (Orange County, NC) Occoneechee Mountain Natural Area (Hillsborough, NC) Ocracoke Island (Hyde County, NC) Peaks of Otter (Bedford County, VA) Penny's Bend Nature Preserve (Durham, NC) Pettigrew State Park (Creswell, NC) Pitt County Arboretum (Greenville, NC) Prairie Ridge Ecostation (Raleigh, NC) Puerto Rico J.C. Raulston Arboretum (Raleigh, NC) Rio Grande Valley (Hidalgo County, TX) Riverbend Park (Catawba County, NC) San Antonio (TX) St. Augustine, FL Sandy Creek Park (Durham, NC) Sanibel and Captiva Islands (FL) Santee State Park (Santee, SC) Sarasota County (FL) South Texas (Mustang Island, Corpus Christi Southern Appalachians (NC) Third Fork Creek Trail(Durham County, NC) Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve (Moore County, NC) White Pines Nature Preserve (Chatham County, NC)

Archived-by-Date Pages

Swamp (and Marsh) Animals

These animals appeared either in swamps, marshes, or lake mudflats. To see anhingas, egrets, teals, yellowbelly sliders and more alligators, go to Audubon Swamp Garden.

American Alligator

This was one of three little American Alligators that I saw at the I'on Swamp of the Francis Marion National Forest, Charleston County, SC, 3/29/06	Baby American Alligator, near shore, clinging to a lily pad, Cypress Gardens, Berkeley County, SC, 10/12/07	American Alligator, Shipley Trail at Bailey Homestead, Fort Myers, Lee County, FL 2/22/19	American Alligator, Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Sanibel, Lee County, FL 12/4/15	American Alligator, Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Sanibel, Lee County, FL 12/3/15

Snakes

Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortix), Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, Dare County, NC, 9/25/04. This snake showed up in a pocosin swamp area.	Adult Redbelly Water Snake (Nerodia erythrogaster), Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, Dare County, NC, 5/7/06. This snake showed up in a marsh off Milltail Road	Adult Redbelly Water Snake, Mason Farm Biological Reserve, Orange County, NC, 4/18/05, in a small swamp that dried up during a drought the next year.	Mystery marsh snake, Ocracoke, 5/9/06

Frogs and Toads

Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans), Durham, NC, 3/31/17	Green Frog, (Lithobates clamitans), North Carolina Botanical Garden, Orange County, NC, 9/13/19	Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans), Durham, 9/12/05. I spotted this frog in a nearly dried up drainage ditch in my neighborhood.	Green Frog,(Lithobates clamitans), almost adult, but with a bit of a tail. Durham, NC, 4/26/17

American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbiana), North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill, NC, 8/29/19	American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbiana), North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill, NC, 6/13/18

Durham, 9/14/05. Depending on your source, Eastern Narrowmouth Toad, and its Latin name is Gastrophryne carolinensis (subfamily Microhylinae). This frog/toad was about half an inch long and had strayed from the swamp in my Durham neighborhood, where others of its species normally remain hidden. I brought it back to the swamp edge.	American Toad mating pair, Durham, 3/4/06. The blue and white beads are apparently eggs.	Young Fowler's Toad, Durham (bordering my neighborhood marsh near the swamp), 6/9/05. This immature toad is starting to get a stripe down its back, a mark of adulthood.	Young Fowler's Toad, Durham, 5/27/05. Like the toad on the left, this was one of hundreds in this small area, no two alike in color and pattern.	Northern Cricket Frog, Durham, 10/28/05. In mini-swamp in my neighborhood.

Green Treefrogs (Hyla cinerea)

Green Treefrog, Durham, NC 6/30/17	Green Treefrog, Durham, NC, 8/10/15	Another Green Treefrog, well-hidden. Durham, NC, 8/15/16	Green Treefrog, Durham, NC, 8/21/09	Green Treefrog, Durham, NC, 8/26/12

Three views of same Green Treefrog, Durham, 10/3/05. Typical languid frogs in my neighborhood swamp!

Turtles

Snapping Turtle, Durham, NC, 6/10/10	Yellowbelly Slider, with lots of duckweed, fresh from a swampy area. ID thanks to Brian Bockhahn. Flat River Impoundment, Durham County, NC, 6/3/11	Redbelly Turtle (Pseudemys rubiventris), Dare County, NC, 10/6/05.

Birds

Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus)

Male Red-winged Blackbird, Abbott's Lagoon, Point Reyes National Seashore, Marin County, CA, 5/8/16	Fledgling Red-winged Blackbird, Peaks of Otter, Bedford County, VA, 6/11/16	Subadult female Red-winged Blackbird, Prairie Ridge Ecostation, Raleigh, Wake County, NC, 8/10/17	Red-winged Blackbird stopping by to deliver a grasshopper to her fledgling offspring, Abbott Lake, Peaks of Otter, Bedford County, VA, 6/8/16	Subadult male Red-winged Blackbird, Lake Park, Carolina Beach, New Hanover County, 5/22/11	Probably a male Red-winged Blackbird in transitional plumage, Durham, NC, 1/23/18

Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana)

Swamp Sparrow, Durham, NC, 1/3/16	Same Swamp Sparrow, Durham, NC, 1/25/16	Swamp Sparrow, Audubon Swamp Garden, Charleston County, SC, 3/28/06

Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus)

Eastern Kingbird, Pea Island NWR, 5/7/06, near a marshy area.

Green Herons (Butorides virescens)

Green Heron, Carolina Lake, Carolina Beach, New Hanover County, NC, 3/11/19	Green Heron, Carolina Lake, Carolina Beach, New Hanover County, NC, 12/20/17	Same Green Heron, Carolina Lake, Carolina Beach, New Hanover County, NC, 3/15/19	Right in the heart of my Durham, NC, neighborhood swamp, duckweed and all, in a Green Heron, seen on 6/26/05 and many days thereafter.	Green Heron, Durham, NC, 6/24/05	Green Heron (Butorides virescens), Flat River Waterfowl Impoundment, Durham County, NC, 7/17/11

Other Birds

Juvenile male Eastern Bluebird, Durham, 9/19/05. Eastern Bluebirds frequently land in the leafless branches of trees in my neighborhood swamp, as did this one.	Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptera caerulea), Durham, 7/16/05. These show up in trees at the edges of swamps and marshes.

Ducks

Male Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors), Audubon Swamp Garden, Charleston County, SC, 3/28/06.	Male Green-winged Teal, Turnbull Birding Center, Port Aransas, TX, 2/20/14	Mallard family among Water Primroses, Durham, NC, 7/2/16	Hooded Mergansers, Sarasota, FL, 12/4/14

Common Gallinules (Gallinula Chloropus),

Common Gallinule, Bailey Tract, Sanibel Island, Lee County, FL, 2/22/19	Common Gallinule (until recently known as Common Moorhen), Port Aransas, Nueces County, TX, 2/7/13	Common Gallinule, Sarasota, FL. 1/24/17

Virginia Rail (Rallus limicola)

Virginia Rail, Buccaneer State Park, Hancock County, MS, 10/19/19	Same Virginia Rail	Virginia Rail, Abbott's Lagoon, Point Reyes National Seashore, Marin County, NC, 5/8/16

Other Waterfowl

Canada Goose territorial battle. There was a lot of honking leading up to the chasing of two geese onto the far shore. Southpoint Swamp, Durham, NC, 3/16/11	Sandhill Crane with prey, Myakka River State Park, Sarasota, FL, 1/25/17	Whooping Cranes, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Rockport, TX, 2/6/13	Three Limpkins in the open and another mostly hidden, Myakka River State Park, Sarasota, FL, 1/25/17

Tricolored Heron, Shipley Trail at Bailey Homestead, Fort Myers, Lee County, FL 2/22/19	Tricolored Heron, a marsh in a residential area in Sarasota, FL, 12/1/14	Transitional Little Blue Heron, Carolina Lake, Carolina Beach, NC, 3/11/19	Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea), Audubon Swamp Garden, Charleston County, SC, 3/28/06	Great Blue Heron, Peaks of Otter, Bedford County, VA, 7/16/12	American Coot, Carolina Lake, Carolina Beach, New Hanover County, NC, 1/21/15

Butterflies & Skippers

Least Skippers (Ancyloxypha numitor) are the ultimate marsh and swamp lepidopterans: They are found in few other places, and were superabundant in my Durham neighborhood swamp during the summer of 2005, during which time mating territory was hotly contested.

Mating Least Skippers with interloper in my Durham neighborhood marsh fronting a swamp, 9/14/05. This third skipper went to an awful lot of trouble to butt in, but mating proceeded nonetheless.

This Least Skipper was moving rapidly through a pocosin (black-water swamp) in Alligator River National Wildlife Reserve in Dare County on 9/25/04.	This Least Skipper was perched on some grass blades coming out of Siler's Bog in Mason Farm Biological Reserve, Chapel Hill, Orange County, NC in the morning (10:39 am) on 10/3/04. Note the short abdomen: this is the only female on this page.	Finally, a Least Skipper with a genuinely "weak" flight! I caught up with it in the usual Durham swamp on 6/18/05.

Palatka Skippers, though officially an endangered species, are apparently locally common in some parts of Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge (Dare County, NC). Viceroys are relatively common in marshes and less likely to be found elsewhere in my experience. Dion Skippers normally stay near the coast, but some showed up in my neighborhood marsh after Hurricane Katrina came through in early September of 2005.

Female Pearl Crescent, I'on Swamp, Francis Marion National Forest, SC, 3/29/06.	Palatka Skipper (Euphyes pilatka). I took this picture in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in Dare County, NC on 9/25/04. Jeff Pippen identified this relatively large skipper.	Dion Skipper (Euphyes dion), Durham neighborhood marsh fronting a swamp, 9/9/05. Two Dion Skippers showed up in this marsh over a period of four days.	Dion Skipper. This relatively large skipper showed up on the edge of a marsh in my Durham neighborhood early on 9/5/05. It looked more orange than brown in direct light. The light ray on the hind wing is characteristic.

Palamedes Swallowtail (Papilio palamedes), Tyrrell County, NC. This swallowtail appeared near a swamp off the Albemarle Sound.	Viceroy (Limenitis archippus), Durham, 7/16/05. Found at edge of swamp opening and closing its wings.	American Snout (Libytheana carinenta), Durham, NC, 4/27/16

Beetles

Spotted Ladybug Beetle (Coleomegilla maculata) mating pair, Durham (neighborhood marsh), 6/18/05. This is the most abundant species by far in this marsh.	Spotted Ladybug Beetle (Coleomegilla maculata) larva, Durham, 6/23/05, seen on a cattail leaf at the same swamp as the adult Coleomegilla maculata beetles above. ID based on Marshall (2006), p. 345.	Seven-spotted Ladybug Beetle (Coccinella septempunctata) larva, Durham (edge of marsh at neighborhood swamp), 4/11/09. This nimble little rascal climbed rapidly over grass plants and other objects, readily bending in two.	Ladybug beetle pupa, Durham, 6/18/05. I found this sitting on a leaf near my neighborhood swamp. This was about a third of an inch long.

Golden Tortoise Beetle (Charidotella bicolor), Durham, NC, 9/10/06, found on the edge of a little swamp near a power line cut.	Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetle (Labidomera clivicollis), Eno River State Park, Orange County, NC, 10/9/06. Seen on the banks of Bobbitt's Hole.

Margined Leather-wing (Chauliognathus marginatus). Wing maintenance, Durham marsh fronting swamp, 7/2/05. Notice the leg over the wing.	Sometime later.

True Bugs

Big-eyed Toad Bugs (Gelastocoris oculatus)

Big-eyed Toad Bug scooting across the water surface of a small stream, Jordan Lake east of the NC-751 bridge, Chatham County, NC, 10/26/11	Big-eyed Toad Bug swimming, in a puddle that was an extension of overflowing Jordan Lake, Chatham County, NC, 10/14/16. This was on the west side of Highway 751, after a tropical storm brought water into a cornfield.	Big-eyed Toad Bug, Jordan Lake east of the NC-751 bridge, Chatham County, NC, 9/26/16

Shore Bugs (Saldidae family)

Chiloxanthinae subfamily

Shore bug (Pentacora ligata), Jordan Lake, Chatham County, NC, 7/8/14	Shore bug (Pentacora ligata), Dismal Falls, Giles County, VA, 6/14/11

Saldinae subfamily

Shore Bug (Saldula pallipes), Durham, 4/9/06. Seen in a large marsh bordering on a swamp. This bug was about ⅛ inch long. These are scavengers.	Shore bug (Salda lugubris), seen in a drainage conduit to a pond, Durham, NC, 5/6/17. ID thanks to Vassily Belov.

Froghopper

Two-lined Froghopper (Prosapia bicincta), Durham, 9/23/05. Found in my local marsh on a cattail leaf.

Flies

Maybe mosquito larvae, Durham, 7/27/06. Note how bubbles come from the tail ends of the larvae.	Adult mosquito emerging from pupa. Durham, NC, 9/8/06. The little dark things may be mosquito pupae.	Adult mosquito with foot on exuviae, Durham, NC, 9/8/06

I think this is a fly larva, possibly Stratiomys genus. Durham, NC, 9/8/06. Found in a deep puddle at the edge of a marsh on the edge of a power line cut. The slender end of the larva is often kept at the water's surface while the rest of the body remains submerged.	Southern Bee Killer (Mallophora orcina), on a cattail stalk at Carolina Beach State Park, New Hanover County, NC, 10/12/06. At first it looked like a big bumblebee: what a surprise to see those (robber) fly eyes!	Marsh Fly (Limnia loewi?), Little Scaly Mountain, Macon County, NC, 8/9/05.	Mating Stilt-legged Flies (Micropezidae family), Durham, 6/13/06. Many mating animals are easy to photograph, but these were really on the move!	Picture-winged Fly (Delphinia picta), Durham, 6/13/06, on a cattail leaf. As is the case with the Stilt-legged Flies, these are mainly marsh dwellers.

Dragonflies

Male Needham's Skimmer (Libellula needhami), Fort Fisher Basin Trail, New Hanover County, NC, 7/16/04. About five of these red dragonflies showed up together at the beginning of the Basin Trail, but I've never seen any of this species before or since. Randy Emmitt and Josh Rose provided this ID. This dragonfly showed up at the edge of the marsh at the head of the	This female Needham's Skinner was flying all around the Ft. Fisher Basin Trail, New Hanover County, on 10/18/05, but never landed. This was in a large marshy area.	Twelve-spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella), Durham, 8/21/05. Seen at my Durham neighborhood swamp.	Male Spangled Skimmer (Libellula cyanea), on a cattail in my Durham neighborhood swamp, 6/13/06

Male Common Green Darner, Durham, 7/27/06. This darner was constantly in flight at the edge of a swamp, but hovered long enough for me to take this photo.	Male Autumn Meadowhawk (Sympetrum vicinum), Dare County, NC, 10/6/05.

Dragonfly nymph, with crane fly and tadpoles, Durham, NC 4/27/16	Dragonfly exuvia shed at Milltail Road, Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, Dare County, NC, 5/7/06.

Damselflies

This adult male Citrine Forktail is an especially anomalous damselfly, seen in my Durham neighborhood swamp on 6/18/05. Note the markings on the wings. Thanks to Josh Rose for ID.	This male Citrine Forktail (Durham, 6/27/05) seems to be normal. This damselfly is even shorter than the Fragile Forktail (less than an inch long), and was barely visible to me. These males are fairly common in my Durham neighborhood swamp.

Copyright © 2006-2019 Dorothy E. Pugh