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Got a question for Ask MDC? Send it to AskMDC@mdc.mo.gov or call 573-522-4115, ext. 3848.

Q: I found this as I was mushroom hunting last spring. Could you please help me identify it?

This is a dwarf larkspur (Delphinium tricorne). Missouri has other larkspurs, but this one is the earliest bloomer. Look for these to bloom between April and June. These flowers prefer open wooded slopes, ledges, streamsides, and sheltering bluffs. They start flowering at 6 to 10 inches but can reach 18 inches tall. The petals are shades of blue, violet, white, or a mixture of the three. Bumblebees frequent Delphinium, drilling a hole into the spur to collect nectar; bees pollinate the flowers. For more information, visit short.mdc.mo.gov/4Vz.

Q: Can you identify this dragonfly?

This is a springtime darner (Basiaeschna janata). These speedy flyers are a harbinger of spring at our creeks and small rivers. 

This species of darner prefers rivers and streams with a gentle current, but they’ll also stay near forested lakes without much shore vegetation, according to Dragonflies through Binoculars, a book by Sidney W. Dunkle. They like to feed in fields, over water, and in open woods. They often perch near the ground on grass or sticks, but they also hang in trees. Males patrol over the water, flying fast and erratically along the shore or shifting from bank to bank. They mostly patrol at midday, but in the shade and until nightfall. While on patrol, they drive away rival males and attempt to mate with females. 

Learn more about Missouri’s dragonflies at short.mdc.mo.gov/4db.

Q: What happened to this eagle’s beak?

This bird may have suffered a traumatic injury to the skull and face, according to Dana Franzen-Klein, medical director of The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine.

She noted the anatomy of the upper beak — maxillary bone and overlying keratin — as well as the skull surrounding the right eye did not appear normal. 

“It could have been an impact-type trauma,” she said. “Or perhaps when it was young in the nest, it suffered a constriction injury — something wrapped around the face — that made the beak grow abnormally.”

Photos of wild birds with injuries and beak deformities are submitted to scientists occasionally. Some appear to be surviving in the wild, or they are at least fit enough that they cannot be caught. 

“It is so hard to say what some of these wild birds go through. I wish they could tell us their stories,” she added.