Saturday, December 2, 2017

Tiger Mimic-Queen at Quinta Mazatlan, 12/2/17

I got up early this morning and decided I would go to Sabal Palm Sanctuary in Brownsville to see if I could get lucky and find a Zone-tailed Hawk which I have not seen yet in Cameron County.  I failed on my quest but found a Tropical Parula and was getting ready to make another loop when I got the call that a Green-breasted Mango had been seen at Quinta Mazatlan in McAllen.  Well, it's been years since I had seen one of those so I made the hour long drive over to Quinta Mazatlan only to find I was about a half hour late.  Other birders were showing up and some decided to wait for it to appear in the tree where it had been seen while others wandered about the park looking for the rare hummingbird.

One of those wandering about was Justin LeClair who thought he had glimpsed the hummer.  While he was searching he found what at the time appeared to be an Isabella Heliconian.  When I heard about it, I ran over as I have not seen one in a few years.  The butterfly was perched low in the shade on a Turk's-cap and when I put my camera on it the first thing I saw was the bright yellow antennae.  I told him and his buddy Tony that I didn't think this was an Isabella but that it might be the much more rare Tiger Mimic-Queen.  I had seen one a few years ago and remembered the bright yellow antennae.  We checked online with our phones and sure enough I was right.  We got the word out and luckily it stayed put and gave the birders and arriving butterfliers a really nice lifer.  There are only a handful of records north of Mexico for this spectacular relative of the Monarch.