Well.... My original plan was to go to the HEB supermarket yesterday for groceries and then watch football. But it was a nice moring so I thought what the hell. I'll just go to the butterfly park and watch football afterwards. The decision had disasterous consequences. Well sort of.
Things started out great with at least a dozen Western Giant Swallowtails in the Mexican Orchid by the nursery.
Then a nice Guava Skipper popped in. Probably the same one I glimsped last weekend.
Male Red-bordered Metalmarks are vastly under rated.
A few grasskippers were out. Here is Clouded, Eufala, Wirlabout, and Double-dotted Skippers.
A walk up to the front gardens produced a nice Lanatana Scrub-Hairstreak.
And the first Common Sootywing I've seen in a while.
I'm discovering long-horned bees are a pain to ID except for a few easy ones like the female Tepanec Long-horned Bee with the black blotch on the stripe on abdominal segment four.
A return to the Mexican Orchid tree brought on a flurry of good butterflies. First it was a Yellow Angled-Sulphur that my camera refused to focus on. It was only present a few seconds as it often the case. So I had to settle for a nearby Giant White.
I studied the flock (Do butterflies flock?) of Western Giant Swallowtails searching for an Ornython Swallowtail. I got one! It seems most of the ones we get are missing a large chunk of wing. They have been blown a long ways in the wind and had to fight off a few predators.
When I arrived I noticed I had a text from birder, butterflyer, and odester extraordinaire Martin Reid. A Double-striped Thick-knee had just been found east of San Antonio near Nixon. Yikes! It is only the second ever north of Mexico. As the first was taken as a specimen from the King Ranch in 1961, we've been waiting a long time. I've seen a number of them in Chiapas near Palenque.
Well it was 2pm and I was exhausted and covered in sweat and sunscreen. I just wasn't up for the five hour drive to maybe see the bird. As it turned out a lot of people got it and it was still present in a pasture under a tree as the sun set. But thick-knees are nocturnal shorebirds so it was just chilling as the hundred or so birders ticked it for their lists. During the night it would be out feeding and there's a good possibility it might be elsewhere come morning. So I decided to wait to see if it was refound.
Had I just gone to HEB and then watched football, I might have chased the bird when the word got out. As I type this the Double-striped Thick-knee has not be refound. Birders are searching on the private ranch. I've always got an eye open for these guys as I bird the grasslands of Willacy county. I guess I will just have to find my own.
Here's today's list of 38 species of butterflies.
- Pipevine Swallowtail 1
- Giant Swallowtail 20
- Ornythion Swallowtail 1
- Giant White 1
- Yellow Angled-Sulphur 1
- Cloudless Sulphur 1
- Large Orange Sulphur 15
- Lyside Sulphur 2
- Little Yellow 2
- Gray Hairstreak 1
- Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 1
- Cassius Blue 1
- Ceraunus Blue 8
- Red-bordered Metalmark 3
- American Snout 5
- Gulf Fritillary 1
- Bordered Patch 4
- Phaon Crescent 20
- White Peacock 1
- Mexican Bluewing 1
- Tropical Leafwing 3
- Queen 15
- Soldier 1
- Guava Skipper 2
- Brown Longtail 1
- White Checkered-Skipper 5
- Tropical Checkered-Skipper 20
- Desert Checkered-Skipper 1
- Laviana White-Skipper 4
- Common Sootywing 1
- Clouded Skipper 8
- Double-dotted Skipper 3
- Southern Skipperling 1
- Fiery Skipper 1
- Whirlabout 3
- Southern Broken-Dash 1
- Common Mellana 1
- Eufala Skipper 6
