Western Flycatcher at South Padre Island, 8/8/24

 I ran out to South Padre Island this morning to see what early migrant passerines might be about.  A stop at the Sheepshead lot turned up a Least Flycatcher but not much else.  A couple of volunteers were cleaning up the guinea grass that had gone crazy afther the recent rain so anything else may have gotten flushed.

Then I ran up to the Convention Center and walked over to the water feature and an Empidonax immediately perched over the trickle of water.  It was in heavy shade but I saw what appeared to be a sloppy eye ring so I just assumed it was another Least Flycatcher.  But it  sat there and dared me to take photos.  Then I noticed it was greenish with yellowish underparts like a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.  But It didn't have a bold even eye ring.  Instead the eye ring pointed toward the rear like a tear drop.  And the bill was too big.  Then it hit me.  Western Flycatcher!  I had seen several just a few weeks ago in SE Arizona.

According to eBird, this is the first Western Flycatcher for South Padre Island and I am guessing a first August record for the Rio Grande Valley.  Previously Western Flycatcher had been split into the West Coast's Pacific-slope Flycatcher and the Rocky Mountains' Cordilleran Flycatcher.  The only difference being a slight variation between their calls and songs.  Most winters one is found somewhere in the RGV.  All that have been identified were assigned to Pacific-Slope Flycatcher.  They normally winter at low elevations along the west coast of Mexico.  There was a major invasion into the Valley during the winter of 2020-21.  Fortunately the two species were relumped after it was decided there was little evidence for the initial split.

So which one is this?  On my recent trip to SE Arizona I spoke with a number of Cordillearan Flycatchers.  I imitate their call with a whistled "hoo-heet".  They often answer back when they are on territory.  I learned this while living nine years in SE Arizona.  So I whistled to this lost Western Flycatcher and it answered with a couple of single syllable "heet's.  Not sure what that means.  But if I had to bet money I am guessing this is a Cordilleran Flycathcer displaced by the one of the many fires raging across the Rocky Mountains.

My only other migrants for the morning were the expected Black-and-white Warbler and a surprise immature Dickcissel.

It may be hot 'n nasty out there but there are plenty of insects for brave migrant birds.  Yellow and Mourning Warblers and Yellow-breassted Chats should be showing up soon.

A Butterfly Trip to SE Arizona, 7/8-11/14

Last month some really good butterflies were being found in the high elevations of Southeast Arizona, in particular the Chirichaua and Pinaleno Ranges.  So I loaded up the jeep and made the thousand mile drive out there.  Spent the night in Van Horn and made it to Cave Creek Canyon in the Chiricahuas by early afternoon.    My target butterflies were going to be up in the high elevations but as I was already in the canyon I figured I would try the South Fork trail as I have had good luck there in the past.  Well I didn't see much as it was really dry.  Not a drop of water was found above the parking area.  But I heard a barking Elegant Trogon so all was not lost.  The stream ran some a little lower in the canyon and non visible Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers called.  This Painted Restart really put on a show.

My only butterfly was an Orange Skipperling.  Even the nornally abundant Arizona Sisters and Two-tailed Swallow-tailes were absent.

So I headed past the Southwestern Research Station and checked out the damselflies along the creek and then started climbing.  This Nais Metalmark was a nice find but I couldn't find the Deva Skippers I had seen a few years ago.  I needed the Pyton Skipper that often hangs out with them but not much was blooming at the little flower spot before Onion Saddle.

I made it up to Barfoot Park where there were very few campers and went to bed under the stars serenaded by American Robins and a pair of Great Horned Owls.

My targets were Oranged-edged Roadside-Skipper and Pine Satyrs.  I scoured the area around my campsite and found little but a Satyr Comma.

So I moved up to the old camp ground and checked out the meadow.  This fresh Taxiles Skipper was a real knockout.

A Yellow-eyed Junco bathed in the small stream.

I walked under the pines looking for my two targets and flushed a small dark butterfly from a patch of grass.  I had a feeling this was it... my lifer Orange-edged Roadside-Skipper!

Ok, one down.  A Steller's Jay toyed with me, just staying out of reach for a good photo.

I looped through the campground and out into the burned over perifery where there were lots of wild flowers but few butterflies.  The last forest fire came close to wiping out Barfoot Park, a birding destination loved by many.  Band-tailed Pigeons called throughout the morning.

I wasn't finding my Pine Satyr so I drove down to the Barfoot-Rustler Park junction and continued walking under the pines.  A Greater Pewee, one of the great oxymoronic bird names, called "Jose Maria".

I just wasn't finding much so I returned to Barfoot Park.  American Robins were all over the place.  Here's a spotted youngster.

Back at the small stream that ran from the meadow into the campground a Black-headed Grosbeak called.

I walked over to get closer and noticed butterflies attracted to the muddy edges of the trickle of water.  More Orange-edged Roadside-Skippers!

Then what looked like a Mournful Duskywing but the gray overscaling extended to the wing tips.  This is the white-edged Arizona form of Juvenal's Duskywing, soon to be split someday and future lifer.

As the afternoon passed, monsoon clouds formed overhead.  I had better find that Pine Satyr soon.  I didn't want to spend a night up here in the rain.  It got cloudy as I approached the little stream again.  A medium sized dark butterfly landed nearby in the grass.  I looked at it though the camera and saw wavy bands and orangish coloration and satyr like ocelli.  It was a Pine Satyr!  I got poor shots of it buried in the grass.  I approached and it flew over the fence into the meadow.  So I followed.  I would get closer and get a better shot and then it would fly again.  I kept this up till I got some decent images.

Wow!  That might be the best looking butterfly I've seen north of Mexico.  I left the Pine Satyr in the meadow and returned to the stream which was maybe a hundred feet away.  Then a second Pine Satyr landed right in front of me.

By now it was cloudy and dark and big scattered cold drops of rain were falling.  Pea sized hail bounced off the jeap and thunder cracked overhead.  Might be a good idea to get off the mountain.  So I celebrated by spending the night at an overpriced Motel  6 in Willcox.

I got up early and headed north up the former US 666.  Now it's US 166.  The Pinaleno Mountains and Mount Graham loomed ahead.  Some really nice hairstreaks had been found in the high altitudes in recent days.  My last trip up this mountain was a camping trip with former students over thirty years ago so I was about due a return.  AZ 366 split off the highway and snaked up the side of the mountain.

At a bend crossing over a stream there was a pullout with shallow water flowing over the pavement.  It was absolutely loaded with butterflies.  A huge Two-tailed Swallowtail floated past but refused photos.  But the Arizona Sisters were happy to oblige.

Hundreds of Echo Azures along with a few Marine Blues sucked the moist soil for dissoved salts.

My only Golden-headed Scallopwing popped in.

Then a smallish white edged brown duskywing.  What the heck is that?  My lifer Pacuvious Duskywing!  A least half a dozen.

At this point a pickup joined me at the pulloff and the fellow asked me what I was seeing.  Turned out he was a leptidopterist from Mississippi State University and was picking up a moth trap he had set the night before.  He ventured down a short trail and soon retured with his trap.  I watched as he picked through a tray of hundred of moths captured the night before.  Most were gray as usual but there were also bright green and red ones.  I don't kow why I didn't take a few photos of his haul.  As he worked I found a brilliant Great Purple hairstreak.

Several Arizona Red-spotted Admirals joined the show.

Not much was going on along the shady stream but I did find this knockout Silver-spotted Skipper.

After a while the lepidopterist left and headed south and I continued my route up the mountain.  I passed 6000, 7000, 8000 and finally 9000 feet elevation markers.  All this time I was seeing few flowers and no butterflies except for a few blues.

About this time I realized I didn't quite know what I was doing.  I had done a bit of research on iNat but not enough.  I had a few butterfly species scribbled down with location names but I realized I didn't know where the locations were.  And with no cell signal I was just kind of feeling my way around.  Eventually I came to Hospital Flat which was one of my spots.  And there were lots of flowers and it was getting to be late morning which I usually find to be prime time.  So I walked loops through the flowers and found precious little.  Here's the recently split, at least by Nick Grishin, Gray Buckeye.

I looked for skipperlings along a stream but just found more Echo Azures.

Here's another Silver-spotted skipper.

At the Hospital Flats campground I asked a couple of forest service workers about Ladybug Corner.  They gave me some vague directions so I took off and found a corner with some floweres but didn't find much.  There was a dirt road descending though the conifers.  What the hell.  I found blooming elderberries but it was getting cloudy and there was little activity.  About a mile down the road an opening with some kind of camp ground with a pond appeared.  Later I found out this was the Snow Flat Boy Scout camp.  There were lots of flowers but little going on.  Below the pond friendly Western (formerly Cordilleran but relumped) Flycatchers called.

I needed a campground but I didn't want to camp at such high elevation so I descended to a campground I had seen earlier on my journey up the mountain.  But it ws freaking hot down there so I retraced my route and found all of the camp grounds closed or for groups only.  So I wound up back at Hospital Flat campground where I was the only camper.  The free campground across the road was loaded so I didn't mind paying the senior rate for some solitude.  Hermit Thrushes sang as the sun set.

Birds were singing after a cold night.  I head a vaguely familiar "pew" call.  Been a while since I've seen an Olive Warbler

.

I explored the nearby meadow.  It was too early for butterflies.  A little Northern Pygmy Owl whistling and pishing brought in the birds.  Here's an Audubon's Yellow-rumped Warbler.

A Red-faced Warbler popped up but I was too slow for a photo.   Another warbler was hidden in the conifer.  Turned out to be a Mac Gillivray's Warbler which I thought was no big deal but was flagged on eBird for being rare at this location.  Maybe the elevation was a little high for this guy.

Here's a young Yellow-eyed Junco.  I didn't realize they were the resident junco in the Pinalenos.

After packing up my camp I returned to the spot on the road I had mistakenly thought was Lady Bug Corner.  Stuff was flying though it was still cool this sunny morning.  Here's both male and femal Taxiles Skipper.

A warbler was singing so I pished a bit and this cooperative Red-faced Warbler checked me out.  It was carrying a lacewing for the kids at in the nest.

Wow!  That was nice.  I walked along the road that flanked the sunny side of the mountain at 9000 feet and quickly spotted a cool looking hairstreak.  Eventually I found three of my lifer Thicket Hairstreaks.

There were a lot of these small blooming shrubs and the butterflies loved them.  Here is a couple of  Gray Hairstreaks.  I didn't know they occurred at such high elevation.

A brilliant Great Purple Hairstreak joined the show.

Here's a nice Nais Metalmark. See what I did there?

They have the black Bordered Patches in SE Arizona.

I worked that stretch of road pretty good and didn't find anything else new so I descended the dirt track to the meadow.  I didn't find anything in the blooming elderberries.  But a little lower I spied a small brown butterfly sunning itself on a blade of grass.  A skipperling!  Underwing shots proved it to be Russet Skipperling, a lifer!  My only other true skipperling was the Chisos Skipperling I saw at Big Bend.  The common Southern Skipperling and Orange Skiperling are not skipperlings at all but grass skippers.  When their wings are open they assume the jet fighter position as opposed to true skipperling that spread their wings open like other butterflies.

Then a good sized black and white butterfly sailed by and landed on a spruce.  My lifer Weidemyer's Admiral!

There were several Pipevine Swallowtails and American Ladies in the meadow  but nothing interesting.  Checking the ravine below the pond found lots of flowers and a Hairy Woodpecker and a Hermit Thrush but not many butterflies.

It has been many years since I have seen an Abert's Squirrel.

It was starting to cloud up again.  So I started back down the mountain.  After a couple of miles I passed the Lady Bug trail and realized this was the area I was supposed to be searching but I didn't see many flowers and it was cloudy.  My original plan was to continue northward into the White Mountains but my phone app was showing monsoon rain up there and I didn't want to camp and deal with that.  So with half a dozen lifer butterflies I pointed the jeep east and headed home.  I will do some more homework and try again out here someday.