RGV Butterflies

With all the summer rain there's been lots of good butterflies in the Rio Grande Valley this fall. I found this Two-barred Flasher on the Heliconia latispatha right outside our front door.



Here's a Julia and a Soldier from the convention center at South Padre Island.





Here's a Giant Swallowtail from Frontera Audubon Thicket.



Pale-banded Crescent

Sugar House Pond, 10/25/08

This morning I made a run up to the Sugar House north of Mercedes on Hwy 1425. The Sugar House is a sugar mill that processes the area's sugar cane. Just north of the Sugar House is a pond that has been great for shorebirds lately. The Sugar House looks like a smoke-belching monstrosity in the background.



But the birds don't seem to mind.



Best bird for me was this Dunlin which was new for my Hidalgo County list, #336. Dunlin are a common wintering species 40 miles away on the coast but are hard to find in here in Hidalgo County. I took this photo with my new Canon A590 hand held through my Kowa 824. Came out pretty good.



Here's a Stilt Sandpiper.



And American Avocet.



There wasn't much diversity but there were lots of birds.

Gadwall 6
Blue-winged Teal 1
Northern Shoveler 200
Green-winged Teal 100
Cattle Egret 12
Killdeer 3
American Avocet 300
Western Sandpiper 1200
Least Sandpiper 300
Dunlin 1
Stilt Sandpiper 2500
Long-billed Dowitcher 150
Wilson's Phalarope 11
Rock Pigeon 12
Horned Lark 3
Cave Swallow 2
Barn Swallow 200
Savannah Sparrow 2
Great-tailed Grackle 1

Blue throated Hummingbird at Estero Llano Grande

Wow, it's been a while since I posted anything. School seems to take so much of my time and energy. That combined with about the slowest fall migration ever. We really haven't had a good puch of cold weather to bring things down. Also we've had a very wet summer and fall, so there's plenty of food out there and birds are not piling up at the usual hot spots. They're spread out all over the place.

But there was a good find at Estero Lllano Grande State Park last week. This either female or young male Blue-throated Hummingbird is very rare in the Rio Grande Valley. They occur in small numbers in the mountains of west Texas and are common to the south of us in the Sierra Madre Oriental. It's the first I've heard of in my 16 years in the Valley. County bird #335!





This young Reddish Egret up at the Hargill feedlot pond is a rare sight in Hidalgo County away from the coast. It was banded by researchers from Texas State University in San Marcos. The bird came from coastal Willacy County.