Bentsen RGV State Park and NABA, 8/24/11

I spent yesterday morning birding and bugging at Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park south of Mission. Birds were pretty good with a Canada Warbler and plenty of Yellow Warblers and Yellow-breasted Chats. However my main goal was to look for bugs. Now that I've been looking more at damselflies, I'm starting to see the differences more easily and it was easy to pick out Golden-winged Dancers. These were along the resaca just south of the boat ramp.



At the same spot along the resaca I was happy to see two Mexican Scarlettails. Luckily they weren't wiped out by last years flood.



This Statira Sulphur near the entrance was a new one for me. Yellows and Sulphurs don't get me too excited.  Correction:  This is just a Lyside Sulphur.  Wow I've learned a lot in the last three years!



With the heat building up I decided to head over to nearby NABA Butterfly Park and see what was going on. One of the first things I saw was this Flag-tailed Spinyleg. Unfortunately I misIDed it at the time. And when I later saw a pair in tandem, I IDed them incorrectly again. After I got home I saw those long spiny legs in the photos and finally got it right.





Troy and Robin Zurovec were there at NABA and got me onto some great butterflies. This Florida White was new for me.



Robin also found this Gray Cracker. I used a flash and it brought out a lot of colors you normally miss as they hide in the shade.



Red-bordered Pixie is always nice to see.



This Pipevine Swallowtail as outside the nice new visitor's center.