Banded Orange Heliconian at Bentsen WBC, 12/08/07

This afternoon Honey and I decided to head over to the NABA Butterfly Park to see if we could see some of the great stuff they've had this fall, in particular the One-spotted Prepona. Well, we stuck out on that but while we were there we got word that a Banded Orange Heliconian had just been found at the nearby Bentsen State Park World Birding Center. What a fantastic butterfly! It's a rare vagrant from Mexico.









This Two-barred Flasher was pretty cool.





This Glazed Pellicia was new for me. I just couldn't get it to pose right. Look at the hairs on its wings.

Llano Grande flood channel, 12/08/07

This morning I checked out the Llano Grande flood channel immdeiately south of Estero Llano Grande State Park. There were lots of birds in the water but nothing unusual.





Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 500
Fulvous Whistling-Duck 1
Gadwall 6
Mottled Duck 4
Blue-winged Teal 15
Northern Shoveler 300
Green-winged Teal 50
Ruddy Duck 1
Northern Bobwhite 12
Pied-billed Grebe 1
American White Pelican 250
Neotropic Cormorant 1
Double-crested Cormorant 6
Anhinga 1
Great Blue Heron 32
Great Egret 5
Snowy Egret 5
Little Blue Heron 2
Tricolored Heron 1
Black-crowned Night-Heron 2
Roseate Spoonbill 10
Black Vulture 2
White-tailed Kite 3
Northern Harrier 3
American Kestrel 1
Common Moorhen 4
American Coot 10
Killdeer 20
Black-necked Stilt 30
American Avocet 50
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Greater Yellowlegs 2
Long-billed Curlew 5
Least Sandpiper 120
Stilt Sandpiper 40
Long-billed Dowitcher 200
Caspian Tern 1
Mourning Dove 20
Common Ground-Dove 6
Eastern Phoebe 1
Couch's Kingbird 1
Horned Lark 1
Tree Swallow 20
Cave Swallow 5
Marsh Wren 1
Northern Mockingbird 2
American Pipit 150
Orange-crowned Warbler 2
Common Yellowthroat 10
Savannah Sparrow 5
Lincoln's Sparrow 6
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Eastern Meadowlark 1
Great-tailed Grackle 10