South Texas Butterflies and Birds November 28, 2006

Posted by Marshall Iliff

Marshall-iliff

Marshall Iliff

Marshall Iliff, a lifelong nature lover, began birding at age 11 after attending a National Wildlife Federation Camp in the mountains of North Carolina. He attended VENT...

Our inaugural South Texas Butterflies and Birds tour could only be described as a smashing success. Our weather was great and we had no wind, rain, or cold that would have shut down the butterfly show. I had some concerns about how the combination of birds and butterflies would balance, but I think in the end it worked well. We birded in the cool mornings and shifted to butterflies as the days heated up. Never would we pass up an opportunity to look at some neat bird, lizard, butterfly, dragonfly, mammal, toad, flower, damselfly, cricket, or whatever. This turned out to be one of my favorite natural history tours of all?mostly because we ignored nothing.

The butterflies were nothing short of spectacular. Fall rains had come in September and were renewed in October (during the annual “Butterfly Festival,” unfortunately for them!), and the butterflies were emerging in force. Each day seemed to be better than the previous day. Lasting memories for me will be the hundreds of Queens and Bordered Patches at Edinburg Wetlands, the swirling masses of Lyside Sulphurs, the great variety of fruit-loving butterflies attending baited trees at Roma, and our Butterfly “Big Day,” on which we recorded no fewer than 86 species! The most special butterfly was certainly the Red-spotted Patch that we shamelessly “chased” at Bentsen. This was the first USA record in more than 20 years, a first county record, and one of few ever in the USA. And it was stunning to boot! Other highlights included such show-stoppers as Crimson Patch, Malachite, Common Mestra, Mexican Fritillary, Blue Metalmark, and Silver-banded Hairstreak. Mexican Bluewing, perhaps the quintessential butterfly for the Rio Grande Valley, cooperated wonderfully. We had several individuals on fruit and tree trunks that showed us their subtle brown undersides followed by the screaming blue and black upperside pattern. Wow!

Several special butterfly detours gave us specific targets to hope for. A special detour for Xami Hairstreak proved worthwhile, and two trips to the unlikely butterflying hotspot of the Edinburg Burger King drive-thru got us a Whopper of a different kind: Red-bordered Pixie! It was a treat to have several Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreaks, a Portillo Skipper, a Tropical Buckeye, a Yellow Angled-Sulphur, a Brown-banded Skipper, Zilpa Longtail, and several other surprises as well. But mostly I will remember the numbers?check out http://www.naba.org/sightings/Multitudesofbutterflies.htm for a discussion of what big batches of butterflies could be called. My favorite may be a kaleidoscope of butterflies, but an adornment of butterflies may be runner-up. Whatever your favorite, we saw groupings and variety that can’t be seen anywhere else in the country.

Dragonflies were a focus as well, though they occupied somewhat less of our time than the “leps.” A special highlight was the Turquoise-tipped Darner at Santa Ana, and an Orange-bellied Skimmer at Frontera was in the same league. Both are found in the USA primarily in South Texas. A mammal highlight was the small herd of Javelina on the Bentsen night drive?two cat-sized tawny babies in tow were the smallest peccaries I have ever seen! A herp (reptile/amphibian) highlight was certainly the Texas Coral Snake that slithered across our path at Santa Ana?they are venomous but not at all aggressive. It was my first in Texas! A Texas Indigo Snake was a good find as well.

Birds?oh yeah?birds! We saw a great variety of birds. Tops was the Northern Jacana, a mega-rarity that showed up in August at Llano Grande and had the graciousness to hang out for three months until our visit. It was a USA life bird for all. Our other two rare birds didn’t have nearly the glamour?House Finch and Mallard?but may have been even rarer locally! But South Texas is really most famous for its specialty birds: the 30 or so species that can’t be found anywhere else in the country. We saw brilliant Green Jays and subtle Plain Chachalacas, raucous Great Kiskadees and furtive Olive Sparrows, brilliant Altamira Orioles and curious Black-crested Titmice. A personal highlight was the cooperative Greater Roadrunner at Falcon State Park that snuck out from the bushes and obliged us with a full bowed-head calling display. After five minutes of show, it raised its tail high over its back and quite literally skipped back into the brush, a territorial display I’d not seen before. And congratulations are due to Paul Davis, who has a truly substantial USA list: his two lifers this trip were Northern Jacana and Muscovy Duck. Not bad for a butterfly tour!

Thanks to all of you for being such a great group. You loved to eat, and loved each others’ company, but best of all, loved every new surprise we ran across. This trip never could have gone so smoothly without your remarkable interest in all aspects of nature.