South Texas Birds & Butterflies Nov 15—20, 2009
Posted by Michael O'Brien
Michael O'Brien
Michael O'Brien is a freelance artist, author, and environmental consultant living in Cape May, New Jersey. He has a passionate interest in bird vocalizations and field...Related Trips
This year's South Texas Birds & Butterflies tour was another enjoyable trip, with a fun group of people. Though group size dictated that Michael was the only "official" leader, Louise Zemaitis also came along and was a big help. As on our other "birds & butterflies" tours, we struck a balance between focusing more on birds in the morning and more on butterflies in the afternoon, though we always kept an eye out for both, along with any other interesting critters that crossed our path. Drought conditions throughout the fall served to concentrate various freshwater birds—waterfowl, grebes, herons, shorebirds, etc.—into a few spots, making them seem more numerous than usual. The drought also apparently resulted in a "bumper crop" of American Snouts, supposedly due to a reduction in parasites, predators, and pathogens that typically reduce their populations. Tawny Emperors and Empress Leilias were also more abundant than usual, perhaps for the same reason (all three species use hackberry as their host).
Birding in the Valley is productive at any season, and our list of 181 species on this short tour indicates just how good it is. We did well finding most Valley specialties including Black-bellied Whistling-Duck; Plain Chachalaca; Least Grebe; Gray, White-tailed, and Zone-tailed hawks; White-tipped Dove; Green Parakeet; Red-crowned Parrot; Buff-bellied Hummingbird; Ringed and Green kingfishers; Golden-fronted Woodpecker; Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet; Great Kiskadee; Tropical and Couch's kingbirds; Green Jay; Black-crested Titmouse; Clay-colored Robin; Long-billed Thrasher; Olive Sparrow; and Altamira Oriole. We also found excellent numbers of waterfowl (14 spp), shorebirds (23 spp), and sparrows (13 spp). We particularly enjoyed excellent views of such skulkers as Cassin's, Grasshopper, and Le Conte's sparrows, and the stunning Black-throated Sparrow. The rarity of the trip was the immature male Rose-throated Becard at Estero Llano Grande. A beautiful adult Ferruginous Hawk soaring over Santa Ana was also a big surprise.
Cloudy conditions kept overall butterfly numbers down slightly, but we still found an amazing 87 species in just four full days, including a couple of real rarities. Some of the scarcer Valley specialties we saw this year included Boisduval's Yellow, Silver-banded Hairstreak, Blue Metalmark, Red-bordered Pixie, Crimson Patch, Pale-banded Crescent, Ruddy Daggerwing, Mexican Bluewing, Tropical Leafwing, Guava Skipper, Zilpa Longtail, Erichson's White-Skipper, Celia's Roadside-Skipper, and Olive-clouded and Purple-washed skippers. But our star rarities were an Isabella's Heliconian at Edinburg, a Pavon Emperor at Bentsen, and a Veined White-Skipper at NABA. The latter was the first one found in the Valley in about five years—kudos to Jackie Parker for spotting this one!