I-20 Wildlife Preserve

Without any intentional birding time scheduled, and no photos (whoops), I cobbled together a Texbirds post from March 18th's quick jaunt around the darn-new and mind-boggling site of Midland's new birding hotspot. Anyone wishing to attempt a birding trail, preserve, park, photography trail, whatever... this is a prime example of things done RIGHT. Quality blinds, trails, boardwalks and overlooks - not to mention feeding stations.

***

Folks unfamiliar with the new-ish I-20 Nature Preserve should really investigate it! Midland is somewhat short on birding options, but this one is conveniently wedged between Business 20, I-20, Midkiff and the loop; this means you will have zero sense of isolation (sounds like you're between two major highways, in fact), but the birding - and butterflying - definitely makes up for the noise of the machinery and general human chaos that surrounds it.

In a mid-afternoon jaunt on the 18th, Matt York and I kicked up nearly 30 species along the ~2 mile trail (mostly paved, some boardwalk) that runs the perimeter of the place. I lost count of blinds after the 4th or 5th - there are a few overlooks (2?) and a really sweet hawk tower. There are at least 2 RGV-style feeding stations that appear to be maintained daily as well. Someone has been writing roughly daily observations on their dry erase board and most of the bird/bug IDs appeared correct ("grackles" ...ah well)

http://www.i20wildlifepreserve.org/

Also, pretty sure it's my new favorite place simply because it bans noise making and noise makers. Guess if you can't hear yourself think due to nearby human activity, the birds should get a break from artificial noise as well.

Happy trails,
-h

Semi-annual Update

The 2012 review is up at Big Bend Nature.com and that means we're off the hook for more bird/bug updates for this post... right? Guess that leaves the pithy, lifey stuff...

Jan - hey, rare birds ARE life to us; Nutting's Flycatcher was some Herculean feat of masochism in spite of being a life bird for both of us. The bird called twice in something like two hours of our first observation and the call is what we HAD to record for confirmation. No pressure. Awesome bird. Great folks who chased it, as well. Kind of a who's who of birders, or an awkward family reunion.

Feb-May were somewhat nondescript, except when May rolled around we were both laid off from our part time jobs (same place - so there went our 20 hr/week gig, roughly 1/2 of our income, on 5 minutes notice... at the same time I lost my tutoring position due to graduation), but I guess at least we don't have to work at the checkpoint anymore! That was at the beginning of the week of finals and graduation. Not cool. I could have been studying!

Layoffs aside, May was wonderful; Matt's folks came out for my graduation and in the time-honored tradition of shirking rituals, I ate at CowDog instead of walking for graduation. Not quite a trip to the RGV (high school graduation), but CowDog with the best in-laws ever? Remarkably wonderful. We even introduced them to a black-tailed rattlesnake in the Chisos Basin! They stayed at Eve's Garden... not that we blogged their breakfast or anything. Ok, we did.

June saw a bit of travel; Matt held down the fort while I went to California for a wedding - not just any wedding, but that of a former solar car competitor turned bff/dear friend. While out there, I also managed to meet that 'new' nephew of mine who was already a year old! Whoops. I'm a bad aunt. Other than seeing a few birds during the wedding ceremony, no birding was done - but plenty of friends seen/met/stayed with in the process. Also, June was crafty... because I made a skirt into a dress for the wedding.

July was an exhausting/exhilarating mix of anticipation and phone-tag during the crunch time of pre-festival madness; Matt scouted and I wrangled field trip leaders and the most awesome celebrities ever, but between the two of us and some seriously awesome trip leaders, I'd say ~22 people at a first year birding festival with Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman is pretty much a success.

Following the festival, we took a week of down time and took the small dog to Santa Fe to meet her cousin. It was great to see the long-lost relatives (we see them maybe every 2-3 years or so). The fall turned into a busy mix of shipping Matt off to the AZ/CA border for some field work and I settled into my new job at Pitaya Verde.

The shift to winter was a mix of job shuffling again; Matt focused on guiding and contract work, I put my name in the hat for a librarian position. After Thanksgiving - early December for anyone keeping track - a neighbor told us about a house with a "for sale by owner" sign out front... and we've been throwing ourselves into it, full force, since then. We do enjoy the little house of termites, but the Double Bacon, as much as we love it, is sometimes just a bit too much. There's no closing date yet, but we're up to our ears in surveys, inspections, roof quotes and generic madness. Add the new job to the existing job and the move across town seems like quite a challenge. It's a pretty hefty move: all the way from the NE side to the SW side. A whopping 17 blocks... that's clear across town, as the maximum would have been 22 blocks if we'd lived any further on the NE side!

So please bear with us through blog silence as we tackle the latest batch of challenges: we're still here and our PO box won't change (434), but we're swamped with "productive" things!

Anakin, Matt, Nauga and Heidi - Jan 2013, photo by Tom Lehr

Save the date!

X-posted over at our big bend blog -

Guess two members of this larger team effort....
I'll spot you Kenn Kaufman.

August update

Last week we were asked to speak about the impact of drought on birds and other wildlife on Marfa Public Radio; the audio has been archived and can now be accessed anywhere, at any time, should you feel the urge.

Photo/permalink via Marfa Public Radio:


Handy links from previous posts on the Big Bend Birds & Nature blog:
the drying, the drought (a bit heavy, but eye-opening)
in the meantime, pictures
freezer catch-up
and an optimistic final note: drought?

...in the meantime, things are keeping a hectic pace that neither blog quite reflects. We'd promise more updates if we knew there would be any soonish, but that's a long shot! Perhaps photos of some furniture projects one of these days, though...

Busy, busy summer

As the title implies, we're up to our ears in... life. Between wrangling pups, pup-sitting for others, work, school, work and more work, we've managed to get a few photos worth sharing:

Family portrait: Matt, Nauga, Heidi and Anakin. Awww.

A Black Witch moth on the back wall while blacklighting.

The Chihuahua named Little.

Pepsis wasp. Oh yes, there's an Entomology class afoot this summer!

Recent bug life: Lyside Sulphur, Eyed Elater and an Opuntia Beetle (the 'longhorn')

The reason you don't go the speed limit out here. Ever. This was taken at 6:40 - long before dusk!

...and, FINALLY, our first dung beetles of the season. It only took until mid July to see them at Post Park. Still no sign of them in town. Maybe after a few real rains?

Upcoming local things...

If you don't read our Big Bend regional blog, here's what you're missing:

Please note that dates/times may change but we will do our best to post accurate and updated information as soon as we know!

Friday Night [Black]Lights

On Friday nights starting in March, the Marathon Motel invites all interested to join in blacklighting for moths around the property. This is a new region for us, with diverse bugs and promising prospects - amateurs to experts are very much encouraged to join and share your knowledge and enthusiasm! We may, on occasion, blacklight at Post Park as well - those dates TBA.


Sunday Breakfast & Birds

Join us on Sunday mornings starting in March at the Marathon Coffee Shop* for the best breakfast burritos in town! We will leave for Post Park/Fort Pena Colorado at 8 and for those wishing to meet at the park directly, meet at 8:15 for a free guided bird/butterfly walk. After Post Park, folks are invited to Guzzi Pizza for species list review, regional wildlife discussion and some of the best pizza and 'sandwiches' in West Texas!

* The sign by the road says "Breakfast and Lunch" - it's on the far west end of town, just past the Gage Hotel; they open at 7 AM and do not accept checks or debit/credit cards, so remember to bring cash!

Thanksgiving hiatus

Since this blog has been sooo quiet lately, it's unlikely that y'all would notice that we're actually going to be intentionally quiet for Thanksgiving... Meanwhile this month, over at BigBendTX.blogspot.com Matt has been posting some pretty fantastic butterfly stuff:

Two among the flighted
Metallica
Winter blues

Hopefully we'll have a few more posts over here after the holiday adventures, hopefully to rival last year's Black Friday post. Time for another puppy photo shoot, methinks!


(Anakin last year)

yard swap

Here's the official yard list, in chronological order, for the house at 5th and F:

(Date range was from July 2 through September 15, 2010)

Turkey Vulture 7/4
Eurasian Collared-Dove 7/2
White-winged Dove 7/2
Inca Dove 7/5
Lesser Nighthawk 7/7
Common Nighthawk 7/2
Black-chinned Hummingbird 7/4
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 7/4
Vermillion Flycatcher 7/2
Ash-throated Flycatcher 7/2
Cassin's Kingbird 7/3 nesting
Barn Swallow 7/2 nesting
Cactus Wren 7/5 heard
Northern Mockingbird 7/2
Curve-billed Thrasher 7/2
European Starling 7/4
Canyon Towhee 7/4
Great-tailed Grackle 7/2
Bronzed Cowbird 7/2
Orchard Oriole 7/4
House Finch 7/2
Lesser Goldfinch 7/2
House Sparrow 7/2
*domestic red junglefowl 7/3
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 7/20
Western Tanager 7/26
Bell's Vireo 7/30
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher 8/8
Say's Phoebe 8/8
Rufous Hummingbird 8/20
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 8/20
Barn Owl 8/20
Upland Sandpiper 8/25
Summer Tanager 9/1
Bullock's Oriole 9/4
Blue Grosbeak 9/9
Empid Spp 9/9
Wilson's Warbler 9/9
Cedar Waxwing 9/11
Spotted Towhee 9/15

Additional vertebrate observed in that time:
bat spp 7/4
spadefoot toad 7/9
chorus frog ? (?)

Butterflies:
Queen 7/2
American Snout 7/4
Sleepy Orange 7/4
Lyside Sulphur 7/4
Gray Hairstreak 7/4
Texan Crescent 7/4
Western Pygmy Blue 7/4
Reakirt's Blue 7/4
Orange Sulphur 7/5
Question Mark 7/6
Definite Patch 7/13
Theona Checkerspot 7/13
Bordered Patch 7/18
Fiery Skipper 7/20
Dun Skipper 7/20
Mexican Yellow 8/2
Pipevine Swallowtail 8/24
Eufala Skipper 8/25
Southern Dogface * pre 8/25
Variegated Fritillary * pre 8/25
Common/White Checkered Skipper * pre 8/25
Goatweed Leafwing 9/1
Funereal Duskywing 9/3
Monarch 9/4

And species not in our yard, but observed in town during that time:
Cliff Swallow 7/4
Western Kingbird 7/4
Cassin's Sparrow 7/7
Black-throated Sparrow 7/7
Great Horned Owl 7/27
Yellow-headed Blackbird 9/26
Scott's Oriole 9/30

Pyrgus philetas Por Fin!

Alliteration.

Heidi and I finally came across Desert Checkered-Skipper at the work site.
Did not detract from our responsibilities of employ, by the way.

scriptura on a sabbath

Yeah, we had to work. I've always preferred my church-with-no-walls anyways. Deals with the here and now.

There has been a particular skipper (family Hesperiidae, well family for now) species that Heidi and I have only occasionally seen out at our work site here in northeast Brewster County, TX. For a frustrating period (at least for me in particular) we (read I) just could not get a photo of this minuscule insect. A test of patience; we have many.

This morning, manna from heaven... or rather Earth... same thing perhaps.

Pyrgus scriptura Small Checkered-Skipper





This species is small. The first individual we came across many days ago was the size of -H's pinky nail. Almost think of pygmy-blue, but a checkered-skipper.


This particular individual was larger than the aforementioned, but still a diminutive checkered-skipper. Its common name is appropriate.


For those readers lepidopterally-inclined:

-Notice how much black is on the upper-side.
-Notice the lack of apical spot
-Check the fringe. Particularly the hind-wing fringe. It's barely checkered, if that. The dark notches not reaching the end of the wing. It gives the fringe a noticeable bold-broad whiteness.
-Hard to see in these pics of the usually lacking white basal spots on hindwing above. Some spring individuals do have them.
-Notice the gray-white area of the base of the costal edge of the forewing.



The World works in mysterious ways.

"It's a TRAP!"

"It's a trap!"

There's a little green plant with pretty white flowers that grows a few feet NW of our shade tarp.



We really didn't pay much attention to it until one day it ate a Pearl Crescent. Upon close inspection, it literally appeared that the butterfly was dead, stuck in between flowers and caught on a dead bloom. I had seen a butterfly in a similar situation in New Mexico almost a year ago, but the culprit had vanished. This time, the critter was still there. It was the dead bloom... also known as the Ambush Bug!



Technically a shrub is a woody plant around a meter in height. This plant is not a shrub. But I've affectionately started to call it the Ambush Shrub, Shrub of Doom, etc. On the first day that we saw the Pearl Crescent succumb to a tempting flower, only one Ambush Bug was noticed. That was the 16th. On the 18th, four were counted on four blossoms. On the 20th, there were six of them, still on four blossoms. And along with them, there were little flower spiders! So it wasn't too much of a surprise when a Reakirt's Blue was nectaring in an uncomfortable position...

How many threats to the butterfly can you find in the photo below?



It will be interesting to see how this menu diversifies over the next two months. Thankfully our Nysa Roadside Skipper hasn't fallen prey to the Ambush Plant yet, and hopefully our one Small Checkered Skipper at the site won't be the next, either. Granted, that may be the only way to get a cooperative photo of it!



Kind of looks like it wants a hug...



Our humble opinion:



Here's my awesome computer art skills answering the earlier question: 1 spider and 2 Ambush Bugs



Rest in peace, little Reakirt's!

Mystery Butterfly - Answer

The lovely butterfly photo posted on the 14th looks like this from above:



...it is a dark phase Tropical Buckeye (Junonia genoveva)!



Mystery Bird answer will be posted tomorrow!

yard confessions

We gave in and bought a hummingbird feeder not too long ago. Four Black-chinned Hummingbirds (2 females, a young male and an adult) keep it pretty well guarded. Yesterday we finally met our landlord who trimmed the front jungle. Weeds were about knee-depth in spots... we liked it, though. Alas, now that the lovely greens have been sent back to the earth, there's a spigot where high veg once grew. So we put a rock under it and it catches the drips - so now we have a cluster of Lesser Goldfinches and a few invasives who come to visit.

New yard bugs, per Matt's notes:
Definite Patch 7/13
Theona Checkerspot 7/13
Bordered Patch 7/18

Here's a Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) from work:



Yes, it is trying to nectar on my finger - sweat must have delicious salts.

* I hope these videos are working for all of you, I can post photos otherwise, so feel free to leave a note in the comments on whether or not videos or photos are your preference - I know the vids can take a while to load, so I try to keep them short.

Mystery Butterfly

Your only hint: it was a life butterfly for Heidi, not for Matt.



Answer will be posted on the 20th.

days go by

"The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only those who know the most about it can appreciate how little we know about it. The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: "What good is it?" If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering." - Aldo Leopold

Apologies for the lag in posts - our babies have left the box! So we had a few days of waking up at 6 am and going to bed around 11, followed by more of the same.



Of 7 falcons released on the 10th, 5 are still accounted for. Of 7 falcons released on the 11th, 5 are accounted for. All 10 of those accounted for ate heartily this morning. One is even starting to chase beetles on the ground(!)

In other news:

The roads have yielded roadkill javelina, plenty of live gigantic red/yellow millipedes, the occasional tarantula, and on Friday night our first snake. It was tiny, fast moving, and gone by the time we turned around to look for it. For a rainy 67 degree evening, hopefully it found warmth and shelter quickly! Only two or three stereotypical desert toads have been seen, but tonight while unloading gear after our evening observation, Matt found and brought me a little spadefoot type toad (herp folks, we need your help! we have no herp guide!) ...that was the 9th. On the 10th, Matt found a crazy looking Vinegarroon (looks like a scorpion on the front, but has a looong pointy vinegar-shooting needle-like tail). On the 11th we were visited by a whiptail lizard of some sort and a teeeny little walking stick. On the 12th, we had a very cooperative [name withheld for photo quiz] butterfly. The 13th provided me with my "life" [Western] Mexican Hog-nosed Snake!



Mystery Toad!

We've had Mule Deer and crazy grasshoppers, a splendid abundance of different weevils, plenty of dragonflies that never land (orange shadowdragons?) and the heat-of-day hum of cicadas.



Vinegarroon - wiki link

The site has also provided ample Vesta Crescents, tiny orb weaver type spiders, two flyover Long-billed Curlews, one flyover Willet and one other flyover non-Killdeer wader that never cooperated. Add the teal (silhouetted, sadly) we saw on our way to work on the 10th and it's feels almost coastal! ...almost.



Tiny walking stick.

Today we had our first Texas Horned Lizard, first chance to update the blog for a while... the usual madness. Hopefully we'll get the lizard and some snake photos posted soonish. Until then, a few posts are scheduled to pop up in the next few days regardless of whether or not we have access, so enjoy!

Brace for 2 photo quizzes coming soon!

intro to the yard

The yard around the house is scruffy, mostly native, mature Juniper and Cottonwood type trees - a few unidentified shrubs host MASSIVE amounts of pollinator creatures - see Matt's previous post for photos. There's a sage (?) bush in the yard that is teeming with unidentified caterpillars... and what else occupies the yard?

Birds:

Turkey Vulture 7/4
Eurasian Collared-Dove 7/2
White-winged Dove 7/2
Inca Dove 7/5
Common Nighthawk 7/2
Black-chinned Hummingbird 7/4
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 7/4
Vermillion Flycatcher 7/2
Ash-throated Flycatcher 7/2
Cassin's Kingbird 7/3 nesting
Barn Swallow 7/2 nesting
Cactus Wren 7/5 heard
Northern Mockingbird 7/2
Curve-billed Thrasher 7/2
European Starling 7/4
Canyon Towhee 7/4
Great-tailed Grackle 7/2
Bronzed Cowbird 7/2
Orchard Oriole 7/4
House Finch 7/2
Lesser Goldfinch 7/2
House Sparrow 7/2
*domestic red junglefowl 7/3

Butterflies:

Queen 7/2
American Snout 7/4
Sleepy Orange 7/4
Lyside Sulphur 7/4
Gray Hairstreak 7/4
Texan Crescent 7/4
Western Pygmy Blue 7/4
Reakirt's Blue 7/4
Orange Sulphur 7/5
Question Mark 7/6

We're of course cheating on both lists - if it was seen on, over, or on the edge of the property, it has been counted. Also, for birds, if it was heard from the property, we're counting it.

Pollinators between rain events

Alex-influenced rain followed Heidi and I all the way out here. I had lived out here for ~ 4 yrs and never had consistent rain, for so many consecutive days.

At the moment it is partly cloudy, and the wildlife is happy. Particularly at a shrub in the front yard. SO many wasp species, a few net-winged beetles, and some familiar butterflies.

One of my favorite members of the wasp order, Hymenoptera, is the Cicada Killer (Sphecius spp):



These are huge 2+ inches long insects. When one hears within the monotony of the "whining cicadas" summer-long buzz a cicada quickly and individually deviate its contribution, likely it's due to an attack from Sphecius species.

One particularly interesting wasp family is Scoliidae. They are largish, hairy insects that are parasitic to larvae of scarab beetles.



Females dig around to uncover scarab larvae, lay an egg on it, and peace on out of there.

So many other wasp species on that particular shrub, so little time.

A few butterflies found their way on to it, all of which are very familiar:


Western Pygmy-Blue (Brephidium exile), North America's smallest butterfly with a wingspan that may not even reach half an inch.


Reakirt's Blue (Echinargus isola)


Texan Crescent (Anthanassa texana)

We do have a porch light. As Heidi mentioned, there happens to be an active Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) nest using it as substrate. So we are going to have to come-up with another plan for attracting moths at least until that nest has fledged.

It is currently in incubation stage.
We've named the swallow Gladys. However, it has been observed that both parents share incubation duties.... how nice. So Gladys is female, and Gladys is male.

This is Gladys...., well, Sir Gladys I suppose:


Also, our first two groups of young Aplomado Falcons (Falco femoralis) arrive this afternoon!


We don't have internet at the house. We have to walk several blocks down slope to pirate wireless from a local business. With that in mind, plus once the falcons arrive we'll be going full-throttle, we aren't yet sure how regular our blog updates will become.
We will all just have to see.

down from the mountains, into the cactus

Since I managed to get the two previous posts up without these two photos; these are from the Davis Mountains - a Drusius Cloudywing (Thorybes drusius) and your intrepid explorers.



Alas, there's a bit of blur due to digi-bin tactics; it was not cooperative though, so blurry is far better than nothing at all!



After we made our way out of the mountains, we headed to the Sul Ross campus to look at all of the cacti in bloom. Collectively, I think succulents are among my favorite plant/flower beings. There is a bit of personality to each plant, yes, but there's something about them that speaks louder than their spines (in the case of cacti, anyway).




Yucca (also called Spanish Dagger) has been a friend of mine since I discovered that the flower petals taste like cabbage. Ocotillo is still a fairly new acquaintance - its wispy frame is generally no so full of bright leaves and blossoms; like many desert plants, it puts on a show after rain but will drop leaves to conserve moisture later in the dry season.



Cholla (L) is known for being vicious. As with everything else, don't get near it unless you're fully prepared to deal with the consequences. Prickly Pear (R and below) are more mild tempered, if we dare to suggest it.



Lovely cacti, are they not?