Learning bird calls by ear

This is one of the most informative videos about birding by ear that I've ever seen:

urges

A few more glimpses from Friday: the urge to spy, the urge to... have really convincing camouflage, the urge to feed and the urge to make more beetles!



...the ID of the little pinkish and green fellow is pending, no clue about the fellow behind it. I think it's a green beetle with black spots, but didn't even notice it until looking at the photos - it was spying on the photo session with the little pinkish one! Pardon the anthropomorphism.



An unidentified moth that looks like bird poop (it was just a matter of time until another one showed up in this blog!)



These Juniper Hairstreaks have the best of both worlds - flowers, and lots of them. Walking from blossom to blossom on Antelope-Horn Milkweed (Asclepias viridis), these four butterflies are downright pampered. They were also quite complacent when approached, so more photos are likely to follow.



New to our vocabulary, the Net-winged Beetle (Lycus fernandezi). Looks a lot like the Black-and-yellow Lichen Moth from our last post, no?



Nothing like beetle procreation.

And we'll leave you with those signs of spring while we run off to the vast, frozen, north Midwest. Back in a week!

(un)Common Buckeye

A condensed summary of yesterday's butterfly notes, per Matt:

Observers: Matthew York, Heidi Trudell
Location: Lake Waco Wetlands
Date: 06 Nov 09
Time: 0845-1230

Butterflies included:
Tawny Emperor, dark
Dun Skipper
American Snout, 100's a-migratin'
Red Admiral
Common Buckeye, one individual had a seriously trippy genetic color deviation, completely dull-red on both underside hindwings
Little Yellow
Cloudless Sulphur
Painted Lady
Sleepy Orange
Gulf Fritillary
Queen
Variegated Fritillary
Phaon Crescent
Clouded Sulphur

***

I shall reply to my own post...

Regarding a note on the Common Buckeye individual I researched and took this excerp:

"Many autumn individual ("dry season") Common Buckeyes show rich brick red (often described as rose-red) under hindwings"

***

The text above was posted (along with a bird list) to the Central Tx Audubon list, and the photos below are to be taken in context with the post. Starting, of course, with the startling Common Buckeye who impressed us so much (the bold text in the list is mine, added for emphasis).



Here's the top view of any normal Common Buckeye, which this one appears to be. Generally you also expect the wings, when folded, to continue the drab grayish coloration (sans markings). The photo on the right betrays a hint of warm rusty color underneath. Brace yourself!



Holy seasonal-variation, Batman! That thing is BRIGHT. And gorgeous. And remarkably cooperative, for a buckeye (who are notoriously skittish). Neither of us has ever, to our knowledge, encountered this morph before. Perhaps Texas isn't a prime location for fall colors, so this fallen leaf mimic is in sub-prime habitat. Regardless, we're thrilled to see such a stunning creature (not to mention, wondering how we've missed this morph in the past if they're supposedly common).

Now, for two mini-portraits - dark Tawny Emperor and Matt:



The Emperor is deceased and Matt is reflected in a window. I'm familiar with insects bumping into windows, but this coincidental location (dead butterfly in front of a highly reflective window) doesn't seem causal in the demise of the emperor. Tis a window, after all. Not a windshield.

Now for your upside-down Red Admiral of the day:



...it's always fun to see variations on normal things (melanism in Least Sandpipers, for example) but it's not always easy to document the sightings or research how common the variations are. The internet now allows folks to document partially albinistic sparrows and follow up on leucistic hummingbirds. Have you spotted any of these anomalies in your yard? Or were you startled to learn that red morph Eastern Screech Owls actually DO exist? (I was quite certain they were imaginary, like Black Rails and Henslow's Sparrows)

Let us know (or send us pictures), we'd love to hear about the critters that keep you on your toes!

SW thumbs, day 4

You might recall about a month ago there was a post about our nephew, Oliver, taking over the internet. Well, he's still at it. This time he got to meet his new cousin, though. So while Oliver garbled at his new cousinlet, she squirmed... and my sister kept Oliver stable and the cousin propped up the cousinlet. I took pictures and chuckled.



a reunion of cousins



...yes, we figured out the full-screen chat option, just so two infants could sputter at each other and thrash the keyboards soundly.

After everyone was herded away for their naps and thoroughly rested, there was this matter of everyone going to visit Grandma. Everyone. So we bundled up the cousinlet, cousin-in-law, cousin and the puppy... and Grandma fed us the most delicious kebabs ever. And I got to play with Grandma's puppy, the 10 year old westie.



carpooling with a 5 year old puppy to Grandma's house

There's a bit of digital camera confusion here, so I apologize. I'm quite certain that these moth pictures are from day 5, but since day 5 will be full of rings anyway, these lovely "mothtuids" (moth + noctuid, even though they're not all noctuids) will get lumped into day 4. Besides, my camera was chewing on a new battery and still thought that day 5 was day 4 anyway. Among other things, this day 4/5 was when my altitude adjustment kicked in at 1 am and those delicious kebabs became an offering to the porcelain goddess.

Adobe = fun for moths, even if the time stamp might be confused. Here are a few midday finds:



mystery moth and exposed bird dropping moth

I find it fascinating that only one of the moths we found even looked remotely like the adobe that it was on - everyone else looked like they'd be more at home on juniper bark.



closeup of first mystery moth, more mystery moths

In true time confusion, here's a look at the backyard sanctuary and its evening invader... no, the statue of Mary did nothing to spare Matt from having a mantis investigate his shoe and then pant leg.



Also in honor of time stamp confusion, I present an evening's find after a visit to Randall Davey Audubon... a very skittish bullsnake (Pituophis catenifer sayi) and a very freshly deceased checkered garter snake (Thamnophis marcianus). Pretty sure we were there on day 5, but that's ok.



At some point, "day 5" will be the completion of the smeagol post, in which you were all exposed to a very glowy preciousss.

dung, revisited

Summer is an epic season for defecation. Nay, this is not intended to be another potty post. To be completely fair, though, Matt and I happened upon dozens of dung beetles while in Edwards Co. - they were in such a writhing mass that we were both stopped in our tracks, somewhat dumbfounded. My brain clicked "have camera, need pictures!" and Matt was able to get a short video of the madness.



Somehow it appeared that the bugs were flattening, compressing, or otherwise deflating (dehydrating?) the dung that they were swarming. At least, no dung was seen rolled away from the main pile.



How about a dung related cartoon?

And since our last post was a non-dropping moth, here's a dropping-mimic!

Flight of the Bumblebee..

... Or Not.

The Animal Kingdom is full of mimicry. This is particularly true of class Hexapoda (insects). Heidi and I were killing time at the Carleen Bright Arboretum; a nearby location that we sometimes hit for butterflies and other bugs.

The above picture was taken on 30 May 2009. This particular insect is a bumblebee mimic. It is actually a moth belonging one of my favorite Lepidopteran (butterfly & moth) families : Sphingidae. "Sphingids" are often referred to as Sphinx moths or Hawk moths.

This species is (Hemaris diffinis) "Snowberry Clearwing." This bug is a day-flying sphinx moth that is an excellent mimic of a bumble bee. It, however, hovers in front of blossoms rather than landing on them.

The following pictures of H. diffinis were taken back on 27 July 2007 at Carleen Bright Arboretum. Not long after I took these photos I found out they were the first documented records of this species in McLennan County. It is ofcourse highly unlikely that this was the first occurrence of this species in the county. There are not too many people (compared to birds, for example) into entomology (study of insects), and so there are huge gaps of documentation for insect species.

I wonder if composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was inspired by a bumblebee....or a moth.

promised: potty post!

There is a fascinating world of poop out there. If there's a word for the science of poop, I wish I knew it. I've discovered that potty things exceed simple excretion - it's also a science of knowing that leaving your camera in the car when stopping at a restroom will guarantee some pretty awesome bugs. Of course the standard rule is that you must photograph said creatures prior to entering the restroom or they'll be gone by the time you get out. There's the standard "poopology" that when searched will tell you how to determine when your pet bird's health is at risk (yep, minty green droppings in certain grouse could mean pneumonia and death within 48 hrs). There's also the "bird poop" that really isn't poop at all, so much as... moths! (linked photo taken in the RGV in May of 2003) Or caterpillars! And in the time-honored tradition of rolling poo, it's hard to beat the classic dung beetle.

It's a little bit of everything that this post will be addressing... with pictures!

The moths that look like poop were out and about while we were in Concan.



At least one dung beetle was out and about, rolling its prize at Cook's Slough.



And of course, there's a bathroom adventure for everyone. This Painted Lichen Moth (Hypoprepia fucosa) was clinging to the bathroom wall at Kickapoo Cavern State Park



Now, this next snippet is courtesy of Candy McNamee, one of our fellow explorers in Concan, whose lemon tree is host to Giant Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio cresphontes) larvae. Growing up, the Meyer lemon tree in my yard would occasionally have an extra large bird dropping as well, but I never got such amazing photos!



On a non-poop related note, the mystery twig that would not let go of the concrete wall at Utopia's park/lake thing turned into a caterpillar of sorts. Any ideas, anyone?