Day 6, Plain Chachalaca / Ortalis vetula
Day 6, White-tipped Dove / Leptotila verreauxi
Day 6, Plain Chachalaca / Ortalis vetula
Day 6, Great-tailed Grackle male / Quiscalus mexic…
Day 6, Golden-fronted Woodpecker male / Melanerpes…
Day 6, Northern Cardinal male / Cardinalis cardina…
Day 6, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Day 6, Yellow-crowned Night-Herons
Day 6, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Day 6, Purple Martin / Progne subis
Day 6, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron / Nyctanassa vio…
Day 6, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron / Nyctanassa vio…
Day 6, Purple Martin / Progne subis
Day 6, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron / Nyctanassa vio…
Day 6, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron / Nyctanassa vio…
Day 6, Purple Martin / Progne subis
Day 6, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron / Nyctanassa vio…
Day 7, Northern Cardinal male
Eared Grebe / Podiceps nigricollis
Yellow-headed Blackbird / Xanthocephalus xanthocep…
Yellow-headed Blackbird / Xanthocephalus xanthocep…
Common Grackle after a bath
Lesser Scaup male / Aythya affinis
Lesser Scaup male / Aythya affinis
Lesser Scaup male / Aythya affinis
Lesser Scaup male / Aythya affinis
Mountain Bluebird male / Sialia currucoides
Mountain Bluebird male
Mountain Bluebird female
Mountain Bluebird male
Baltimore Oriole / Icterus galbula
Western Tanager / Piranga ludoviciana
Baltimore Oriole / Icterus galbula
Western Tanager / Piranga ludoviciana
Rose-breasted Grosbeak male / Pheucticus ludovicia…
Tree Swallow
Tree Swallow / Tachycineta bicolor
Tree Swallow / Tachycineta bicolor
Tree Swallow / Tachycineta bicolor
Yellow Warbler / Setophaga petechia
American Goldfinch female / Spinus tristis
Mountain Bluebird male / Sialia currucoides
Black Tern / Chlidonias niger
Wilson's Snipe / Gallinago delicata
Eastern Kingbird / Tyrannus tyrannus
Mountain Bluebird female / Sialia currucoides
Eastern Kingbird / Tyrannus tyrannus
Red-winged Blackbird male / Agelaius phoeniceus
Day 8, tiny Elf Owl / Micrathene whitneyi - smalle…
Cedar Waxwing / Bombycilla cedrorum
Eastern Kingbird
Tree Swallow / Tachycineta bicolor
Eastern Kingbird / Tyrannus tyrannus
Wilson's Snipe / Gallinago delicata
Osprey pair harassed by Red-winged Blackbird
Cedar Waxwing
Osprey
Cedar Waxwing
Cedar Waxwing
Osprey
Brown-headed Cowbird / Molothrus ater
Yellow Warbler / Setophaga petechia
Osprey / Pandion haliaetus
Day 6, Cardinal female / Cardinalis cardinalis
Day 6, Cardinal male, National Butterfly Centre, S…
Day 5, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, King Ranch, Nori…
Day 5, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, King Ranch
Day 5, Vermilion Flycatcher / Pyrocephalus rubinus…
Day 5, Harris's Hawk, King Ranch, Norias Division
Day 5, Bronzed Cowbirds / Molothrus aeneus
Mountain Bluebird male / Sialia currucoides
Tree Swallow male / Tachycineta bicolor
Day 4, Royal Terns / Thalasseus maximus, Mustang I…
Day 4, Laughing Gull / Leucophaeus atricilla, Must…
Day 4, Laughing Gulls, Mustang Island, Texas
Day 4, Royal Terns, Mustang Island, Texas
Day 4, Royal Tern / Thalasseus maximus, Mustang Is…
Day 4, Black-bellied Whistling Duck
Day 4, Common Gallinule, Leonabelle Turnbull Birdi…
Day 4, Black-bellied Whistling Duck / Dendrocygna…
Day 4, Common Gallinule, Leonabelle Turnbull Birdi…
Day 4, Loggerhead Shrike / Lanius ludovicianus, Po…
Day 4, Sedge Wren, Aransas Park
Day 3, nesting Great Blue Herons, Rockport rookery
Day 3, Double-crested Cormorants, Aransas boat tri…
Day 3, Cormorant drying its wings, Aransas boat tr…
Day 3, Whooping Crane colt flexing its wings, Aran…
Day 3, Whooping Crane colt, Aransas, Texas
Day 3, Whooping Crane adult, Aransas National Wild…
Day 3, leg band & tracking device, Whooping Crane…
Day 3, ENDANGERED Whooping Cranes / Grus americana…
Day 2, Crested Caracara immature / Caracara cheriw…
Day 2, Savannah Sparrows, Rockport, South Texas
Day 2, young White Ibis, Connie Hagar Cottage Sanc…
Day 2, Turkey Vulture / Cathartes aura
Day 2, Savannah Sparrow, South Texas
Day 1, Turkey Vultures / Cathartes aura
Day 6, Northern Cardinal male, southern Texas
Day 6, Green Jay / Cyanocorax yncas, southern Texa…
Great Gray Owl - from my archives
Short-eared Owl out on a tree limb
Short-eared Owl / Asio flammeus
Burrowing Owl, ENDANGERED - from the archives
Burrowing Owl, ENDANGERED - from the archives
Wilson's Snipe - from the archives
Great Gray Owl - from the archives
Northern Pygmy-owl - from the archives
Great Gray Owl - from the archives
Northern Pygmy-owl - from the archives
Juvenile Swainson's Hawk / Buteo swainsoni
Great Horned Owl / Bubo virginianus
Northern Hawk Owl juevnile - from the archives
Barred Owl in FCPP - from the archives
Short-eared Owl / Asio flammeus
Short-eared Owl / Asio flammeus
Short-eared Owl / Asio flammeus
Short-eared Owl - from January
Helmeted Guineafowl
Long-eared Owl
Eastern Kingbird, from my archives
Short-eared Owl / Asio flammeus
Long-eared Owl / Asio otus
Harlequin Duck / Histrionicus histrionicus
Short-eared Owl / Asio flammeus
Long-eared Owl / Asio otus
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Day 7, Green Jay / Cyanocorax yncas
On Day 6 of our birding holiday in South Texas, 24 March 2019, we left our hotel in Kingsville, South Texas, and started our drive to Mission, where we would be staying at La Quinta Inn & Suites for three nights. On the first stretch of our drive, we were lucky enough to see several bird species, including a Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Hooded Oriole, Red-tailed Hawk, Crested Caracara, Harris's Hawk, Pyrrhuloxia male (looks similar to a Cardinal) and a spectacular Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. I'm not sure if this stretch is called Hawk Alley.
We had a long drive further south towards Mission, with only a couple of drive-by photos taken en route (of a strangely shaped building). Eventually, we reached our next planned stop, the National Butterfly Centre. This was a great place, my favourite part of it being the bird feeding station, where we saw all sorts of species and reasonably close. Despite the name of the place, we only saw a few butterflies while we were there. May have been the weather or, more likely, the fact that I was having so much fun at the bird feeding station. We also got to see Spike, a giant African Spurred Tortoise. All the nature/wildlife parks that we visited in South Texas had beautiful visitor centres and usually bird feeding stations. And there are so many of these parks - so impressive!
nationalbutterflycenter.org/nbc-multi-media/in-the-news/1...
"Ten years ago, the North American Butterfly Association broke ground for what has now become the largest native plant botanical garden in the United States. This 100-acre preserve is home to Spike (who thinks he is a butterfly) and the greatest volume and variety of wild, free-flying butterflies in the nation. In fact, USA Today calls the National Butterfly Center, in Mission, Texas, 'the butterfly capitol of the USA'." From the Butterfly Centre's website.
The Centre is facing huge challenges, as a result of the "Border Wall". The following information is from the Centre's website.
www.nationalbutterflycenter.org/about-nbc/maps-directions...
"No permission was requested to enter the property or begin cutting down trees. The center was not notified of any roadwork, nor given the opportunity to review, negotiate or deny the workplan. Same goes for the core sampling of soils on the property, and the surveying and staking of a “clear zone” that will bulldoze 200,000 square feet of habitat for protected species like the Texas Tortoise and Texas Indigo, not to mention about 400 species of birds. The federal government had decided it will do as it pleases with our property, swiftly and secretly, in spite of our property rights and right to due process under the law."
"What the Border Wall will do here:
1) Eradicate an enormous amount of native habitat, including host plants for butterflies, breeding and feeding areas for wildlife, and lands set aside for conservation of endangered and threatened species-- including avian species that migrate N/S through this area or over-winter, here, in the tip of the Central US Flyway.
2) Create devastating flooding to all property up to 2 miles behind the wall, on the banks of the mighty Rio Grande River, here.
3) Reduce viable range land for wildlife foraging and mating. This will result in greater competition for resources and a smaller gene pool for healthy species reproduction. Genetic "bottlenecks" can exacerbate blight and disease.
IN ADDITION:
4) Not all birds can fly over the wall, nor will all butterfly species. For example, the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, found on the southern border from Texas to Arizona, only flies about 6 ft in the air. It cannot overcome a 30 ft vertical wall of concrete and steel.
5) Nocturnal and crepuscular wildlife, which rely on sunset and sunrise cues to regulate vital activity, will be negatively affected by night time flood lighting of the "control zone" the DHS CBP will establish along the wall and new secondary drag roads. The expansion of these areas to vehicular traffic will increase wildlife roadkill.
6) Animals trapped north of the wall will face similar competition for resources, cut off from native habitat in the conservation corridor and from water in the Rio Grande River and adjacent resacas. HUMANS, here, will also be cut off from our only source of fresh water, in this irrigated desert.
We had a long drive further south towards Mission, with only a couple of drive-by photos taken en route (of a strangely shaped building). Eventually, we reached our next planned stop, the National Butterfly Centre. This was a great place, my favourite part of it being the bird feeding station, where we saw all sorts of species and reasonably close. Despite the name of the place, we only saw a few butterflies while we were there. May have been the weather or, more likely, the fact that I was having so much fun at the bird feeding station. We also got to see Spike, a giant African Spurred Tortoise. All the nature/wildlife parks that we visited in South Texas had beautiful visitor centres and usually bird feeding stations. And there are so many of these parks - so impressive!
nationalbutterflycenter.org/nbc-multi-media/in-the-news/1...
"Ten years ago, the North American Butterfly Association broke ground for what has now become the largest native plant botanical garden in the United States. This 100-acre preserve is home to Spike (who thinks he is a butterfly) and the greatest volume and variety of wild, free-flying butterflies in the nation. In fact, USA Today calls the National Butterfly Center, in Mission, Texas, 'the butterfly capitol of the USA'." From the Butterfly Centre's website.
The Centre is facing huge challenges, as a result of the "Border Wall". The following information is from the Centre's website.
www.nationalbutterflycenter.org/about-nbc/maps-directions...
"No permission was requested to enter the property or begin cutting down trees. The center was not notified of any roadwork, nor given the opportunity to review, negotiate or deny the workplan. Same goes for the core sampling of soils on the property, and the surveying and staking of a “clear zone” that will bulldoze 200,000 square feet of habitat for protected species like the Texas Tortoise and Texas Indigo, not to mention about 400 species of birds. The federal government had decided it will do as it pleases with our property, swiftly and secretly, in spite of our property rights and right to due process under the law."
"What the Border Wall will do here:
1) Eradicate an enormous amount of native habitat, including host plants for butterflies, breeding and feeding areas for wildlife, and lands set aside for conservation of endangered and threatened species-- including avian species that migrate N/S through this area or over-winter, here, in the tip of the Central US Flyway.
2) Create devastating flooding to all property up to 2 miles behind the wall, on the banks of the mighty Rio Grande River, here.
3) Reduce viable range land for wildlife foraging and mating. This will result in greater competition for resources and a smaller gene pool for healthy species reproduction. Genetic "bottlenecks" can exacerbate blight and disease.
IN ADDITION:
4) Not all birds can fly over the wall, nor will all butterfly species. For example, the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, found on the southern border from Texas to Arizona, only flies about 6 ft in the air. It cannot overcome a 30 ft vertical wall of concrete and steel.
5) Nocturnal and crepuscular wildlife, which rely on sunset and sunrise cues to regulate vital activity, will be negatively affected by night time flood lighting of the "control zone" the DHS CBP will establish along the wall and new secondary drag roads. The expansion of these areas to vehicular traffic will increase wildlife roadkill.
6) Animals trapped north of the wall will face similar competition for resources, cut off from native habitat in the conservation corridor and from water in the Rio Grande River and adjacent resacas. HUMANS, here, will also be cut off from our only source of fresh water, in this irrigated desert.
Malik Raoulda, Pam J have particularly liked this photo
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Anne Elliott club has replied to Pam J clubwww.ipernity.com/group/nous.-nature
NATURE et Biodiversité..!
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