robberfly's Favorites

A totally remarkable aberrant. Seen on a butterfly field trip seminar I was leading with 9 people. ID is based on size (very small for greater frit), wing shape (round), and likelihood (normal ones very common in this meadow and the only fritillary we saw. There were a couple egleis on the walk in, but on rocky trail. This was in wet meadow which is mormon frit zone). I'm confident this was an aberrant mormon fritillary. A stunning one, too - top side and under

This is a HUGE female "Eastern" Hellbender (amusingly referred to as the "Snot-Otter" by local fishermen), at 27.5" (Record is 29"). After reading Bishop's seminal work "Handbook of Salamanders", my best friend/cousin/herper Pete and I decided to check out some historical records listed in the book. We decided to examine some old locality records in Delaware County, and were amazed to find a population still extant at this locale (observed a total of 4 individuals). Unfortunately, we noticed the water quality decreasing as we searched downstream, encountering several small factories pumping effluent directly into the river. I believe this had affected this population negatively even then, as we observed no sub-adults/juveniles, and all were apparently old adults. One specimen had an unusual, large, egg-shaped tumor/lesion on its tail, possibly related to the poor water quality. I often wonder as to the fate of this population of magnificent "Giant Salamanders", some thirty-odd years later.

Couch's Kingbird and Tropical Kingbird are very difficult to separate without vocalizations. Despite many decades of experience with both species in Texas and Mexico, I rarely make an ID to species without vocalizations. Couch's has always been a resident bird in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. In the 1980s, Tropicals started showing up in that area as well (moving north from Mexico), so both occur in south Texas these days.

Some number of Couch's tend to wander north in winter and for the past 20 or so years this species has been an irregular winter visitor to the Austin area (and other areas of Texas), and sometimes can found semi regularly. As far as I am aware, Tropical has never shown up in central Texas, but it would certainly be possible.

About 12:45 PM today I stopped by Lockhart Municipal Park in Lockhart, Caldwell Co., Texas. There is a small pond of perhaps 2-3 acres in the park full of noisy, begging domestic ducks and geese. As I drove by the pond, a kingbird flew past me and landed in some trees on a tiny (30 X 15 foot) island in the pond. I then saw that there were two Couch's/Tropical Kingbirds flycatching actively. I stood nearby and watched the birds, but neither was calling. I thought it was worth trying to get one to vocalize, so I played a recording of Couch's Kingbird from my phone. Almost instantly, both kingbirds flew from the island and hovered over my head calling loudly! One landed in a tree right over my head and called for a full minute....clearly Couch's Kingbirds and they scolded me thoroughly for a number of minutes. I did not play any more calls since I had established their specific ID, and spent the next 20 or so minutes trying to photograph the birds. Posted here will be many views of the birds, including them hovering over my head and vocalizing, perched directly over my head vocalizing and perched in other trees. The rest of the time I was there the birds called regularly.

Isidia growing out of the soralia are diagnostic for this species (see photo 2), along with a K- reaction. Also note that the soralia are fissural--they emerge with pointed ends (photo 3) vs. tuberculate soralia which start out round.
This species has a relatively compact, bushy growth form for a Bryoria. It grows on bark and occasionally rock/soil in somewhat exposed sites.

On August 16, we witnessed what has to rank with one of the most incredible wildlife experiences I’ve ever had. Cheryl and I were on a trip with 6 other nature photographers and our leader. We had been in the Pantanal area of Brazil for about a week with 5 days along the Cuiaba River near Porto Jofre, looking for Jaguars and other photo ops. Our daily routine was breakfast at 5:30 AM and we took off on boats from 6 till about 11AM, lunch at noon at the lodge, then on the boats again 3PM till dark. Our group has 3 boats so just 3 people per boat so plenty of room for photo gear, etc. Over several days we had seen 10-12 Jaguars. Some were very good photo ops, some poor photo ops, some just glimpsed.

There are several lodges in the area and it is a popular place to visit for folks hoping to see Jaguars, so much like Yellowstone National Park, a crowd can gather when some significant wildlife is seen, but instead of car jams to see a Grizzly such as Yellowstone, this can be boat jams for a jaguar. I have seen as many as 22 boats, 70-100 feet off shore with lots of people in each boat taking photos of a sleeping Jaguar. BUT…that is not the end of the story! We were often in more remote areas of the rivers and inlets and streams more or less on our own looking for birds, etc., so lots of times there are no other boats around. The boat drivers all have radios, so if a Jaguar is seen, other boats are informed. We move 20-25 miles up and down the river to explore, so many times other boats are not close enough to arrive while a Jaguar is in view.

My limited Jaguar experience is that some are just sleeping and/or resting and mostly ignore the boats in the river. Others are walking though the edge of the forest near the river and when a boat becomes visible, the animal just vanishes back into the forest. This morning at about 7:30 AM our three boats were in an out-of-the way location, a mile or so apart. The boat I was in was photographing a Great Black Hawk when one of our other boats called us on the radio to say they had a Jaguar swimming in the river, apparently hunting, so we headed to that area. Apparently the Jaguar, with just its head visible, swam up to loafing Yacare Caimans and pounced onto a caiman which was about 6 or so feet long. The Jaguar and the caiman thrashed in the water with the Jaguar biting into the skull of the caiman. That is about the time our boat arrived, after the Jaguar had mostly subdued the caiman, but the caiman was still thrashing about. The Jaguar was up against a high dirt bank, still mostly in the water with a firm grip on the skull of the caiman and the Jaguar was not letting go. It was very dark and under heavy foliage and vines so I was shooting at 4000 and 6400 ISO but that was my only choice. Eventually the Jaguar was able to work itself and its prize away from the vines and it drug the caiman out of the water and up the dirt bank and eventually back into the forest to enjoy its catch beyond the curious and amazed eyes of the human observers. The caiman was as large or larger than the Jaguar. All I have to say is that a mature Jaguar is an incredibly powerful predator and watching this whole 15 minute episode is something I’ll not forget. What a beast!

This entire series was shot from a boat, perhaps 40 feet off the bank with a Canon EOS 7D Mark II and a Canon 100-400 IS lens in case anyone is interested.

Cuiaba River,
near Porto Jofre,
Pantanal,
Brazil
16 August 2017

Cowbird trap bycatch. Certain traps near more wooded edges would catch a few Blue jay in migration (not resident in the mountains in summer). This in turn would attract the attention of a Cooper's Hawk, which otherwise would ignore the cowbirds. This bird was measured out as an SY male. Note the prominent eye-brow stripe ... even more striking at a distance on this individual. Too many field guides understate this and overstate it as a character for Northern Goshawk ... oft cited (erroneously) in descriptions of goshawks raiding backyard feeders in Ohio.

@dhend9 @ericisley and I went to Bastrop County today and met up with @ncowey at McKinney Roughs Nature Park where Nick works.
http://www.lcra.org/parks/developed-parks/Pages/mckinney-roughs-nature-park.aspx
The park is owned and managed by the L.C.R.A. (Lower Colorado River Authority). Nick was very gracious and gave us a good tour of the park and we found a bunch of things to iNat as well as a new odonate or two for the park.

Rare species in central Texas; this species usually only seen in the lower Rio Grande Valley within Texas. @ncowey has had several recently here and we were fortunate to be able to take some shots of one today.

Please excuse the long-winded comments here, but this was just too special not to share with my iNat friends.

I was on the back deck of my house a while ago, adding sunflower seeds to a feeder that the siskins and goldfinches had about depleted. I saw some movement in one of the live oaks which hangs over my deck and saw that it was a Nashville Warbler. This is a common migrant in central Texas, but I had never gotten any shots of one in my yard. I went back in the house, grabbed a camera with a 100-400 mm lens and came back out on the deck to try to get some identifiable shots of the Nashville. I saw it occasionally popping in and out of view, but it would never give me enough time to get an identifiable shot. So, I'm standing there getting frustrated at the Nashville when suddenly...a Golden-cheeked Warbler started singing about 8 feet from me!

Golden-cheeked Warbler is an endangered species which nests nowhere but Texas. I have heard them from my property two or three times in the past years and seen a male nearby a few years ago, but the habitat in my neighborhood is certainly not prime for the species, but I do know they are around this immediate area in small numbers, but can be very difficult to find. Normally I have to go 30 or so miles from here to see this species, and then it is always iffy whether such a trip is successful. So, now this Golden-cheeked cranks up in song at 4 PM on an overcast and windy day right at my back door...AND I'm holding a camera! Long story short, I took 150+ images from as close as 6 feet as this mature male GCWA foraged in my live oaks! The bird seemed totally unconcerned about me blasting away with the camera and was busy grabbing small worms, etc. It was terrifically exciting. The bird spent at least 10 minutes above my deck, and sang 5 or 6 times, then flew off toward the more wooded property west of me. Golden-cheeks are quick to abandon locations where human habitation is too dense, but hopefully a place like my neighborhood where all the houses are on 2-3 acre sized properties, is more conducive to the bird sticking around. Anyway, first time I have photographed the species in this area or even in Hays County. And I never did get any shots of the Nashville. Somehow that is just O.K. :-)

By the way, the "out of range" designation which usually pops up on the iNat maps of any report of this species near Austin, is incorrect. The area of the Edwards Plateau just west of Austin is, and always has been, part of the normal range of this species.