NABA Buddies, Butterflies, & Bensten Birds

The afternoon was pleasant but the butterflies were scarce until the sun came out. Martin, Chris, and Mike were twitching for Chris's ID of a rare skipper. It was fun to be apart of the nerdy group. Gunnar came and joined them for an hour. Yes, we were butterfly nerds for the day. Martin came back to Santa Ana angry or frustrated since he did not find the twitching target skipper. Hope to see you all next year. Be safe.

       

Martin is the most remarkable spotter  of butterflies I have ever seen.  He was trying to help me take a photo of a Florida White Butterfly. They would land 15 feet off the ground in a tree and fly off staying high.  We would run from one area to another to  try to get close enough. It must have been an hour. Finally when Gunnar arrived, one landed low enough for a few seconds and Gunnar got a nice photo. 

                             Mike the who lives close came to help Martin and Chris.

Gunnar and Chris checking out a photo of a skipper. 

Gunnar had wonderful photos of butterflies. Here is a LINK to it.

Florida White, rare and evasive  Thanks Gunnar and Martin.

                     Common Mellana                         (grass skipper)

Clouded Skipper (one of the darkest in TX)

                                    Phaon Crescent

                                     Texas Cresent

 Funereal Duskywing  (Skipper)

                                                               Painted Lady

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

 Altimara Oriole

Clay-colored Thrush ( alias Clay-colored Robin)

 Black Phoebe at Bensten State Park

Photographer taking a photo of the Black Phoebe. 

One of my favorite artsy photos of Gunnar. 

Cotton or Wood Rat (cute but not cuddly)