Eurasion Collared Dove

This picture was taken on 21st November, 2007 at our RV site at Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort, Mission, Texas. This is an old world species that was originally introduced to the Bahamas, but spread from there to Florida and has now made there way in the southern States as far west as Texas. This guy was very tame and stuck around as long as there was food available. I think he must have been hanging out with too many pigeons.

Zebra Heliconian Butterfly

These pictures were taken on 21st November, 2007 at the NABA (North American Butterfly Association) Butterfly Park, Mission, Texas.

Two Barred Flasher Butterfly

This picture was taken on 21st November, 2007 at the NABA Butterfly Park, Mission Texas.

Silver Emporer Butterfly, male

This picture was taken on 21st November, 2007 at the NABA Butterfly Park, Mission, Texas.

Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly

This picture was taken on 21st November, 2007 at the NABA Butterfly Park, Mission, Texas. This guy never seems to sit still. Even when he's on a flower, his wings are still flapping, hence, the blur in the photo.

Phaon Crescent Butterfly

This picture was taken 21st November, 2007 at the NABA Butterfly Park, Mission Texas.

Mexican Blue Wing Butterfly

This picture was taken on 21st November, 2007 at the NABA Butterfly Park, Mission, Texas.

Malachite Butterfly

This picture was taken on 21st November, 2007 at the NABA Butterfly Park, Mission, Texas. These guys were infrequent visitors to Southern Texas but with global warming are being seen much more often.

Laviana white Skipper Butterfly

This picture was taken on 21 November, 2007 at the NABA Butterfly Park, Mission, Texas. Usually the dark parts on the edge of the wings is darker, but this is an older guy and the colour has faded.

Crimson Patch or Janais Patch Butterfly

These pictures were taken on 21st November, 2007 at the NABA Butterfly Park, Mission, Texas. This poor guy is a little weather worn and bird bitten, but he's a survivor.

Giant White Butterfly

This picture was taken on 21st November, 2007 at the NABA Butterfly Park, Mission, Texas

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly

This picture was taken on 21 November, 2007 at the NABA Butterfly Park, Mission Texas.

Brown Longtail Butterfly

These pictures were taken on 21 November, 2007 at the NABA Butterfly Park, Mission, Texas

Painted Lady Butterfly

These pictures were taken on 21st November, 2007 at the NABA Butterfly Park, Mission Texas.

Butterfly- Banded Peacock

These pictures were taken on 17th November, 2007 at the Falcon State Park, Texas.

Butterfly-Band-celled Sister

These pictures were taken on 17th November, 2007 at Falcon State Park, Texas. Birds are one of the main predators of butterflies and although many times they don't kill the butterfly, they do take large bites out of their wings. You'll note a couple of bite marks out of the left wing of this guy.

Black Throated Sparrow

These pictures were taken on 17th November, 2007 at Falcon State Park, Texas.

Long Billed Thrasher

These pictures were taken on 17th November, 2007 at Falcon State Park, Texas. These guys only ocurr in Southern Texas and Mexico.

Greenjay

These pictures were taken on 16th November, 2007 at Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park.

Greater Yellowlegs

These pictures were taken on 12th November, 2007 at Matagorda Texas. They're a wading shorebird but usually nest in mosquitoe infested marshes and therefore are not very well studied.

Willet, winter plummage

These pictures were taken on 12th November, 2007 at Matagorda, Texas.

Forster's Tern

This picture was taken on 10th November, 2007 at Matagorda, Texas. They breed on floating nests in marshy areas and sometimes, spawing carp will dislodge the eggs from the nest.

Caspian Tern, winter plummage

These pictures were taken on 10th November, 2007 at Matagorda, Texas. The top of their head turns black during breeding season.

Black Skimmer

This picture was taken on 10th November, 2007 at Matagorda, Texas. Notice that his lower mandible is considerably longer than the upper mandible. This is so they can skim the water with their lower mandible in the water where they catch small fish and crustations.

Semipalmated Plover

This picture was taken on 8th November, 2007 at Matagorda, Texas. These little guys spend the summer in Northern Canada and Alaska and winters in Southern US coastal States. They can swim if necessary but prefer to wade.

Killdeer

This picture was taken on 8th November, 2007 at Matagorda Texas. Killdeer like to make their nests on gravel and quite often that gravel is someone's driveway. Their eggs actually look very similar to the gravel, therefore the nest is well camoflauged

White Breasted Nuthatch

These pictures were taken on 25th & 26th October 2007 in our back yard. These little guys run up and down trees, many times upside down. They don't migrate and therefore you can see them all year round. They are a little more timid than the Red Breasted Nuthatch which will eat out of your hand, but you can still get quite close to them. The male has a black patch on the top of his head whereas the females head patch is lighter in colour.

Evening Grosbeak

These photos were taken on 25th & 26th October 2007 in our back yard. Evening Grosbeaks are spread over most of the North American continent, but here in Port Elgin, Ontario, we don't see them too often and when we do, it's either spring or fall. It's been 5 or 6 years since I've seen any, but when they do come, it's usually in a large flock of 100 to 200 birds and only stay for a few days. This year, when they first came, there was only about 20 or 30 but they stayed for about a week, and as the week went on the flock got larger until there was probably 200 and then all at once, they were gone.