For the detailed program including schedule of events, seminar descriptions, and presenter bios, you can download the PDF here: March 31 Home Garden and Nature Festival

Admission to the Garden is $5 for adults and $2.5 for children 4-13 and includes all seminars and tours for the festival.  For more information on attending or exhibiting at the Home Garden and Nature Festival call the National Butterfly Center at 956-583-5400.

Blomfild's Beauty at National Butterfly Center

November is always a great month for butterflies in the Rio Grande Valley and you can expect to see several rarities at the National Butterfly Center.   A Blomfild’s Beauty has been seen coming to the bait spread on a tree trunk at the Center.  This was a life butterfly* for John, who has been hoping to see and photograph it for the past couple of weeks. As you can see from the photo, it has a absolutely spectacular underwing pattern – thus the “Beauty” name.

Another delightful visitor to the bait the next day was a Mourning Cloak.  This butterfly is common and widespread throughout the most of the US and Canada, but extremely rare in The Valley!  So local butterfliers have been delighted to see one, and it was a life butterfly for some local residents.

Butterfly “bait” is simply a mixture of sweet and rotting stuff – like bananas mixed with beer and molasses, for example.  Many butterflies are attracted to rotting and fermenting fruit – particularly the larger members of the Brushfooted Butterflies Family, especially the members of the True Brushfoots, Admirals, Leafwings and Emperors subfamilies.  Mexican Bluewings, Tawny Emperors, Red Admirals, various Leafwings, Crackers and Sisters are often seen at a bait log or on decaying fruit.  These butterflies also feed on tree sap and prefer shady forested spots.  The National Butterfly Center has an extensive shady area of trees and brush along the East side, and this serves as shelter for many of these butterfly species.

Baiting for butterflies can be as simple as setting fruit out in a hanging basket in the shade to rot, or spreading bait on a shady tree branch or trunk.  In butterfly gardens people usually put up bait logs – simply a dry piece of a tree branch with a groove cut into the top surface to hold the bait.  These may be hung from a tree or put on stand.

*A life butterfly is one a person has never seen before.  Many birders and butterfliers keep life lists of species they have seen throughout their lifetime.  Even if you don’t keep a list, you can usually remember that you haven’t seen a particular butterfly or bird species before.

You can see photos of the butterflies mentioned in the Photographic Checklist of Butterflies Occurring lin LRGV South Texas.

The National Butterfly Center is southeast of the Bentsen Palm Village RV Park,  near the intersection of Old Military Road and Schuerbach Road.  3333 Butterfly Park Drive  Mission, TX 78572 phone (956) 583-5400

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Bentsen Palm Nature Blog is edited by Audrey Harvey.  Photograph by John Rosford.

From the class brochure:

“There is a prevalent fear that many have with touching buttons or making changes. Perhaps you worry you will not be able to return your camera back to a comfortable or familiar basic setting. On the other hand maybe you have a little envy when you watch others changing ISO settings or shooting photos with aperture or shutter speed priority. This is a class just for you!”

The    tuition    for    the    class    is $15 and each participant is asked to bring their own camera and come prepared for a whole lot of fun. The fee includes admission to the National Butterfly Center.  To RSVP your seat in the class call Flora Vela at 956-583-5400 or e-mail mariposa4770@yahoo.com

Follow this link to download the full class PDF brochure: National Butterfly Center Nature Photography 101 Class

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Bensten Palm Nature Blog is edited by Audrey Harvey.

Butterflying Etiquette
You can get very close to a butterfly if you take care not to spook it.  This is especially important when butterflying with a group.

• Watch your shadow – do not let it cross the butterfly as that will usually spook it.
• Avoid and sudden, jerky movements – this includes pointing!  Butterflies are easily spooked by sudden movements.
• Avoid touching the plant.

If you move slowly and deliberately, avoiding jerky movements and take care with your shadow, you can often come within a few of feet of a butterfly and get a great look at it.  If you do spook a butterfly, just stand quietly and watch until it settles down, then try to approach it again.  It often will eventually return to the same plant (but not always).

Binoculars for butterflying
It’s well worth having close focus binoculars for looking at flowers, butterflies and other insects, especially if you live in South Texas.  You will get hours of enjoyment out of then.

• Must have close focus – 5 ft minimum.  3ft or less even better.

I recommend the new great value close focus Papilio Binoculars by Pentax – these focus to 1.6 ft!  Really excellent for butterflies, other insects and flowers, and very inexpensive.

• Pentax 62216 Papilio 8.5×21 – good for near and far like for birds - $107 at Amazon
• Pentax 62215 Papilio 6.5×21 – more specialized for close use, less problems with holding steady – $95 at Amazon

Tips for using Binoculars
Big Hint – It’s key to find the object with your naked eye first.  If you can’t see it with your eye, you won’t find it with the bins.

Practicing the following technique will really increase speed and reduce frustration:

• Find an object – a nearby leaf or flower or a distant stationary object like a light post, tree top, etc.
• Keeping your eye on the object, raise your binoculars to your eyes without moving your eyes or head.
• Turn the focus wheel until the object comes into focus.

Keep practicing this and it will become second nature and you won’t waste time “hunting” for a butterfly or bird in your binoculars.  You’ll be able to get on an object quickly – which is a real plus for insects or birds which usually move around!

Butterfly Field Guides
To identify butterflies on your own, you will need a field guide book with photographs or drawings of each butterfly you might see.  These vary from short compact guides easy to use in the field to comprehensive, detailed large guidebooks.

A great waterproof quick reference laminated foldout you can carry when out looking at Butterflies:

• Butterflies of South Texas including the Lower Rio Grande Valley  $7.95 available at the National Butterfly Center.

A butterfly field guide book focused on South Texas   Has photos and descriptions of the local butterflies:

• Butterflies of the Lower Rio Grande Valley by Roland H. Wauer.  Amazon ~$19.00 or buy locally.

A general butterfly field guide that covers continental US and Canada.  This is a carefully detailed field guide with drawings, range maps.  But covers way more butterflies that you will see in the valley, so it can be challenging for a beginner.

• Kaufman Field Guide to Butterflies of North America  Amazon ~$14.00 or buy locally.

On-line South Texas Butterfly Web Reference:

• South Texas Chapter of NABA – Photographic Checklist of Butterflies Occurring in Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas

Using a Butterfly Checklist
On a guided butterfly walk, it can help to keep a checklist. Then you can review the butterflies you saw, looking them up in a field guide or on-line.

Checklists are organized by butterfly families.  Learn the general families and how to recognize them as that will help you more quickly identify a butterfly.

Other Area Butterfly Walks

• Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park – Guided Butterfly Walks on Thursdays from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m.
• National Butterfly Center – many regulars are happy to help identify butterflies you are seeing and point out rare ones.

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Bentsen Palm Nature Blog is edited by Audrey Harvey.

Black-vented Oriole Visiting a Feeder in Retama Village

Retama Village residents were delighted to see the Black-vented Oriole return to neighborhood feeders this October.  It had last been seen in early March 2011.  First appearing in the area in December 2010 and regularly the rest of the winter, this very rare bird had drawn birdwatchers from all over the country hoping to see it.  In late April and early May, a Black-vented Oriole was seen coming to orange feeders at South Padre Island!  There were no further sightings reported until this October.

The oriole is occasionally visiting feeders in Retama Village, and is now being seen more regularly in Bentsen Rio Grande State Park. A delight for birdwatchers, the oriole is large, brightly colored and vocal. It seems to particularly enjoy grape jelly.  In this <video coming soon…> you can watch the bird vocalizing and visiting a feeder in Retama Village.

This oriole is well north of it’s Mexican range.  A bird of the Sierra Madre Occidental on along the pacific coast of Mexico, the bird’s range is limited at the North by the high Sierra Madre Oriental Mountain range south of Monterrey in Nuevo Leon, Mexico.  The closest approach of the natural range is over 150 miles southwest of Bentsen!  View the range map of the Black-vented Oriole.

Who knows how and why this individual arrived in south Texas, but since the species does not migrate, this individual is not really expected to return south.  So far, this individual seems to have found forage and made a home for itself in the Rio Grande delta.

You can track sightings of interesting birds in Texas by reading the archives of the Texbirds list-server.  Just click on a month to view the reports.  I used this archive to track sightings and dates for the Black-vented Oriole.  There were even reports of a couple of sightings of one in April 2010 at South Padre Island.  Was this where our individual first appeared?  Perhaps that explains why it returned to South Padre a year later.  This is all speculation of course, but seems very likely given the appearance of the bird in places never seen before, and the fact that none of the sightings overlap time-wise.  Without banding, however, one cannot be certain they are the same individual.

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Bentsen Palm Nature Blog is edited by Audrey Harvey.  Photographs and video by John Rosford.

You can keep up with happenings and news at Bentsen Rio Grande State Park and the National Butterfly Center via their respective Facebook pages:

Bentsen Rio Grande State Park Facebook page

The National Butterfly Center Facebook page

Ruby-throated Hummingbird feeding at coral bean blossom. This bird is migrating through our area.

Buff-bellied Hummingbird perched in a coral bean tree. This bird is a year round resident in our area.

Over the past week it seems the number of hummingbirds in our area has increased dramatically.  We are right in the heat of spring hummingbird migration.  But spring and summer are not the only times we have hummingbirds in the Bentsen Palm area.  We have hummingbirds all year round!

People often ask us – “When should I put up my hummingbird feeder?”.  The answer is: “Always!”  Here in the lower Rio Grande Valley, we always have hummingbirds.  We have a local specialty that is a year round resident.  We have lots of migrating hummingbirds that pass through in the spring and fall, and we have summer breeding resident and winter resident hummingbirds.

By far the most spectacular hummingbird regularly seen just in our tip of the United States is our local specialty, the Buff-bellied Hummingbird.  This is a large hummingbird – a good half to one inch longer than the Black-chinned and Ruby-throated hummingbirds.  It is also the only local hummingbird with a red bill.  The bright red bill has a dark tip.  The male and female have similar green, reddish-brown, mauve and light tan (“buff”) coloring.  It often makes lower, slower sharp clicking sounds when it is coming into a feeder, much different than the rapid, higher-pitched chirps of the other hummers.

In the United States, the Buff-bellied Hummingbird is only regularly seen in the lower Rio Grande Valley.  Its year-round range extends from the just the very southern tip of Texas along the gulf coast of Mexico and the entire Yucatan Peninsula.  This hummingbird does not really migrate like the other hummingbirds that visit our area, although it does disperse somewhat north east along the U.S. gulf coast during the winter.

Our local hummer populations swell with migrants in the spring (April) and late September into October in the fall.  At these times you may notice large numbers of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and maybe some Black-chinned Hummingbirds mobbing your feeders all day and fighting over “sipping rights”.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are the only ones to migrate across the Gulf of Mexico, and for this reason they alone populate the eastern half of North America.  All the other migrating hummingbirds — several species that populate western North America in the summer — migrate by land through Mexico to reach their summer breeding area.  The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is named for the bright ruby gorget displayed by the males.  The gorget is the highly iridescent feathers around a hummingbird’s face, usually on the throat and chin.

The Black-chinned Hummingbird is our main summer addition as it breeds in our area.  The male displays a bright purple band on the throat when the sun hits at the right angle, otherwise the chin and throat appear black.   Even though we are well out of the normal summer range of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, it seems that one is occasionally spotted here during the summer.  The Black-chinned Hummingbird range extends through most of Texas as well as much of the western U.S..  Its range overlaps somewhat with the Ruby-throated Hummingbird in East Texas,  otherwise their ranges are distinct.  These two closely related hummingbirds have a similar size, wing noises, and high pitched chirps.  The females of the two species can be difficult to distinguish.

In the winter we might have several visitors from among the western hummingbirds.  Rufous Hummingbirds often winter along the Gulf Coast, and it’s not unusual to see them in the lower Rio Grande Valley.  This winter we also had an Anna’s Hummingbird at the Bentsen RGV Visitor Center.  It’s very unusual to see this hummingbird this far east although it is a regular visitor to the Davis Mountains in West Texas.

So if you enjoy watching hummingbirds, you should always have at least one feeder up, and you might put out more feeders during the spring and fall migrations.  The migrants will appreciate it, and you’ll enjoy the acrobatic feeder battles.  There is no need to buy any fancy hummingbird nectar mix, in fact it’s best to avoid the added dyes.  Pure white sugar and water in a 1:4 ratio is all that is needed.  The red on the hummingbird feeder clues the hummingbird that “nectar” might be found.  I still use my mother-in-law’s recipe for what she called “hum-dinner”:  1 part fine white sugar, 4 parts water, then microwave for 3 mins which boils it, stir well and let cool completely.

Another good way to attract hummingbirds is to plant good nectar flowering trees and shrubs.  Some of the plants very popular to hummers in our area are the Red Yucca with its tall bloom spike, Turk’s Cap with its red mallow blooms, all of the flowering sages, Flame Acanthus, Firecracker Bush, Coral Bean Tree and Wild Olive Tree.

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Bentsen Palm Nature Blog is edited by Audrey Harvey.  Photographs by John Rosford.

Adult male Bullock's Oriole in coral bean tree.

Adult male Orchard Oriole in coral bean tree.

Adult male Baltimore Oriole in coral bean tree.

For the past week or so, the profusely blooming coral bean trees near the clubhouse in Bentsen Palm Village RV Park have been a huge attraction for migrating orioles and hummingbirds.  These are the same trees the rare Black-vented Oriole visited earlier this year.  In addition to insects, orioles eat nectar and fruit, so the brightly colored, nectar-rich blooms of a coral bean tree must be irresistible.  On April 13, John photographed adult male Baltimore Oriole, Bullocks Oriole, Orchard Oriole as well as Hooded Oriole, all visiting these trees. The Hooded Oriole is a summer resident here in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.  All the other orioles are just passing through.

It was interesting to see the Bullock’s and Baltimore Oriole together as they are each headed for opposite halves of our continent.  Many of you from central and eastern North America may be familiar with the Baltimore Oriole.  The Bullock’s Oriole is the western equivalent of a Baltimore Oriole.  These two similarly sized orioles essentially split the United State in half in terms of their summer range, and they crossbreed where their ranges overlap in the Great Plains.  The Orchard Oriole is a smaller oriole with an eastern summer range closely matching that of the Baltimore Oriole but its range also includes most of Texas.  The Bullock’s Oriole summers in most of central and western Texas.

The lower Rio Grande Valley summer breeding orioles are the Hooded Oriole, the Altamira Oriole and the Audubon’s Oriole.  You can read more about the orioles that breed close to the Bentsen Palm area in this earlier article.  Here are reference web pages for the Baltimore Oriole, Bullock’s Oriole and Orchard Oriole.  These web pages include range maps and sound recordings for each bird.  It is always interesting to see where a migrating bird is headed when it passes through our area.

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Bentsen Palm Nature Blog is edited by Audrey Harvey.  Photographs by John Rosford.

Northern Parula on bottlebrush tree at the South Padre Island Convention Center.

Blue-winged Warbler on huisache at the South Padre Island Convention Center.

An exhausted Painted Bunting rests after a hard migration. It perked up later and started to forage.

Once the Spring Break crowds leave South Padre Island at the end of March, it’s a good time to bird the island and catch the April spring bird migration.  We particularly enjoy the boardwalks and grounds on the south side of the South Padre Island Convention Center.  A few years ago locals planted quite a few trees around the convention center and and added a fresh water feature.  Each year the trees are significantly bigger.  They also built a boardwalk loop that extends into the Laguna Madre on the east side of the barrier island.  The boardwalk has recently been tripled with the addition of the new SPI Birding Center just south of the convention center.  The Birding Center and Convention Center are located at the north end of the City of South Padre Island, just past the Turtle Rescue facility.

The trees planted around the convention center are a strong draw for birds crossing the Gulf of Mexico. The migrants are drawn to the closest green canopy they see and there really isn’t much on SPI.  Most of the migrating birds feed on insects and caterpillars in the trees, and a few will feed on blooms and any fruit provided. They also need fresh water.  Birders also usually check the lot on Sheepshead Street for migrating birds.  A few unused housing lots have been planted with trees to provide additional migrant habitat on South Padre Island.  This is funded by the Sheepshead Valley Land Fund.

Trans-gulf migrants leave the Yucatan Peninsula shortly after dusk, flying across water all night long.  If conditions are decent and winds favorable, the journey takes about 16 to 20 hours and thus it is well into daylight when they finally spot land.  If a bird is in good condition, it may go ahead and continue inland a ways before seeking shelter, water and forage.  If the journey has been difficult due to storms or unfavorable winds, a bird will land the first chance it gets — usually on one of the barrier islands lining the gulf coast shoreline or somewhere very close to the coast.  Where trans-gulf migrants first land depends on weather and wind conditions.  A strong easterly breeze will favor landfall at South Padre Island, diverting birds that would otherwise head north.  Also, a cold front with northerly winds will impede bird progress.

A bird leaving the Yucatan Peninsula shortly after dusk may arrive at South Padre Island late morning or early afternoon.  It becomes obvious when you are there on a typical day with south-easterly breezes, as the numbers of warblers, vireos, orioles and other migrants seem to gradually increase starting at about 11:00 a.m. and are noticeably more in number by 1 p.m.  By evening, there may be a lot of birds gathered at the trees and available fresh water.  The birds will remain to forage and rest until at least dusk.  If winds are favorable and they are well replenished, the birds will head further inland shortly after dusk.  If weather conditions are poor (north winds) or the birds are exhausted, they may wait a day or two until conditions are favorable.  For this reason, birders often visit SPI after winds have switched to the north the previous evening, hoping the migrants have stayed around and can be seen the following morning.

John photographed the male Painted Bunting above on April 6th 2009 at the SPI Convention Center.  That was a day with unfavorable winds, and the bird arrived after 5 p.m., obviously exhausted.  All the bunting could do was land in the grass near the trees and sleep for a while.  Not to worry, after 30 minutes or so it perked up and went off to get water and forage.  After a good days rest or two it would have headed further inland towards its breeding grounds.

Here is a neat list of some of the trans-gulf migrants that cross through Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Trans-Gulf Migrants

Here is a nice article with photos from the editor of Bird Watcher’s Digest about his experience birding at the SPI Convention Center.  Warblers of South Padre

Some excerpts of the Gulf Crossing movie that overviews trans-gulf migration and shows some of the colorful warblers foraging.

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Bentsen Palm Nature Blog is edited by Audrey Harvey.  Photographs by John Rosford.

Altamira Oriole perched near the Acacia Loop feeder inside Bentsen RGV State Park.

Hooded Oriole perched on Honey Mesquite near Bentsen RGV State Park headquarters. It has been singing for a mate.

We have two oriole species that regularly breed in the Bentsen Palm area.  The Altamira Oriole is a year-round resident of the area and is plentiful in the dense subtropical thorn forest that covers most of Bentsen RGV State Park south of the levee.  They are easy to find and in my opinion have the most beautiful song of any oriole seen in the United States.  The Hooded Oriole migrates to our area in the summer to nest and raise young and seems to prefer a more open habitat.  It is seen near the State Park Headquarters north of the levee, and in Retama Village and Bentsen Palm Village RV Park.  We often see one near the wall at the southwest corner of Retama Village and it makes us wonder if it will build a nest in the nearby palm trees.  Hooded Orioles also regularly visit the feeders and the coral bean trees in our development.

The Hooded and Altamira Oriole males are similar in appearance – both a showy bright orange with black wings and black on the face.  They can be distinguished by a white versus orange wing patch at the shoulder (the Altamira Oriole has an orange patch), and the amount of black on the face.  In the Hooded Oriole, the black is more extensive, covering more of the sides of the face and throat, above the bill, and extending further down the breast.  The Altamira Oriole has black mostly on the chin and throat with a little black triangles extending from the sides of the bill to cover just the eyes.  The Altamira Oriole female resembles the male, whereas the Hooded Oriole female is a mostly yellow bird with gray wings and faint white wing bars.

The Altamira Oriole builds showy long pendulous nests woven out of plant fibers and lichens that can be seen high in large deciduous trees within the State Park.  This is the longest nest made by any North American bird.   In late April and May you might observe them building a nest within the State Park.  The Hooded Oriole nest is also woven from plant fibers, but is a short cup usually well hidden as it is often discretely constructed on the underside a palm frond.  The oriole female actually punches holes through the palm frond from underneath to sew the nest to the leaf.  Last year we were shown a nest that was hidden under one of the lower fronds of a Sable Palm located just outside the Park Visitor Center.

More about Hooded Orioles.  More about Altamira Orioles.  Both links have sound recordings that will play the bird calls and song.

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Bentsen Palm Nature Blog is edited by Audrey Harvey.  Photographs by John Rosford.