Butterflies

I've been using the Peterson Field Guides Birds of North America app on my iPhone to keep my life list. I have found it very easy to use. The bird calls are also on there as well as range maps and the ability to do separate event lists.

I have 216 birds on my life list (Canada and the US) out of 820 in the guide. Last night I counted the number I've seen this year so far down here and the number is 135. I'm pretty happy with that.

This morning we went to the golf course so Fred could start tuning up his game with a bucket of balls. I accompanied him and finished my Pfeilraupe shawl and listened to the 5th Jeffrey Archer book in the 'Clifton Chronicles'.

On the way down Gulf Boulevard here on the island, we stopped at this massive agave plant to take a photo of the spike that has grown up the centre. I did some googling and found a website that chronicles its development from this stage to flowering. You can see some of the 'leaves' had been hacked off so I was able to get closer to the centre.

After Skip's driving range practice, we headed back over to Palo Blanco to see if we could see anything new. It was past midday, however, so there really weren't a lot of birds around other than the usual long-tailed grackles, some doves, and swallows.

I did get to take some more photos of the cacti in bloom in better light.

Today we saw several interesting butterflies, some of which stayed in one place long enough for me to get at least a half-assed photo.

Red Admiral

Red Admiral

Gulf Fritillary

Giant Swallowtail

These thistles may be an invasive species but the butterflies and bugs sure love it.

We think this is a Teleus Longtail - although I never did catch a shot with the wings open.

Here it is facing the other way.

We also saw this very cute scaly lizard. Skip saw it run away but I didn't get a shot of its whole body. It did stay in this posture for quite some time before we got too close.

 It wasn't much of a day for birding but I did add a few butterflies to my minuscule life list.

After lunch we had lunch in Port Isabel and on the way to the car we saw an Altamira Oriole fly in and a couple of kiskadees hollering at each other.