Happy BirthDay

Today, April 22, is Earth Day. It's a special day where we show our appreciation for the natural world and are more aware of the things that we need to do to preserve it.On Earth Day 2007 I began the Ecobirder Blog. During the past six years there have been good times and bad times, there have been days where I could not wait to share pictures and posts and days where it took almost every thing that I had to write a post for the day. During all this time many of you have visited often and left comments and encouragements for which I would like to thank you. With out you this blog would not be here. It has become kind of a tradition to share pics from the calendars that I make each year on this special day. So keeping with tradion here are the pictures from the 2013 Ecobirder Calendar. 

Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO

Ferruginous pygmy owl San Miguelito Ranch, Tx

 Altamira oriole at Bentsen State Park, Tx

Sandhill crane colt Necedah NWR, Wi

Western grebe Bosque del Apache, NM

Cabbage white butterfly River Bend Nature Center, MN

Red-headed woodpeckers Necedah NWR, Wi.

Gold-fronted woodpecker  Santa Ana NWR, Texas.

 Pied-billed grebe Crex Meadows, Wi

Black Bear Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary, MN

 Gulf Fritillary Santa Ana NWR, Texas.

 Sandhill cranes Boque del Apache, MN

Northern Saw-whet owl Dodge Nature Center, MN

Thanks for a great year!

Gulf Fritilary

 While the numbers of bird were lower then we were used, to because we traveled the end of October instead of February like we have in the past, there was plenty of butterflies, dragonflies and spiders to keep me busy. One of the most common butterflies that we spotted and photographed was the gulf fritilary. This is not the first time that we have photographed this species. It is also one of the more common butterflies that we see when we travel to south east Texas. The gulf fritilary if primarily found in the south eastern United States, however they can also be found in parts of Mexico and as far west as California. I am not sure what type of flower that it was drinking from. Wild flowers are still pretty new to me and are especially difficult when they are from a different part of the country. The flower looks a lot like a dandelion except that it is pink instead of yellow. The numerous pink angle hair type strands around the plant are also different then any thing that we have around here.

Gulf Fritillary

The gulf fritillary got its common name because it is sometimes seen flying over the Gulf of Mexico while migrating. They are sometimes referred to as as the passion butterfly because the larva feed only feed on different types of passion flowers. The adults drink nectar from a variety of flowers including thistle as pictured above.

Gulf Fritillary

 

Gulf Fritillary on Thistle

 

Flowers are a great way o attract wildlife to your yard. Unfortunately living in a town home I do not have much space for gardening but there are plenty of places where I can go out to find blooming wild flowers, like this wild thistle that has attracted a gulf fritillary.

Hugh Ramsey Nature Park

After spending our first couple of days in Texas down in the South Padre/ Brownsville area we headed north on Monday, March 1st. We were spending the night in Kingsville, we had reservations at the King Ranch the following day, and decided to stop at the Hugh Ramsey Nature Park in Harlingen on our way.

Once part of a landfill, this 55 acre park was reclaimed and replanted with native foliage by local environmental groups. Trails now run through the Texas ebony woodlands and around the arroyo waterways. Part of the park, the Ebony Trail has been developed as a series of themed botanical gardens, this includes medicinal plants, hummingbird and butterfly gardens just to name a few.

The Hugh Ramsey Nature Park along with the 40 acre Harlingen Thicket combine as the Harlingen Arroyo Colorado, a satellite of the World Birding Center. At the time that we visited we did not see a lot of birds however we did see some interesting ones, including a black-crested titmouse, two different types of thrashers, a great kiskadee and the inca dove pictured above.

Even though we did not see that many birds we did see more butterflies at this location then we did at any other that we visited in Texas. Most of the butterflies that we saw and photographed are not found in Minnesota so it was exciting. I have photographed the pipevine swallowtail at the butterfly exhibit at the Como Zoo but this was the first time that I have seen one in the wild.

We had a total of 5 lifer butterflies that we photographed in Hugh Ramsey. One was the gulf fritillary that is in the photo above.

One kind of strange thing that we found in the park was this sculpture. I am not sure who did it or what its meaning is. There were 7 egg shaped rocks in the sand and then a skeleton of what appears to be a bird on the wall behind. It was certainly different.