Strays from the South: Sisters and Sickle-wings, Oh My!

Butterflies are on the move! 

I was planning to go butterflying with Anthony yesterday afternoon, but had some other stuff come up and wasn't able to go after all.  He called presently with the news that he had found what he thought was a White Admiral. That would be really remarkable here, so I immediately hopped in the truck and hurried the two miles to where he was. When I saw the butterfly I knew it was not a White Admiral, but some sort of "sister" (Adelpha sp)! I didn't know what species, but no sisters are expected here. Luckily it was very tame and allowed us to get some great photos, confirming it as an Arizona Sister, apparently only the sixth record for Kansas! (per Butterflies and Moths of North America Online, BAMONA for short)

Arizona and California Sisters  are very similar. We determined this was an Arizona because of the pale edging all along the back of the white stripe on the hindwing as well as the single orange bar near the base of the wing. A California Sister would have an incomplete pale edge and double orange bars near the wing base. BAMONA staff verified our identification.

This is definitely one of the most beautiful butterflies I've seen. With a 3-5 inch wingspan, it was an impressive sight as it glided slowly around my head, with an occasional flap thrown in now and then.

Anthony and I had also done a little butterflying together after church earlier in the afternoon. Not far away, we found a Red-banded Hairstreak, a species we definitely did not expect here, although isn't nearly as rare as the sister.

Red-banded Hairstreak

A couple of weeks ago, Anthony photographed a butterfly he couldn't identify. When he showed me the photo I recognized it as a Sickle-winged Skipper, which I knew would be really rare here. (I honestly didn't even know if they'd been seen in Kansas before.)

Great pic courtesy of Anthony Miller

I checked the range map on Butterflies and Moths of North America and it appears that it is the third state record! Unfortunately it was a one day wonder, so no one else got to see it.

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Another butterfly of interest I've seen lately is this Southern Dogface, a really striking sulphur I'd never seen well before.

I didn't remember they had such stubby antenna.

 They really get flashy in flight, with their bold black and yellow pattern.

If you're thinking about getting into butterflies, now would be a great time to start! As I've mentioned previously, Butterflies of Oklahoma, Kansas, and North Texas is a great reference for learning the butterflies of this area.  For more advanced butterfliers, check out the Kauffman Field Guide to Butterflies of North America. I'll end with a shameless plug. If you want to see more of our butterfly (and bird and mammal) photos you can check out our Flickr photostreams. Mine here, and Bryant and Andrew's here.

Joseph

India 2015 | Part One: Kolkata

This spring I had the opportunity to accompany my father on a short trip to India. Needless to say, I was very excited about this chance to visit another part of the world! This is the first (brief) post I'm writing about our trip.

After many hours of traveling, we arrived in Kolkata late on the evening of April 22. After having some hassle involving our luggage not making it with us, we headed to our hotel. We had a connecting flight the next morning, so although I didn't have much time, I woke up early, eager to see what birds I could spot from our hotel window. There were quite a few! Common Mynas, House crows and Red-vented Bulbuls were all over the neighborhood. A couple Little Cormorants flew past in the distance, and a Spotted Dove appeared on the rooftop next door.

A Common Myna holds forth.

An inquisitive House Crow

A Spotted Dove

After a quick breakfast of scaldingly spicy curry, we headed to the airport to catch our flight to Dimapur, in the far north-eastern state of Nagaland. We spent the next several days with the Naga people, exploring the villages and learning about their history. I'll write more about our time there in a later post. 

And no, despite our proximity to Nepal during the earthquake, I did not feel it. My dad did, but we felt fortunate that the area we were in was not at all affected.

Joseph