Fall Crazies

This morning I decided to do some quick birding around our place.  There was some nice action, but nothing too crazy.  The best bird was a Black-throated Green Warbler that apparently missed his flight south.

Black-throated Green Warbler

I got a call from Anthony at about 10 o'clock, saying very excitedly that he had a Townsend's Solitare up near his place.  Joseph and I converged to the location quickly and got excellent looks at it before it flew off to the southwest.

Townsend's Solitare.  State lifer!

We birded a little more at a cordgrass marsh near there where we had seen Nelson's Sparrow's in the past.  There wasn't much, but we did see several Le Conte's Sparrows.

Le Conte's Sparrow

Later in the afternoon, I noticed a bunch of skippers on some flowers in our yard.  Upon closer inspection, I was shocked to see a skipper of the genus Panoquina!  Only one other Panoquina had ever been seen in Kansas and that was also in our yard almost a year ago to the day.  I quickly got a bunch of pictures, which revealed that this was indeed an Ocola Skipper!  

Today's Ocola Skipper!

Today's Ocola Skipper!

We identified the one last year as an Ocola as well, but after the fact an expert who had experience with both Ocola and Purple-washed from south Texas told us that he thought it was actually a Purple-washed.  The more we looked into it, the more we agreed.  So, I guess we'll just have to admit that we initially made the wrong identification.  Anyway, a Purple-washed is very rare as well, in fact, it is much rarer than an Ocola, even though they are both first state records.

Purple-washed Skipper from last year.  Notice faint row of spots on the wing and overall purple-ish sheen

Dan Jones deserves a shout-out for setting us on the right path on this ID.  Here is a link to his very interesting blog.  

Only a little longer till gull season!

Andrew

Large Orange Sulphur!

I was surprised when I found a large, whitish sulphur flying around my flower beds this afternoon. It looked similar to a Cloudless Sulphur but was white instead of chartreuse. Knowing it was likely a southern species I made a quick dive for the camera. A few pics and a quick glance at the field guide showed that it was obviously a female Large Orange Sulphur, a species I've had my eye out for for a while.

Large Orange Sulphur female

While far from the first record in Kansas, this is one of the few modern, non-specimen records, so I was pleased to be able to photograph fairly well.

 Unlike the resident Cloudless Sulphurs, it chilled on a Lantana plant the entire time it was present.

 Here's one of the Cloudless (below) for comparison.

Cloudless Sulphur

I've also had a number of Gulf Fritillaries hanging around the yard recently. These are, in my opinion, the most elegant butterfly we get here.

Gulf Fritillary

 Look at those silver spots!

Gulf Fritillary

It was nice to see a rare lep again since this year had seemed a little lacklustre so far after last years amazing stray show.

Keep your eyes peeled, there could easily be more southern species around with the continuing south winds!

Joseph

Chickens and Curlews

A few days ago, Andrew, Anthony, Bryant, Michael Yutzy and myself finally made the trek down to southern Kansas to look for Lesser Prairie Chickens, a gaping hole on our state list.

Photo by Andrew

After cruising down some very bad back roads, we finally arrived at the lek just before sunrise. We could see several males actively lekking a couple hundred yards of the road right as we pulled up,  at least that was an easy lifer.

 Since it was still fairly early in the morning when we left, we decided to run over to the Sun City area to check the area of the Anderson Creek Fire.

It turned out to be a great decision, starting with a Burrowing Owl we found just down the road from the lek, chilling in a Prairie Dog town.

Photo by Andrew

We continued on, finding a clump of balloons originating in Colorado Springs, and more importantly, a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks and couple of Long-billed Curlews in a random wheat field beside the road.

Photo by Andrew

Had the hawks been a couple miles further west they would have been a new Kiowa County record.

One of two Long-billed Curlews. Photo by Andrew

When we got to Sun City we were impressed by the amount of fire damage that far north. I knew about where I had taken some landscape shots last summer and thought it would be kind of fun to get a before and after shot of the burned area.

Before the fire

And after the fire. I was surprised how close I actually got to the same view!

More burned prairie south of Sun City

We decided to stop in at Kingman State Fishing Lake on the way back home. Birdwise it was a little drab, but we did find a female Falcate Orangetip, a lifer for all of us.

Falcate Orangetip, note the hooked, "falcate," wingtip.

This is a really amazing looking butterfly, although a lot smaller than I expected.  They are very well camouflaged on the underside, so we would occasionally lose it when it landed.

Falcate Orangetip

There were also several Olympia Marbles flying about. Although these are my best photos so far, I still haven't quite gotten that perfect shot yet

Olympia Marble

It was a great morning out, and we definitely plan to do more of these outings to other parts of the state.

Joseph

Spring Pushes

Spring is coming early this year!  I am ready for the change, but in some ways it seems like we hardly had winter this year.  This made it hard to get some of the normally common winter birds. However, I am not going to complain!

I guess I will start with butterflies!  I have only seen about a dozen species this year so far.  The most interesting being an Olympia Marble.

I saw several of these Olympia Marble in my yard one afternoon!

Their underside is a striking bright yellow!

Question Marks are always one of the first butterflies to show up in the spring.

Now for the birds!  Stuff has really started moving around lately, with the early migrants such as Killdeer and Eastern Phoebes now all over the place.  Purple Martins are back as well and I've also seen a pair of Northern Rough-winged Swallows and a Barn Swallow.

One of the Northern Rough-winged Swallows that was at a local pond for several days in a row.

There was a Baird's Sandpiper and a Greater Yellowlegs at our pond and Joseph had Least Sandpiper at a different pond.  This spring we have already noticed a push of White-winged Doves.  Anthony has seen one at his place for a couple weeks, Joseph had one at a nearby farm, and I saw a pair a few miles from my house.

Monday evening, Joseph called to say that he and Anthony had a Burrowing Owl at a worked field near Abbyville.  Bryant and I rushed out to try to find it.  I managed to get a brief view in the fading light, but unfortunately, Bryant missed it.

Tuesday afternoon I went to Hoskinson's Sandpit for about an hour.  I was hoping to see a some Fish Crows, since we had seen them there regularly at this time last year, but I couldn't find any.  However, I did pick out a late 2nd cycle Thayer's Gull out of a bunch of Ring-bills.  According to Birds of Kansas, this is the third latest they have been seen in Kansas!

2nd cycle Thayer's Gull at the sandpit.

So far, my year list sits at 123 species.  Not bad for late March!

Andrew

The Butterflies of 2015: A Photographic Review

Since Andrew got the obligatory "2015 review" on birds done, I've taken it upon myself to do the butterfly version.

Simply put, 2015 was a fantastic year for butterflies. I finished with a total of 71 species in Kansas, by far my best ever. But that wasn't the most exciting part. This summer was apparently on of the best for strays in the last 20 years (fide Chuck Ely). We found, in order, a Sickle-winged Skipper (3rd state record, seen by Anthony only), an Arizona Sister (6th state record), a Long-tailed Skipper (3rd or 4th state record, seen by Joseph only), a Tailed Orange (7th state record), and last, and definitely not least, an apparent Purple-washed Skipper Andrew found in their yard. You may recall that we identified it as an Ocola Skipper, the geographically closest Panoquina, in our earlier post about that sighting. However, Dan Jones, of Rio Grande Valley Butterflies, pointed out that the field marks were consistent with the Purple-washed Skippers he sees down there. Any Panoquina would be a first for Kansas, but Purple-washed was completely off our radar!

Sickle-winged Skipper. Photo by Anthony

Arizona Sister. Photo by Joseph

Arizona Sister. Photo by Joseph

Long-tailed Skipper at the Dyck Arboretum in Hesston. Photo by Joseph

Tailed Orange. Photo by Joseph

Presumed Purple-washed Skipper. Photo by Andrew

Presumed Purple-washed Skipper.  Photo by Andrew

Note the small white spot anterior to the large arrowhead-shaped one visible on the far upperwing, this, along with the purple sheen and straight line of dots on the underside of the wing, is apparently fairly diagnostic for Purple-washed.

Red-banded Hairstreak. Photo by Joseph

Surprisingly, I found two Red-banded Hairstreaks in Reno Co this year. They are common in southern Kansas, but seldom come this far north.

Little Wood Satyr. Photo by Joseph

Bordered Patch. Photo by Joseph

Southern Dogface. Photo by Joseph

Melissa Blue. Photo by Joseph

American Snout. Photo by Joseph

Common Wood Nymph. Photo by Joseph

Silver-spotted Skipper. Photo by Joseph

Delaware Skipper. Photo by Joseph

I'm really looking forward to "lepping" this year, and while my butterfly list is currently zero, I hope to get at least 75 species. Now, to go and find some Viceroy hibernacula to get my list started!

Joseph

First State Record!!

Yesterday morning I found an interesting skipper in the lavender plants by our front porch.  When I saw it I immediately knew that it wasn't anything I had ever seen before.  The first thing that came to mind was Ocola Skipper, but I wasn't sure.  I took a bunch of pictures and then went inside to check it out.  Turns out, it was indeed an Ocola!  This is the first Kansas record and also the first record from the genus Panoquina!  Joseph came over after school and managed to see it, but unfortunately it was gone when Bryant and I got home a little later.

Ocola Skipper

Ocola Skipper

Ocola Skipper

While Bryant and I were trying to refind it, we did found this Skipperling.  It appears to just be a Orange Skipperling, but the upperwings look similar to a Southern Skipperling, which would be another first state record!

Skipperling sp.

Skipperling sp.

The strong south winds around here for the last couple of days probably brought many stray butterflies up here.  Joseph also had a Texan Crescent and a Bordered Patch at his place this evening, both southern butterflies.  Hopefully all the southern stuff hangs around for several days.  

I haven't done much birding lately, but I have seen some good stuff in the little that I have done.

This Killdeer was killed and impaled by a Shrike.

One of the Nelson's Sparrows that hung around the Sparrow stretch for several days.

Vesper Sparrow in the morning light.

Short-eared Owl against the sunset.  This was year bird #264!

I also had two Common Redpolls in the yard about two weeks ago.  They were lifers, but unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures.  They were also the earliest seen in Kansas by a week!  All in all, it has been a good fall!

Andrew