Feathers and Scales: Writings About Birds and Butterflies

By Roland H. Wauer

The author retired from the National Park Service after a 32-year career as a park ranger, biologist, and administrator. He worked in seven national parks: Crater Lake, Death Valley, Pinnacles, Zion, Big Bend, Great Smoky Mountains, and the Virgin Islands. He also served as Southwest Region Chief Scientist in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and as Chief of Resource Management and Chief Scientist for the National Park Service in Washington, D.C.

Since retirement, he has authored 31 books on the National Parks and wildlife, and two novels: Natural Inclinations, One Man’s Adventures in the Natural World, and Ruins to Ruins, From the Mayan Jungle to the Aztec Metropolis.

Ro lives in Bryan, Texas.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669811756

Book preview

Copyright © 2022 by Roland H. Wauer. 837987

All rights reserved. No part of this book may

be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by

any means, electronic or mechanical, including

photocopying, recording, or by any information

storage and retrieval system, without permission in

writing from the copyright owner.

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022903212

Rev. date: 03/03/2022

CONTENTS

Introduction

Birds

Bird Songs, A Measure of Spring

The Central Texas Coast, A Birder’s Paradise

Texas Raptor Migration Can be Spectacular

Peregrines, The world’s Fastest Bird

Bald Eagle Time Again in South Texas

American Kestrel, Our Smallest and Most Colorful Raptor

Harris’s Hawk, A Southwest Specialty

White-tailed Hawk, A Prairie Hawk

Crested Caracara, An Odd Falcon

Roadrunners Are Fascinating Birds

Flammulated Owls, Little Forest Owl of the West

Burrowing Owls are True Ground Dwellers

Common Ravens are Incredible Birds

Buff-bellied Hummingbird, A Texas Gem

Canyon and Rock Wrens

Carolina Wrens Are Creative Songsters

Robins, America’s Favorite Songbird

Black-vented Oriole

Butterflies

Spring Monarchs in Texas

Distributional Relations of Four Southwest Butterfly Populations

Butterflies of the Chihuahuan Desert Region

Butterflies of Big Bend National Park

What’s So Special About Davis Mountains Butterflies?

Butterflies of Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas

The Magic of the Lower Rio Grande Valley – Butterfly Gardens

Ten Days in the Lower Rio Grande Valley

Palo Alto Battlefield Site and Definite Patch

A Veracruz Butterfly Adventure

Fitzgaertner’s Flat

Acknowledgements

References

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Golden-cheeked Warbler, Greg Lasley

Black-throated Sparrow

Carolina Wren

Prothonotary Warbler

Gulf of Mexico

Summer Tanager, by Greg Lasley

Hawk Watch Platform, Corpus Christi, by Betty Wauer

Mad Island at dawn, by Betty Wauer

Whooping Cranes at Aransas, NWR

Cape May area on East Coast

Golden Eagle, painting

Crater Lake with Nutcracker

Peregrine Falcon after swifts, painting

Maderas del Carmen, View north from Maderas Peak

Peregrine Falcon, painting

Great White Throne, Zion NP

Santa Elena Canyon, Big Bend NP

Maderas del Carmen, Aerial View

Padre Island, Texas

Trunk Bay, St. John, USVI

Peregrine Falcon, by Greg Lasley

Bald Eagle, imm., by Barry Nichols

Bald Eagle, by Greg Lasley

American Kestrel, by Greg Lasley

Great Smoky Mts., Cades Cove

American Kestrel, by Greg Lasley

American Kestrel, by Barry Nichols

American Kestrel, by Barry Nichols

Columbus Landing Site, St. Croix, USVI

American Kestrel, by A. Morris

Harris’s Hawk, at Rockport, by Betty Wauer

Hawk, Harris’s, at nest, by Lee Ziegler

Saguaro NP

Badger

White-tailed Hawk, by Greg Lasley

Coastal prairie. Aransas NWR

White-tailed Hawk

Prairie fire, King Ranch, Texas

Crested Caracara, by Betty Wauer

Crested Caracara

Crested Caracaras on nest

Roadrunner at Big Bend NP

Roadrunners babies

Boot Canyon, Big Bend NP

Flammulated Owl, banded

Zion Cannyon, East Rim view

Burrowing Owl

Prairie habitat, Texas, by Betty Wauer

Burrowing Owl at Dominican Republic

Common Raven

Panamint Mts., Death Valley NP

Mohave Desert, Joshua Tree NP

Canyonlands NP

Buff-bellied Hummingbird, painting

Buff-bellied Hummingbird

Canyon Wren

Great West Canyon, Zion NP

Rock Wren

Death Valley from Dante’s View

Carolina Wren

Carolina Wren

American Robin

Robins at birdbath

Rio Grande Village, Big Bend NP, by Betty Wauer

Black-vented Oriole, by Julia Hotchkiss

Monarch

Queen, male

Monarch at milkweed

Viceroy

Maderas del Carmen, west slope

Chisos Mountains

Davis Mountains, Mt. Livermore

Guadalupe Mountains

Desert vegetation

Pinyon-Juniper Woodland

Forested canyon, Big Bend NP

Casa Grande from Green Gulch

Zela Metalmark

Crimson Patch

Finding Jobanis Satyr in Carmens, by Betty Wauer

Thicket Hairstreak, Colorado

Common Wood-Nymph, Montana

Short-tailed Skipper, Arizona

Two-barred Flasher, NABA

Chisos Banded-Skipper, Carmens

Pacuvius Duskywing, Carmens

Chisos Skipperling, Big Bend NP

Four-spotted Skipperling, Chiricahua NP

Many-spotted Skipperling, Ariizona

Morrison’s Skipper, Davis Mts.

Mexican Tiger Swallowtail, Carmens

Barred Yellow, Estanzuela

Mexican Dartwhite, Los Tuxtla, by Betty Wauer

Colorado Hairstreak, Lamb’s Canyon, UT

Mountain Greenstreak, Carmens

Orange-crested Groundstreak, Big Bend NP

Arizona Hairstreak, Carmens

Chisos Metalmark, Big Bend NP

Weidemeyers Admiral, Carmens

Mexican Silverspot, Sierra Gorda, SLP

Black Hairstreak, Alta Cima, Mx.

Joboni’s Satyr, Carmens

Ornythion Swallowtail, by Frank Hedges

Theona Checkerspot, Arizona

Ursine Giant-Skipper, by Greg Lasley

Arizona Sister, Big Bend NP

Red Satyr, Big Bend NP

Mexican Bluewing, NABA

Pipevine Swallowtail, Victoria

Question Mark, summer

Chisos Metalmark, Big Bend NP

Chisos Banded-Skipper, Big Bend NP

Bromiliad Scrub-Hairstreak, Big Bend NP

Zela Metalmark, Garden Canyon, by Betty Wauer

Great Purple Hairstreak, Victoria

Red Admiral, Roma

Giant Swallowtail, Victoria

California Sister, Oregon

Sandia Hairstreak, Big Bend NP

Saltbush Sootywing, Palo Duro Canyon

Tailed Orange, Victoria

Sickle-winged Skipper, Sabal Palm

Green Gulch, Big Bend NP

Chisos Basin, Big Bend NP

Mt. Livermore, Davis Mountains

Morrison’s Skipper, Davis Mts.

Author leading butterfly trip at L. E. Wood Campgtound, Davis Mts., by Betty Wauer

McDonald Observatory, Davis Mts.

West Coast Lady, Guadalupe Mts.

Aransas NWR, south from tower, by Betty Wauer

Aransas NWR, off wildlife Drive, by Bettyy Wauer

Cowpen Daisy, Victoria

Soapberry Hairstreak, Waco

Turk’s-cap White-Skipper, Sabal Palm

Palamedes Swallowtail, Kirby Forest

Falcate Orangetip, Austin

Julia Heliconian, Victoria

Dorante’s Longtail, Victoria

Great Southern White, NABA

Dark Tropical Buckeye, Aransas NWR

Gray Hairstreak, Bryan

Green-backed Ruby-eye, Hidalgo

Author at NABA, by Betty Wauer

Blue-eyed Sailor, Sierra Gorda

Estero Llano Grande SP

Falcon SP garden, Telea Hairstreak site, by Betty Wauer

Telea Hairstreak, Falcon SP

Author and friends at NABA, by Betty Wauer

Red-bordered Pixie, Santa Ana NWR

Blomfild’s Beauty, NABA

Author at Valley Nature Center, Weslaco, by Betty Wauer

White-spotted Satyr, Estero Llano Grande., by Rick Snider

Guava Skipper, Alta Cima

Ruddy Daggerwing, Mission

Erato Heliconius, El Mirador

Palo Alto Battlefield, by Betty Wauer

Definite Patch, Palo Alto Battlefied

Turquoise Eyemark, Darwin Trail, Veracruz

Author with Sally and Eric Fienkelstein at Los Tuxtla Biosphere Reserve, by Betty Wauer

Orange Mapwing, Los Tuxlas Biosphere Reserve, by Betty Wauer

Anna’s Eighty-eight, El Mirador

Karwinski’s Beauty, SLP

Costa-spotted Mimic-White, Cavazos

Carousing Jewelmark, Quiahuiztlan

Author at El Salto Cave, by Betty Wauer

Fritzgaertner’s Flat, by Ellie Thompson

I dedicated this book to two friends:

Greg Lasley

&

Jim Brock

INTRODUCTION

For most of my life, I have been solely involved with birds. From that kestrel that nested in a nearby vacant lot, and accidentally killing a robin with my bow and arrow as a pre-teen, birds have been an extremely important part of my existence. As an adult, working as a naturalist for the National Park Service, many of my programs and writings involved birds. And after retirement, I travelled extensively to find those species I had missed earlier.

%5bA3%5d%20Golden-cheeked%20Warbler%2c%20Greg%20Lasley.jpg

Golden-cheeked Warbler, Greg Lasley

Looking back at some of my most exciting adventures, they featured birds: a peregrine in the Maderas del Carmen, maroon-fronted parrots on a cliffside near Monterrey, Mexico, discovering a black-vented oriole at Big Bend, and being immersed in Big Bend’s Colima warbler.

And after decades of birds, suddenly, almost overnight, I discovered butterflies. How often I had ignored even the most colorful butterflies while in search of birds, is truly a wonder. Since then, I have spent much of my field time watching and photographing butterflies.

However, because the majority of those adventures were bird-oriented, the majority my writings have featured birds. But with this writing – Feathers and Scales – I include both, and I have tried to include the most memorable or exciting or fascinating of those.

BIRDS

Bird Songs, A Measure of Spring

Each spring, when our resident birds begin courtship and the neotropical migrants pass through our area, bird songs again become magic. But it also is a time that taxes my memory, trying to recall what bird songs belong to which species. Although songs of the full-time residents, such as cardinals, chickadees and blue jays, are set in stone, those birds, only passing through in spring, often are difficult to remember. I think that I remembered bird songs better years ago before I got interested in butterflies; that new information managed to eliminate some of the other. Maybe it’s something else.

%5bA4%5d%20Black-throated%20Sparrow.jpg

Black-throated Sparrow

Long ago when I first paid much attention to bird songs, I began to memorize their songs using mnemonics. For instance, the mnemonic used to describe a common song or call of a bobwhite is bob-white. Blue jays sing jay, jay, jay. American robins sing cheerily-cheery-cheerily-cheery, but they also are known in song, when the red, red robin come bob bob bobbin along. Carolina chickadees sing a whistled fee-be, fee-bu. Tufted titmice whistle peter, peter, peter. The Carolina wren has a song we all recognize as teakettle, teakettle, teakettle. Our white-eyed vireo sings quick-with-the-beer-check. And what about the cardinal’s song? It sings what, cheer, cheer, cheer, cheer, chee, cheer, whot, whot, whot, or birdy, birdy, birdy.

%5bA5%5d%20Carolina%20Wren.jpg

Carolina Wren

The use of mnemonics is most useful when walking through the woods that echo with the songs of a dozen or more neotropical songbirds. Many of these birds stay up high and rarely come low enough to see well. So, it can be important to know that a red-eyed vireo sings look up…see me?... over here… higher. Eastern wood-pewees sing a plaintive whistled pee-ah-wee, pee-err. And blue-gray gnatcatchers sing a lispy spee, spee, spee.

The vast majority of Texas birds possess a song, although fewer than half of the almost 9,500 known bird species world-wide actually sing. And many species possess a repertoire of songs, often singing different songs in order, one after the other. This behavior can be confusing. Our mockingbird, for instance, has as many as 150 songs, while a brown thrasher, only found here in South Texas as a migrant or uncommon winter visitor, can sing more than 3,000 song types. A European starling’s repertoire may include only 67 song types. And many wrens, especially the tropical wrens, often sing duets, so that one individual begins the song and its mate ends the song. It is commonplace for many birds, such as our Carolina wren, to sing a song that is repeated by another Carolina wren some distance away. Each is proclaiming its territory. Birdsongs also serve to attract a mate or to convey a message, such as the presence of a predator.

%5bA6%5d%20Prothonotary%20%20Warbler.jpg

Prothonotary Warbler

How many songs do birds sing in a single day? That varies with the species. Ornithologists Margaret Nice recorded 2,305 songs from a song sparrow on a single day in May. She reported a black-throated green warbler that sang 1,680 songs in seven hours, and she estimated that on a typical day of sixteen hours, he would have sung more than 3,000 songs. But the North American winner is the red-eyed vireo. Ornithologist Harold Mayfield recorded a Michigan red-eyed vireo which sang 22,197 songs in a day.

But whatever the message or how many songs can be sung in a day, to most of us who enjoy birds, it is the song’s acoustical quality that we most enjoy. For many of us, it would be an empty world without the songs of birds.

Derived from Learning Birdsongs through Mnemonics, in Naturally – South Texas (2001).

The Central Texas Coast, A Birder’s Paradise

Where in all of North America can one find outstanding birds year-round? Nowhere else attracts birders in spring, summer, fall, and even in winter like the Texas Gulf Coast. There are birds aplenty from Matagorda County south through Refugio County and inland through Victoria, DeWitt and Bee counties. Area motels, restaurants, and other service facilities owe much to visiting birders.

%5bA7%5d%20Gulf%20of%20Mexico.jpg

Gulf of Mexico

But what is so special about the Central Texas coastal region? In a sense, the area is a meeting place of eastern, southern and western birds. Eastern species like crows, Carolina chickadees and tufted titmice converge there with southern species like brown-crested flycatchers, long-billed thrashers, and olive sparrows. And when western species, such as ladder-backed woodpeckers, ash-throated flycatchers, and cactus wrens, are added to the mix, the results can satisfy almost everyone who enjoys birds.

Furthermore, hundreds of additional bird species pass through the area in spring, like a huge hourglass, to spread out all across North America. The Texas Coast serves as a major flyway in which both northbound and southbound migrants can be abundant. Besides birds that follow the coastline, when weather conditions are right, thousands of Trans-Gulf migrants can find refuge and food along the Central Gulf Coast. At times in spring the weary migrants can be found by the hundreds searching the foliage for food almost at arm’s length.

%5bA8%5d%20Summer%20Tanager%2c%20by%20Greg%20Lasley.jpg

Summer Tanager, by Greg Lasley

Springtime birders prefer Matagorda Island, Indianola, Magic Road, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, and Rockport. More inland sites also can teem with spring migrants: Victoria’s Riverside Park, Goliad State Park, DeWitt County, especially during Wildflower Festival, and Bay City’s Matagorda County Birding Nature Center. Birders also drive the roads in the coastal counties, such as Calhoun County, checking flooded fields where dozens of waders and shorebirds are possible. In fact, birders in Calhoun County in May 1994 won the Annual North American Migration count with 211 species in a single day.

Fall migration is usually less dramatic because it extends over a longer time period; some shorebirds that nest far to the north already are present in our flooded fields by July. And other northern species are close behind; this also includes a number of raptors that move along with their prey. Southbound hummingbirds create the greatest interest. Thousands of ruby-throated hummingbirds stream southward during the first couple weeks of September. The Hummer/Bird Festival in Rockport has become an annual event for hundreds of hummer-lovers.

%5bA9%5d%20Hawk%20Watch%20Platform%2c%20Corpus%20Christi%2c%20BW%2009-08%20(11).jpg

Hawk Watch Platform, Corpus Christi, by Betty Wauer

Fall hawk counts, especially the one at Hazel Basemore County Park west of Corpus Christi, offers a marvelous example of large numbers of southbound raptors. Single-day numbers recorded in late September can include up to 100,000 hawks in continuous flights of over 40 miles long. Although 95 percent of these are broad-winged hawks, moderate numbers of Swainson’s, red-tailed, Cooper’s and sharp-shinned hawks; Mississippi kites, American kestrels, and peregrine falcons can be expected. Smaller populations of ferruginous, Harris’s, red-shouldered, and zone-tailed hawks, bald and golden