Blacklight 5/21/09

 

 

Pretty sure the top one is in the tribe Sparganothini, maybe genus Sparganothis. Bottom one I'm ID'ing fairly confidently as Tufted Apple Bud Moth.

Blacklight 6/3/09 - fruit fly

 

This little fly, about 5 mm I think, is genus Trupanea, based on some similar images at Bugguide.

Blacklight 6/3/09

 

A micromoth, genus Diploschizia.

Apartment complex 4/29/09

This Purple Gallinule has been at my complex since Sunday, hanging around the pool area. Here it's posing on some ornamental shrubbery.

Porch light 4/9/09 & 4/11/09

Two beetles: a ptilodactylid (4/9) and Caryobruchus gleditsaei (4/11)

Neighborhood 4/8/09

I went for a walk during lunch today. (Photo: Common/White Checkered-Skipper by the sidewalk on Fountain View.) In one yard, I saw a female Hooded Warbler and a singing Ruby-crowned Kinglet and heard a singing House Finch. In another, a female Northern Parula, a White-eyed Vireo, and a female Common Yellowthroat were present.

Neighborhood 4/6 and 4/7/09

Some insects on Philadelphia Fleabane. (Top: a dark true bug of the plant bug family, or Miridae, about 1/4 inch. Middle: two contrasting Dermestid beetles, about 1/8 inch each. Bottom: Zethus Spinipes, about 3/4 inch.)

Yesterday and today, around noon, I took a walk and checked a few nearby yards for migrant songbirds. Yesterday, nothing except Yellow-rumpeds and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Today, I found a female Hooded Warbler, a Nashville Warbler, and an Orange-Crowned that was in very bright plumage for that species. A few Yellow-rumped Warblers were in breeding plumage, and one was singing.

Neighborhood 4/3/09

I went out during lunch today and found a Hooded Warbler male, Northern Parula, Black and White Warbler, and Blue-headed Vireo flitting in some trees nearby.

Porch light 3/29/09

Pearly underwing.

Willow Waterhole bayou 3/28/09

Top photo: Diachus sp. leaf beetle (< 3 mm) on Philadelphia Fleabane. Middle photo: Eastern Amberwing. Bottom photo: Eufala Skipper butterfly egg on a blade of St. Augustine grass.

A Common Yellowthroat male and House Wren were just east of the GP property, and a Cooper's Hawk was near the northwest corner.

El Franco Lee Park 3/28/09

Little Wood-Satyr on the ground, about halfway down Nature Trail Two. Also, a Louisiana Waterthrush and male Common Yellowthroat were near the end of Trail One.

Katy Prairie Conservancy Field Office property, 3/20/09

Yellow wood-sorrel.

Barker Reservoir 3/19/09

Great Crested Flycatcher, just north of Noble Rd. and south of the second lake west of Hwy. 6.

Austin 3/17/09

Top: Mournful thyris on Mexican plum at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (LBJWC). An eight-spotted forester was in the same tree. Middle: Pasimachus sp. ground beetle at LBJWC, along the woods/meadow trails behind the buildings. Note purple elytral margins. Bottom: Ruby-crowned Kinglet at Hornsby Bend, behind the blind, around 7 p.m. This bird sat still for two minutes or so, not preening but just looking around.

Neighborhood 3/25/09

Profuse Philadelphia fleabane and a few dandelion, lyre-leaf sage, violet wood-sorrel, and showy evening-primrose along my street, plus some dermestid beetles on flowers. The shrubs are sporting a few long-legged flies, some orange and some green.

Willow Waterhole bayou 3/19/09

A red bull assassin, on the south side of the bayou near the northeast corner of the GP property.

On or near the rocks in the bayou itself: pairs of powdered, blue-ringed, and kiowa dancers; a pair of orange bluets; a single Rambur's forktail and American rubyspot; and male and female common whitetails. 20-plus dusky-blue groundstreaks along the path south of the bayou.

At home

A Downy Woodpecker was drumming on a nearby utility pole around noon today and yesterday.

Russ Pitman Park 3/16/09

Top: Pachygronthid bug. Middle: Delphinia picta (wingspan ~10 mm). Bottom: Eastern Gray Squirrel in Screech Owl nest-box in the front yard.