More Belize Butterflies!

Still have more unpublished photos from the trip to Belize. 16 more species of butterflies.

First the metalmarks a very hard group of butterflies.

White-banded Metalmark, Hypophylla sudias Male, the female has the white band. This little metalmark would fly around flashing that brilliant blue and land under leaves to hide. This photo was taken from the ground up with flash to fill in the colors.
Saw just this one at Rio on Pools.

Above and below
Barnes Metalmark, Detritivora barnesi also called the Cloaked Scintillant depending on where you find the common name. We saw lots of these they liked sunny spots in the forest and would land in the sun after chasing each other.

Fire-banded metalmark, Panaropsis elegans
Saw just this one at Rio on Pools.

Red-bordered Pixie, Melanis pixe

I;ve seen these gems in Southern Texas, well worth the search for them.

Found this near Blue Hole in an orange grove next to a river,

One of the whites we saw

 

Common Melwhite, Melete lycimnia isandra

We found a weedy yard full of these on these flowers.

Above and below

Gaudy Checkerspot, Chlosyne g. gaudialis
There were 3 of these all fresh like this one. In the orange grove near Blue Hole.

 Guatemalan Crescent, Tegosa guatemalena

We saw lots of these orange beauties.

 

Flag Skipper, Moeris striga stroma

Saw two of these little beauties!

Turk's-cap White Skipper, Heliopetes macaira
They have these in Texas.

Least Heliconian, Euiedes aliphera
Also called Juliette, the larger ones in the USA are called Julias. 

Veined White-Skipper, Heliopetes arsalte

Tiger Heliconian, Heliconius ismenius

These gave us quite the show!

Queen, Danaus gilippus

These are common in the southern US 

Above and below
Guatemalan Catone, Catonephele mexicana, 

Above and below
Smooth-banded Sister, Adelpha cytherea
One of my favorite group of butterflies!

And the last one.

Pale-tipped Flasher, Astraptes phalaecus also called Yellow-edged Flasher. The field guide and sites on the internet do not have a live photo, only pinned specimen photos.

Hairstreak Butterflies from Belize

Folks,

Getting to the really hard butterflies! These are hairstreak butterflies and there is so many to choose from in Central America. Note none of these butterflies are as big as a nickle.

I'll start first with a hairstreak that is considered rare by the books I have. No place we looked had  an actual live photo of it, just pinned specimens. This is one reason we do this!

The Ambrax Hairstreak, Strephonota ambrax In flight it displays a brilliant blue. We found it
next to the Xunantunich Mayan ruins in Belize!
 

Here is a tiny confusing Butler's Midistreak  also called the Crolinus Hairstreak good thing the scientific name is the same Tmolus crolinus  It was found along the trail at Cockscomb Jaguar Preserve in Belize. The flower reminds me of Heal all. Below is a photo of what it looks like from above, the photo indicated it is a female.

The Pale Ministreak, Ministrymon una these are considered rare too.  I found this little butterfly near the Belize Airport just before we had the depart Belize....

Here is another one with several common names. Some call it the Togarna Hairstreak and others call it the Chiapas Stripestreak, the scientific name is  Arawacus togarna. Roger showed me a killer photo of this and said I missed three of them. Later I took a walk further into Cockscomb Jaguar Preserve and found three of my own in three levels of wear, this was the freshest one I saw.

Here is another rare hairstreak, the field guide had only a pinned specimen photo! The Heraldica Hairstreak, Nicolaea heraldica

That is all the photos of the hairstreaks I saw. Roger got two more a Oppia Hairstreak, Thereus oppia and the Red-spotted Hairstreak, Tmolus echion echiolus below.

We suspected seeing the Dusky-blue Groundstreak several times but never got a good look at it, I have seen this in southern Texas many times.

Above is an Ceraunus Blue, Hemiargus ceraunus which is common in Florida and we saw it lots of places in Belize. The most common blue we saw in Belize was the Eastern-tailed Blue which is plentiful in my North Carolina backyard during the summer.

A tiny note from our garden. It looks like we have 2 yellow crocus ready to bloom, I'll check in the morning.

Satyr Butterflies from Belize

Folks,
Butterflying in a new part of the world has its challenges. My camera and lens both were not the best companions. The 20D camera is getting old and fussy. My 180mm macro lens needs repair, it now close focuses to 24inches not the 10 inches it used to do, a real bummer when shooting butterflies.

Here is a start of the butterflies we saw the satyr family. In all we had 8 species of satyrs in Belize! The most common butterfly seen one was our Carolina Satyr seen right here in our NC backyard, we see 6 species in our backyard so seeing 8 species in Belize at an off time of year is still pretty good.

White Satyr, Pareuptychia ocirrhoe saw this at three locations. When it flies you see mostly white.

This Westwood's Satyr, Euptychia westwoodi looks a lot like the White Satyr with subtitle differences. I only saw one of these and it was gone before Roger caught up to me. I also saw and photographed a Confused Satyr, the photo of it taking off allowed an ID, but not worth posting here.

This White-banded Satyr, Pareuptychia ocirrhoe was the only one of these we saw.

This Blue-gray Satyr, Magneuptychia libye was not in our book "Butterflies of Mexico and Central America" I got the ID from www.mariposasmexicanas.com This was the only one seen and it would not come out from under a palm bush for a better photo.

Above and below is the Plain Satyr, Cissia pompilia we saw it many places.

Carolina Satyr, Hermeuptychia sosybius the most common butterfly seen in Belize. Some websites gave this one a different name altogether. We see this butterfly in my backyard and is the only satyr of this type that nectars flowers, we saw it on many flowers as well in Belize.

Above and below the Moon Satyr, Pierella luna this was huge for a satyr at about 2 1/2 inches tall, the others shown above are mostly around an inch or less. These photos were taken from about 6 foot away and it left town before I could get close. It was my big mystery butterfly and the angle I took in these photos do not show the unusual shape very well.

OK, you suffered through the satyrs we saw. I just enjoy this family mainly because they bounce as they fly and they are out in the shady forest even on days when it is not sunny.

Below is not a satyr

Little Banner, Nica flavilla we found it along the trail at Blue Hole. Took lots of photos and we wanted to see it fly. Roger touched it with his finger and it just moved away, tried over and over and it just still moved away. We left it on the leaf, never ever had a butterfly do that.

Hawks and Flycatchers from Belize!!

 

This hawk stumped us and after many hours I came to the conclusion it is a juvenile Common Black Hawk, Buteogallus anthracinus. It was huge, at first we thought it was the rare Solitary Eagle. I took many photos as it was very cooperative, much more than the dim morning light was.

This guy I almost got in trouble with Roger as I used wordsI should not have said in getting him to stop the car in time. This White Hawk, Leucopternis albicollis landed next to the car and I got a few photos out the window before it flew off. I would have loved to see it soaring, maybe the next trip.

We saw this guy soaring like our Northern Harrior and found out it was a Snail Kite, Rostrhamus sociabilis! Really enjoyed watching it fly but it was too far away to get a decent in flight photo.

Some birds are easier to ID, like this Vermilion Flycatcher, Pyrocephalus rubinus I have seen this one in the US in Texas where it is common and in North Carolina where it shows up every 5 years or so.

This  Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Tyrannus savana was an easy ID too. Never seen such cool tails on a bird before!

 

Not sure if this is an Tropical Kingbird, Tyrannus melancholicus or the Couch's Kingbird, Tyrannus couchii. They both look alike and the only way to tell them apart is by the calls. We saw lots of these and never heard any calls, nor did we know the calls anyway.

The garden here is still covered in snow and it is raining now. maybe we'll get the peas planted soon. Last year the peas were coming up by now!

Stay tuned for some butterflies from Belize in the future.

Birds from the Belize trip

Everyone,
I'm thinking of making a "nature only" blog, worked on it yesterday rlephoto.worldpress.com but when it came to custom designing the layout worldpress wants you to pay $15 a year.... So guess I'll stick to blogger any thoughts??

Anyway Belize was very nice, we found just over 100 bird species and for me 55 new species! My favorite place we stayed was Clarissa Falls , Chena the owner took us birding and her brother took us out at night to see Northern Potoos in the pasture on the fences. If you want to experience Belize Clarissa Falls Resort is the place to visit.

Northern Potoo, Nyctibius jamaicensis they perch on posts and dead trees to camouflage themselves. We found this one from a 1/4 mile away with a strong flashlight, the eyes can be seen easily with the flashlight. We drove up and approached this guy from 4-5 foot away and he stayed on the post the entire time.

The White-necked Puffbird, Notharchus hyperrhynchus was the first bird I photographed in Belize.

Not my best photo, yet a beautiful bird. This is an  Violaceous Trogon, Trogon violaceus. 

I didn't get the photos I wanted of the Northern Jaçana, Jacana spinosa. When they get ready to fly they lift the wings up and you get delighted with pale yellow undersides of the wings.

This is an Collared Aracari, Pteroglossus torquatus, it is a tucan. They feed on palm berries next to the bathroom at Clarrissa Falls. We saw the Keel-billed Toucan eating the same berries as well.

The Brown Jay, Cyanocorax morio was the first new bird we IDed in Belize. At 16 inches it is a huge and noisy Jay. The last evening I was in Belize a small flock of them flew in out in the open along the road I was walking on and allowed me several photos.

We saw lots of new kingfishers like this Ringed Kingfisher, Megaceryle torquata. I think I have seen this one from a distance in southern Texas years ago.

The Gray-necked Wood-Rail, Aramides cajanea was the last new bird I saw in Belize. Good thing I'm tall was the pond it was in was blocked with bushes and I barely got a clear photo of it.

A small flock of Groove-billed Ani, Crotophaga sulcirostris entertained the heck out of me while walking a small road the last evening we were there. They chased and mocked each other to no end, to my delight.

I still have 3 hawk species to post so do stay tuned! Once I get the butterfly IDs right there will be a lot of them too.