A few migrants

Kelly came down with a bander friend, Brainard Palmer-Ball. Brainard located a roosting Elf Owl down the arroyo below the oasis. I went down to photograph it, but my pictures didn't turn out as good as Brainard's (no surprise there), so he generously said I could post his photo. I don't recall seeing an Elf Owl here in September before, so it was a real treat.

photo by Brainard Palmer-Ball

Elf Owls are about the size of a sparrow, the world's tiniest owl.  I just love them. Can't imagine living anywhere that I couldn't enjoy them in the summertime.

Yesterday in the park with Brian Banker, I photographed the "trap door" of a Chisos Giant-Skipper larva. Unfortunately, I couldn't get far enough away, due to bushes and brush, with my telephoto to get a sharp photo, and didn't have another lens with me. The "nest" is down inside an agave plant, embedded in one of the agave's thick leaves.

Hint: It's the round white-rimmed hole in the center of the photo. It's covered over with some kind of material the larva produce. The center of the door is orange-ish. When the new adult leaves the cavity, all that remains is a round hole clear through the leaf. Giant-Skippers are fascinating butterflies. Once the larva emerge as a butterfly, it doesn't eat, though it does drink, and isn't long-lived. Very seldom seen. I've never seen any Giant-Skipper, and especially not a Chisos, since it's known only from the Chisos Mountains. So even though I've never seen one, or the actual larva, I have seen their "trap door," as Brian calls it. Better than nothing.