The butterflies here have been amazing lately. This male metalmark was in beautiful shape!

Blue Metalmark (male)

female Blue Metalmark

Snowy Plover

Northern Waterthrush

It is nice to be back at Laguna Atascosa for the winter. Chris and I will be here through the end of February. There is a nice bobcat hanging around in the garden here, and I happened across him a couple of nights ago.

website!

Chris and I have just launched an actual website. Please visit us at www.nightflightimages.com. There are several different galleries to look at, and we have links to the blogs and other info. Thanks for your interest!

It has been quite a while since our last post. We have been on the road quite a bit, from TX to Philadelphia to Whitefish Point. We then took a quick jaunt to the Festival of Owls in Houston, MN to give a presentation. Finally we have settled in at the Point. The spring owl banding has begun here, and we are updating that blog every couple of days (http://www.wpboowls.blogspot.com/). We will try to stay on top of this one too!

Meadowlark

South Padre Island from Bayside Loop at Laguna Atascosa

Shorebirds on Horse Island at Laguna Atascosa

Spoonbill on Bayside Loop

After missing the opportunity to do so last year, I was thrilled to be able to make it down to Texas and join Nova in her second season of working as the Ocelot field tech at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. Living on the refuge and having the garden surrounding the visitor center as our backyard was an amazing experience. Now it's off to the shock of returning to winter at Whitefish Point Bird Observatory on Michigan's upper peninsula. Knowing that it should be a good spring for Boreal , Great Gray, Snowy, and Northern Hawk Owls takes a bit of the sting out of leaving the Lower Rio Grande Valley, but not all of it. We love Whitefish Point and are very anxious to see what this spring's owl banding season will produce.

Hermit Warbler

Hermit Warbler

Hermit Warbler and more

Hermit Warbler

Bobcat at Laguna entrance
Hummer- Black-chinned or Ruby-Throated?

Harris' Hawk
tornado of Red-winged Blackbirds

more Red-winged blackbirds

White-tailed hawk

Aplomado Falcon

female Blue Bunting eating seed heads

male Blue Bunting

Couch's Kingbird

Gray Hairstreak

White-tailed Kites
Orange-crowned Warbler

Blue Bunting

Blue Bunting

Northern Parula

Wilson's Warbler

American Kestrel with snake

Here are a few of the latest photos I've managed to get together. We caught another ocelot last week, which was our first since before the holidays. The ocelot conservation festival is February 14th, if anyone is interested!

Roadrunner

Scissor-tailed FlycatcherWhite-angled Sulphur (at Laguna Atascosa in the garden)

Band-celled Sister (at Resaca de la Palma SP)

Aplomado Falcon

I've been having a great time in southern Texas with Nova. The garden surrounding the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge visitor center is in our back yard. We've been getting great looks at Tropical Parula and a female Blue Bunting the last few days. Temperature in the 80's today and lots of birds......January's not so bad down here.

White-tailed Kite

White-tailed Hawks

White-tailed Hawk

Tropical Parula

Osprey with fish

Merlin

Loggerhead Shrike

Harris' Hawk

Blue Metalmark

Aplomado Falcon

Aplomado Falcon

blue bunting and others

Nice White-tailed Kite on Bayside Loop at Laguna.

Pied-billed Grebe

Blue Bunting at Laguna Atascsosa NWR-possibly a first for Cameron County! It was hanging out near the visitor center.

Yojoa scrub-hairstreak found at NABA last weekend.

Dusky-blue Groundstreak

Just so we have it in writing...

all of these photos are copyrighted by myself and Chris. If you would like to take one off the blog, please ask us first (you can email novamackentley@gmail.com) We also have certain photos available for purchase if you are interested.

Thanks,

Nova & Chris