The birdwalk was led by Laura Reynolds. She has a freakish ability to hear birds and identify them by sound. I have learned so much from her.

Pam Ball, the Executive Director of Headwaters at Incarnate Word, accompanied us on the birdwalk and told us about the projects in the Sanctuary as we passed them.

This is the first bird I got a picture of today. It is a great egret that was on a concrete wall near the Olmos Dam.

The Sanctuary trails were sunny and cool today.

This titmouse is the only other bird I got a picture of. A hawk was totally uncooperative, and I only got the tail of a phoebe.

I wish this shot of a variegated fritillary was darker so you could really see the orange. They are beautiful butterflies and are usually willing to pose with their wings open like this.

This is a very pretty sachem.

The gulf fritillary will also pose with open wings. They are a beautiful vibrant orange.

Chile pequins grow wild all over the sanctuary. This particular plant lives in the Circle of the Springs.

This southern dogface butterfly was hiding his face. I went ahead and posted because this is the best coloration I have ever caught in one of my shots. You have to catch them in flight to see their wings open.

This is a phaon crescent butterfly.

This is a really cool yellow-margined flower buprestid. The head is on the right. You can see the yellow on the sides.

This is a gray hairstreak. I have never seen one with its wings open...

...until today! How is that for a serendipitous shot?

This is a mallow scrub-hairstreak

Yellow-shouldered drone fly

This is a bee fly (Poecilanthrax lucifer)

another variegated fritillary

common checkered-skipper

American beauty berry

Sleepy orange

male southern dogface

Southern dogface

female southern dogface

Monarch on the left... Queen on the right...

Monarch

American snout

Okay... I apologize for the low quality of the next few photos of a titan sphynx moth. This guy fought me like crazy. Instead of just going peacefully from blossom to blossom like a honeybee, he would break the sound barrier to go six feet away. I have several hundred shots of esperanza blossoms with no moth in sight. These were the only ones I got that he is actually in!

This is a juvenile Texas spiny lizard. He was resting on the backrest of one of the benches.