Birds of southeast Texas in photos

I really like the strange critters down here, especially these great blue heron. They look and sound like pre-historic creatures. You can imagine them flying around with the dinosaurs. Lately I haven’t been seeing as many. I thought maybe they might go south for the winter but all accounts on line peg them as year round here. Maybe it’s just the upper class ones that spend winter south of the boarder? This guy’s pretty young still, maybe he’s just being a normal teenager and slacking off?

Fall’s coming the temperature has been at or below 90′ all week. The hummingbirds have mostly headed south. I’m still seeing lots of monarch butterflies. Oct 18th is usually peak migration for the Houston area The Monarch Migration Website says this year’s peak in Houston will be the 13th.

I think this is a female Southern Dogface butterfly. She’s been making good use of the hummingbird feeder all week.