[texbirds] Re: King(bird) Assassinates Monarch
- From: Joseph Kennedy <josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Joe Kestner <jkestner@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 19:08:46 -0500
If I remember some of a program about the butterflies, there are 2? strains
of the bugs, one which does not retain as much alkaloid or none? than the
other. Milkweeds also concentrate it in greater doses at different points
of the plants life cycle. Maybe some types of milkweed to not have much or
any?
Sort of like caterpillars specializing oak and pecan early in the season
before tannins concentrate in the leaves. Or acorns that have very
different amounts of tannins and are more attractive to squirrel people.
Viceroy butterflies mimic the monarchs and taste fine.
Some birds specialize in monarchs including black-headed grosbeak and ????
During heavy bug migration time at the Smith Point hawk watch I have seen
monarchs grabbed. A couple were dropped but others eaten. Most smaller
birds would have to do some banging to get rid of wings and thus tasting
and an alkaloid filled butterfly would be dropped. You see a lot that had
birds grab wings and leave the triangle shaped hole which probably had
nothing to do with taste just bad aim. Somebody ate a lot of them in one of
the mottes there based on the severed wings under a roost tree
A monarch in south texas could be a returning wintering bird rather than a
new generation bug going north. The butterflies taste better with time
and may have excreted the tannin so that there is no bad taste now.
On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 6:09 PM, Judy Kestner <jkestner@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Yesterday at Hazel Bazemore County Park in Nueces County, I observed a
> Couch's Kingbird eating a monarch butterfly. There goes that theory about
> monarchs!
>
> In just over an hour I had 35 species -- nice look at the Green Kingfisher
> on the pond (he was not assassinating anyone, just killing time, it
> appeared), one lone Roseate Spoonbill taking a leisurely bath -- those
> feathers flashing pink, orange and blood-red (to keep the murderous theme
> going) -- oodles of Blue-wing Teal and a Northern Harrier floating over the
> killing fields.
>
> Judy Kestner
> Corpus Christi
>
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--
Joseph C. Kennedy
on Buffalo Bayou in West Houston
Josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx
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