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Off-topic (cardinals and a butterfly in Texas)

From:

Bob Hartman

Reply-To:

Bob Hartman

Date:

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 22:05:37 -0400

Risking Norm's wrath (or at least irritation), I have a couple of 
questions that arose during a recent visit to Dallas:

1. In my daughter's neighborhood there, I saw and heard cardinals 
singing a song that was very different from those I have heard around 
here - a long slow trill, very musical, descending slightly in pitch. 
Some cardinals (not necessarily the same ones) were also singing songs 
very similar to those I hear in MD.  Is the long trill familiar to any 
of you?  Are the cardinals (or some of them) there a different 
subspecies than we have in MD?  (I discovered that there are up to 18 
subspecies of Northern Cardinal from Alaska to Central America, but 
couldn't determine the distribution of the subspecies in central- 
to-eastern US.)

2. My daughter and I saw a butterfly that I haven't been able to ID.  It 
seems to be a leafwing, but doesn't quite match any of the pictures in 
the 3 books I have easily available (Peterson, Audubon, Kaufman).  It 
was almost solid orange, like the male Goatweed Leafwing, but it had two 
black dashes, parallel to the body, in the forewings (like the female, 
but that is a different color).  None of my pictures of the male show 
those marks.  The male Tropical Leafwing has such marks, but there is 
patterning in its orange wings (not present in the butterfly we saw), 
and it shouldn't be in Dallas.  The Florida Leafwing has somewhat 
differently shaped marks, and it also shouldn't be in Dallas.  Any 
suggestions?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Sorry, Norm - couldn't think of an easier way to get answers.

	Bob Hartman
	Colesville/Silver Spring