Veracruz: Here There Be Dragons

Pico de Orizaba- the view from my hotel window

Saludos de Mexico. I'm in the city of Xalapa in Veracruz. I'm working with the US Forest Service, the Xerces Society and Pronatura to try to figure out how we can include dragonflies in the USFS international migration program. We are visiting a bunch of sites, collecting data and identifying species. The Pronatura folks would also like some butterfly identification for a site that they own, so I'm helping with that as well.

Big-spiked Gemmed Satyr (Cyllopsis pephredo)

Anna's Eighty Eight (Diaethera anna)

I'm staying in the city of Xalapa, and working with my colleagues Elisa who lives in Xalapa and works for Pronatura and Celeste, who lives in Portland and works for the Xerces Society. The afternoon that we arrived, Celeste and I visited the Museo de Anthropologia, then went for a walk in a preserved woodland remnant right in Xalapa. We got some nice butterfly photos.

Welcoming committee at the dune refuge

Large Dune Complex

On Monday we went to a preserve right on the coast. It's a complex of dunes and coastal wetands. Xalapa is famous for its raptor migrations, and we worked out of a Pronatura raptor banding blind. We got to watch some of the ornithologists at work.

Banding a Sharp-shinned Hawk

We've gotten to see lots of cool species of dragonflies, but have yet to encounter migratory swarms. With luck, we'll see some of that before the week is out. Meanwhile, both the dragonfly and butterfly species diversity have been outstanding.

Roseate Skimmer (Orthemis ferruginea)

Malachite (Siproeta stelenes)

Dusted Spurwing (Antigonus erosus)