Is it practical to try to identify butterflies and birds on the same outing? Some folks claim that they can do it simply by looking for birds in the early morns and eves and hunting butterflies at mid-day. Others find studying both to be confusing. Richard Lindstrom finally gave up on the twin efforts and seeks only butterflies. In the field of late, his buddies Richard Youel and I couldn’t even get him to look up if an eagle was flying by. Indeed, he would try to shame us by insisting we were shirking and violating WABA rules if we even mentioned a bird. (He seems to be shirking himself now that he is engaged to a crack birder AND butterflier.)

Earlier this Spring in Mexico, I slipped back too. I was visiting friends in Guanajuato and Jalisco who both have homes with super gardens. Each garden attracted many colorful butterflies and birds, and I enjoyed them all for hours each day. True to form, the birds came early and late and the butterflies flew mostly during mid-day hours.

Since I’m hired in these columns to confess to lepidoptera-type transgressions, I have to admit that I had much more success identifying the birds (56 species) than the butterflies (3: Two tailed Swallowtail, Mourning Cloak and Garamus or Avocado Swallowtail.) WABAers who have visited Mexico will quickly guess the reason for the discrepancy: Field guides! There are several fine bird guides for Mexico but only very limited butterfly guides. Richard Lindstrom has led a number of us butterfliers to coastal Mismaloya and has jury-rigged butterfly guides for us by combining data from a number of different butterfly guides. But I was up at much higher altitudes than the Mismaloya seacoast and though I had some Lindstrom data with me, they didn’t help much.

Like most of us, though, I don’t measure the fun of our hobby only by the number of species identified. The beautiful, mysterious, mountain butterflies fascinated me for hours and hours, even though I couldn’t name them.

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