Six Metalmarks and no Fatal, 10/25/14

This morning I was getting ready to run over to Resaca de la Palma State Park in Cameron County to meet Jim Burns from Phoenix to look for darners to photograph.  Just as I was getting ready to get in the car I stepped out in the alley and looked up.  There above me in a hackberry was the first Red-bordered Metalmark I've seen in our yard yard, species #89.

I made the trip over to Resaca and could see it was going to be a good butterfly day.  A bit later Jim arrived and we walked the Ebony Trail looking for hard to find dragonflies.  Some good stuff has been seen on this trail but not much lately.  We failed to find any darners but I got Jim on his first Boisduval's Yellow.  I can tell he's going to drink the Kool-Aid and seriously add butterflies to his photography subjects some day.

At the end of the boardwalk I though the habitat looked good for Rainpool Spreadwing, a damsel fly Jim wanted to photograph.  And sure enough I found some spreadwings, but they weren't Rainpools.  They were the very rare Blue-striped Spreadwing, a very pretty damselfly species I've never seen before and a first record for Cameron County.

At this point I figured I was riding a lucky streak and Jim was happy so we headed back to the butterfly garden to see what had come out after the morning had warmed some.  One of the first butterflies we saw upon entering the garden was the long-staying Two-barred Flasher who's getting a bit worn.

I soon found a Rounded Metalmark which isn't that great but was metalmark #2 for the day.

And shortly thereafter Dick Wilson arrived and quickly found us some knockout Blue Metalmarks.  This was enough to get Jim taking photos and forget about dragonflies for a while.  Metalmark #3.

And then Dick shout's out "Erichson's White-Skipper".  I didn't get a great photo but it was my first for Cameron County.

Meanwhile a Guava Skipper was putting on quite a show.

Somewhere during the morning, visiting butterfly watchers Ken Wilson and Ray Brunn, had joined the fun.  It didn't take long before I found a Walker's Metalmark (metalmark # 4) and everyone enjoyed taking photos.  Dick soon found  us a perfect one.

Then Sherry Wilson found us a very nice Curve-winged Metalmark, only the third I've ever seen and metalmark # 5 for the day.

I did a little more searching and dug up my sixth metalmark of the day, a not too rare Red-bordered Metalmark.  It's a shame I couldn't find a Fatal Metalmark for # 7.  But I'm not complaining!

At this point Jim had left to search for dragonflies at Santa Ana and Ken and Ray were talking about Xami Hairstreaks.  So we drove over to the Smiley Face on FM 4 where Bill Supulski and the gang (Dottie, John and Audrey) had found Xamis yesterday.  It didn't take long to find two of them.

The other area specialties, Pale-rayed Skipper and Saltbush Sootywing, failed to show up.  Here's the Resaca de La Palma list.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 20
• Lyside Sulphur 10
• Little Yellow 3
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 3
• Western Pygmy-Blue 25
• Ceraunus Blue 5
• Rounded Metalmark 1
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• Blue Metalmark 6
• Curve-winged Metalmark 1
• Walker's Metalmark 2
• American Snout 5
• Gulf Fritillary 4
• Zebra Heliconian 3
• Bordered Patch 3
• Elada Crescent 8
• Phaon Crescent 6
• Pearl Crescent 1
• Painted Lady 1
• Red Admiral 1
• Common Buckeye 1
• White Peacock 5
• Mexican Bluewing 5
• Queen 30
• Guava Skipper 2
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 2
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 4
• Two-barred Flasher 1
• Mimosa Skipper 3
• Sickle-winged Skipper 20
• White Checkered-Skipper 3
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 6
• Erichson's White-Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 15
• Fiery Skipper 10
• Southern Broken-Dash 12
• Sachem 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 5
• Ocola Skipper 1