Our Yard, 12/23/14

I pretty much stayed around the house today and checked the yard frequently as a windy cold front blew in. This kind of weather often seems to move butterflies around so I was hoping for something unusual for the yard.  We didn't get anything super rare but this Mexican Yellow was a first for our yard; butterfly # 92.

This Orange-barred Sulphur was the second for our yard.

Sulphurs are often attracted to red or blue tubular flowers.  Here's a Large Orange Sulphur on Turk's Cap.

Also a second for our yard was this Red-bordered Pixie.  It's not unusual for them to hide on the underside of a leaf.

For some reason, we don't get too many Gulf Fritillaries in our yard.  This one was very photogenic.

Fawn-spotted Skipper is a RGV specialty.  Shady places like our back yard are a good place to find one.

Here's the list of 29 species seen in our yard today.

• Cloudless Sulphur 1
• Orange-barred Sulphur 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 1
• Mexican Yellow 1
• Little Yellow 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Cassius Blue 2
• Red-bordered Pixie 1
• American Snout 2
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 1
• Elada Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Red Admiral 1
• White Peacock 1
• Monarch 1
• Queen 9
• Brown Longtail 2
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 10
• Laviana White-Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 2
• Fiery Skipper 2
• Whirlabout 1
• Southern Broken-Dash 1
• Eufala Skipper 1