Broken Silverdrop at the National Butterfly Center, 6/30/15

A few days ago Dottie Lamolinara found a rare Broken Silverdrop in her yard.  As is often the case when a rare butterfly appears, a second was found by Mike Rickard yesterday at the National Butterfly Center.  As it was found in a blooming Tenaza tree I hope it might hang around.  So despite a line of showers approaching I headed over to the NBC and luckily found the Epargyreus exadeus after about an hour in the same tree.  I got a few photos and then it was gone.

I saw a couple of Long-tailed Skippers but I could not find anything about them to make them not proteus. Seems like no two are alike.

No doubt about this White-striped Longail.  

Mexican Fritillary used to be an almost daily butterfly but not anymore.  This sorry specimen was my first for the year.

But there's no shortage of Gulf Frits.

Julia's Skipper is usually outnumbered by the somewhat similar Eufala Skipper.  Notice the lack of a big eyebrow.  They can vary in color from tan to brassy to pale orange,

We are reaching the point in the year when the Reakirt's Blues seem to magically be replaced by Ceraunus Blues at the NBC.

Clytie Ministreaks are showing up too.

48 species today in 3.5 hours

• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Great Southern White 6
• Large Orange Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 1
• Little Yellow 3
• Mimosa Yellow 2
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 15
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Red-banded Hairstreak 8
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Ceraunus Blue 1
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• Red-bordered Pixie 1
• American Snout 3
• Gulf Fritillary 5
• Zebra Heliconian 2
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 25
• Texan Crescent 1
• Pale-banded Crescent 2
• Phaon Crescent 6
• Pearl Crescent 8
• White Peacock 1
• Banded Peacock 4
• Hackberry Emperor 50
• Carolina Satyr 1
• Monarch 1
• Queen 80
• Soldier 5
• Broken Silverdrop 1
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 2
• Brown Longtail 20
• Two-barred Flasher 2
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 2
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper20
• Laviana White-Skipper 10
• Common Sootywing 4
• Julia's Skipper 2
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 3
• Clouded Skipper 20
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Southern Broken-Dash 5
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 2

Our Yard, 6/27/15

We got up late this morning and decided to stay home today.   So I was doing some yardwork when a nice looking Banded Peacock flew by.  I dropped the pruners and ran into the house for the camera but I was too late.  I kept an eye on the yard throughout the day hoping it would return, but now such luck.  Anyway it was yard butterfly #96.

I did get lucky when a Large Orange Sulphur I was watching landed in our Golden Rain Tree and I happened to have the camera.  The luck was that it actually was an Orange-barred Sulphur.  It took me a while to notice the orange bar.

Another yellow that I don't see too often in our yard is Mimosa Yellow.

I see Little Yellows almost every day.

A couple of small skippers hanging out in the shade proved to be Celia's Roadside-Skipper.

Guava Skipper is becoming an almost daily occurrence in our yard.  This one was under a heliconia leaf.

So we had 26 species in the yard today which is the most I've seen in a while.

• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Great Southern White 2
• Cloudless Sulphur 1
• Orange-barred Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 1
• Little Yellow 3
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 3
• Cassius Blue 1
• Bordered Patch 15
• Elada Crescent 1
• Texan Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Pearl Crescent 2
• Banded Peacock 1
• Guava Skipper 1
• Brown Longtail 2
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 8
• Clouded Skipper 2
• Whirlabout 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 1

Santa Ana NWR, 6/25/15

We've had some rain since my last post and the sun was out today so I made a trip over to Santa Ana NWR and saw some interesting stuff.  Best was a Rim Rim that zoomed past me and only allowed a glimpse through the camera.  It's the first I've seen at Santa Ana since the flood of 2010.  But this is the first wet year we've had since then so maybe we'll get more of them.

I saw both a male and a female Silver Emperor and the female oviposited on a Granjeno right in front of me. So it looks like more will be on the way.

Malachites are starting to pop up everywhere.

I saw four Banded Peacocks, some of them patrolling a section of the tour road.

A damp spot held four Cassius Blues.

After not seeing any Clytie Ministreaks for months, I saw several today.

A fresh Common Mestra.

Finally a fresh male Mexican Bluewing after seeing plenty of beat up females lately.

• Giant Swallowtail 3
• Great Southern White 5
• Giant White 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 3
• Lyside Sulphur 15
• Little Yellow 2
• Mimosa Yellow 5
• Gray Hairstreak 2
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 3
• Clytie Ministreak 4
• Cassius Blue 4
• Rounded Metalmark 1
• American Snout 10
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Zebra Heliconian 2
• Bordered Patch 25
• Texan Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 8
• Pearl Crescent 5
• Question Mark 1
• White Peacock 5
• Banded Peacock 4
• Malachite 2
• Mexican Bluewing 2
• Common Mestra 6
• Red Rim 1
• Tawny Emperor 1
• Silver Emperor 2
• Carolina Satyr 5
• Queen 1
• Brown Longtail 1
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 8
• White Checkered-Skipper 3
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper25
• Laviana White-Skipper 15
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 5
• Clouded Skipper 5
• Southern Broken-Dash 2
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 2

National Butterfly Center, 6/15/15

The number of butterflies around has really taken a nosedive with all the recent heat and lack of rain.   Accordingly numbers were way down at the National Butterfly Center today, but that didn't mean stuff wasn't happening. Three brand new fresh Malachites were a welcome sight.

Seemingly overnight a bunch of new Crimson Patches had also emerged.  The few beat up lingering ones seemed to have finally given up.

A Desert Checkered-Skipper in the new gardens up front was my first at the park this year.

A Two-barred Flasher has been hanging out in the shady ditch lately.

This Gray Cracker looks much like the one that was hanging out a couple of hundred yards further north with the emperors last week.  It was down in the south gardens today.

Three Brown-banded Skippers were guarding the Barbados Cherries.  Maybe we'll have some more in a few weeks.

You can't tell it, but this was the smallest Zebra Heliconian I've ever seen.  The wingspan was barely two inches.

• Black Swallowtail 5
• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Ruby-spotted Swallowtail 1
• Great Southern White 8
• Cloudless Sulphur 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 5
• Little Yellow 2
• Mimosa Yellow 2
• Gray Hairstreak 8
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 12
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 10
• Ceraunus Blue 1
• American Snout 4
• Gulf Fritillary 3
• Zebra Heliconian 1
• Bordered Patch 2
• Crimson Patch 8
• Elada Crescent 8
• Texan Crescent 4
• Vesta Crescent 20
• Pearl Crescent 1
• White Peacock 3
• Malachite 3
• Tropical Leafwing 2
• Hackberry Emperor 150
• Queen 50
• Soldier 1
• Brown Longtail 3
• Two-barred Flasher 1
• Brown-banded Skipper 3
• White Checkered-Skipper 10
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 6
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 1
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Common Sootywing 2
• Julia's Skipper 2
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Whirlabout 2
• Sachem 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 3

Fitzgaertner's Flat at Bentsen, National Butterfly Center, 6/10/15

Yesterday Mike Rickard found a Fitzgaertner's Flat at Bentsen Rio Grande State Park.  This crepuscular skipper has been seen around the visitor's center in years past and Mike knew another might be found there this butterfly filled spring.  I race over last night and got to see it and went over again today hoping for better photos.  Turned out there were two present this afternoon, hanging out by the bathrooms.  I had to use the flash so I'm not sure how accurate the colors are.

This morning I prowled around the National Butterfly Center hoping for something good.  A Ruddy Daggerwing briefly showed for a poor photo.  The brush holley, where we had several of both daggerwings a  few years ago, was in bloom so this may be the place to look for them.

Besides lots of bees and Tawny Emperors, the best butterfly in the brush holley was the long-staying male Silver Emperor.

Nearby on the fiddlewood was a Pavon Emperor which was less worn than the one seen a few days ago.

This cloudywing is probably a Coyote Cloudywing but the bulge on the hind wing made me think it could be a Jalapus.  But I could not get a diagnostic look at it.

A Ruby-spotted Swallowtail cruised by a few times but this was the best I could do.

Here's the list.

• Black Swallowtail 4
• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Ruby-spotted Swallowtail 1
• Great Southern White 10
• Large Orange Sulphur 4
• Lyside Sulphur 3
• Little Yellow 2
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 6
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 10
• Red-bordered Metalmark 2
• American Snout 8
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Zebra Heliconian 1
• Elada Crescent 1
• Texan Crescent 5
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 25
• Pearl Crescent 1
• Question Mark 1
• Red Admiral 2
• White Peacock 1
• Mexican Bluewing 1
• Ruddy Daggerwing 1
• Tropical Leafwing 2
• Tawny Emperor 200
• Pavon Emperor 1
• Silver Emperor 1
• Queen 40
• Brown Longtail 2
• Coyote Cloudywing 1
• Fritzgaertner's Flat 2
• Falcate Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 2
• Brown-banded Skipper 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 2
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper10
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Common Sootywing 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 2
• Clouded Skipper 3
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Whirlabout 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 1