Monday, June 6, 2016

Dark Kite-Swallowtail at Old Hidalgo Pumphouse, 6/5/16

It was another trip to Santa Ana NWR this morning to look for the Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher.  I gave up after four hours and went home for lunch.  After eating I was thinking about a nap when I got the call from Bill Supulski that Tripp Davenport had just found a Dark Kite-Swallowtail at the Old Hidalgo Pumphouse. Someone sees one of these every few years down here but they only hang round a couple of minutes and then they're gone.   From our house it's 22 miles to the Pumphouse so I thought it was worth a shot.  I raced over and Tripp, Bill, Dot, Robin and Troy were still there and so was the swallowtail.  It only hung around a few minutes more but I was happy to get some shots as it nectared in a blooming fiddlewood.  I was excited and forgot to move my lense down to 300 mm from 400 so these photos are not the best.




Earlier in the morning after a couple of hours at the Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher vigil my birding discipline weakened and I wandered over to the butterfly garden on the other side of the visitors center.  One of the first butterflies I saw was a Hoary Skipper ovipositing on turk's-cap.  Joined by some of the other birders we soon found a couple more of them.


A blooming fiddlewood was really attracting the butterflies.  Over the next two hours I saw 35 species make a nectar stop.  Most made only a brief appearance this Ornythion Swallowtail


and two Giant Whites


and a Theona Checkerspot


and this Two-barred Flasher.


Mexican Bluewings don't show much interest in flower nectar.  They seem to prefer sap and ground salts.


A Guava Skipper checked out the blooming plumbago.


A couple of battling Great Southern Whites flew up over the roof of the visitors center.


Back at the fiddlewood were a couple more Hoary Skippers.


and my first Ocola Skipper for the year.


Here's my list from the butterfly gardens at Santa Ana NWR.

  • Giant Swallowtail 1
  • Ornythion Swallowtail 1
  • Great Southern White 3
  • Giant White 2
  • Large Orange Sulphur 2
  • Lyside Sulphur 2
  • Mimosa Yellow 1
  • Dainty Sulphur 1
  • Gray Hairstreak 1
  • Dusky-blue Groundstreak 5
  • Clytie Ministreak 1
  • Reakirt's Blue 1
  • Red-bordered Metalmark 3
  • American Snout 50
  • Gulf Fritillary 1
  • Zebra Heliconian 2
  • Theona Checkerspot 1
  • Bordered Patch 2
  • Crimson Patch 1
  • Texan Crescent 4
  • Pale-banded Crescent 4
  • Vesta Crescent 1
  • White Peacock 1
  • Mexican Bluewing 3
  • Tawny Emperor 2
  • Carolina Satyr `
  • Guava Skipper 1
  • Zilpa Longtail 1
  • Brown Longtail 4
  • Two-barred Flasher 1
  • Coyote Cloudywing 1
  • Hoary Skipper 3
  • White-patched Skipper 1
  • Tropical Checkered-Skipper 4
  • Laviana White-Skipper 2
  • Turk's-cap White-Skipper 2
  • Fawn-spotted Skipper 4
  • Clouded Skipper 2
  • Fiery Skipper 1
  • Whirlabout 1
  • Southern Broken-Dash 8
  • Nysa Roadside-Skipper 1
  • Celia's Roadside-Skipper 5
  • Ocola Skipper 1