National Butterfly Center, 10/25/16

Spent a warm afternoon at the National Butterfly Center sorting through the hordes of butterflies.  This sharp Gold-spotted Aguna was the prize of the day.

Marius Hairstreak is always a treat.  They've had a few in the area lately.

Glazed Pellicias are around in good numbers just like last fall.

Saw three Tropical Buckeyes today.

And lots of regular Common Buckeyes.

Here are some tailed skippers.  White-striped, Dorantes and Long-tailed.

I liked this well marked Soldier.

Wish this spider would pick on the snouts instead of the Gulf Fritillaries.

So a pretty good day with 56 species.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 10
• Giant Swallowtail 6
• Southern Dogface 12
• Cloudless Sulphur 6
• Large Orange Sulphur 10
• Lyside Sulphur lots
• Tailed Orange 2
• Little Yellow 8
• Marius Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 12
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 5
• Cassius Blue 1
• Ceraunus Blue 10
• American Snout lots
• Gulf Fritillary 10
• Zebra Heliconian 1
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Theona Checkerspot 1
• Bordered Patch 5
• Crimson Patch 8
• Pale-banded Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 4
• Painted Lady 1
• Common Buckeye 12
• Tropical Buckeye 3
• White Peacock 12
• Mexican Bluewing 4
• Common Mestra 5
• Tawny Emperor lots
• Monarch 1
• Queen lots
• Soldier 12
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Gold-spotted Aguna 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Dorantes Longtail 2
• Brown Longtail 8
• Glazed Pellicia 3
• White-patched Skipper 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 8
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 2
• Laviana White-Skipper lots
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 10
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper lots
• Whirlabout 12
• Southern Broken-Dash 6
• Sachem lots
• Common Mellana 5
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 10
• Ocola Skipper lots
• Purple-washed Skipper 1

Brush Country Butterflies, 10/23/16

The Texas Butterfly Festival is coming up in a week and one of the trips I am leading was looking pretty grim.  I'm supposed to take a group up to Sal del Rey tract of the Lower Rio Grande NWR to look for some uncommon things like Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreak, Desert Checkered-Skipper and Erichson's and East-Mexican White-Skippers.  They were all present up there last fall but when I checked the area a couple of weeks ago everything was fried.  The long hot summer had taken its toll and none of the specialties were present.

So today I thought I would try CR 30 which is about five miles to the east in Willacy county.  When I passed through there two weeks ago there weren't many butterflies but at least it was green and a few things like lantana was blooming.  Well, I made the right choice.  I found fifteen Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreaks.

A real surprise were two Blue Metalmarks, a boy and a girl.

And there were a few Desert Checkered-Skippers.

After failing to find any Julia's Skippers the other day at the National Butterfly Center it was nice to see some today.

Here's a very fresh Clouded Skipper.

Then I ran over to Brushline Road to try the MoVac Road again.  It was a little greener and I could see it had rained some.  Still not very many butterflies but on the way out I managed to run across two Erichson's White-Skippers.  So it turned out to be a good day and things are looking better for the Festival trip.

National Butterfly Center, 10/20/16

I've been birding a lot this year and then it was super hot and dry during the summer so I've neglected my butterfly duties.  But with the Texas Butterfly Festival coming up I thought I had better get over to the National Butterfly Center and put in a little practice.  Wow, have they added to the gardens!  And everything was in bloom and loaded with butterflies.  Nothing super rare today but plenty to see once I waded through the thousands of American Snouts, Lyside and Large Orange Sulphurs, Queens and Fiery Skippers.  Best was the Curve-winged Metalmark that has been present a few days.

This Two-barred Flasher was a nice one.

Glazed Pellicia was common last fall and I saw two of them today.

It was nice to see a few Mexican Fritillaries for a change.

Julia Heliconians have been reported all over Texas this year.

As have Crimson Patches.

I can't resist a sharp Gulf Fritillary.

Tails on Tailed Oranges varied from short to long.

This Giant Toad had found itself a perch next to one of the butterfly bait logs.

Toad licking is all the rage these days.

Here's today's list of 57 species.

Pipevine Swallowtail 5

• Giant Swallowtail 5
• Southern Dogface 6
• Cloudless Sulphur 5
• Large Orange Sulphur lots
• Lyside Sulphur lots
• Tailed Orange 4
• Little Yellow 5
• Sleepy Orange 2
• Gray Hairstreak 6
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Cassius Blue 1
• Ceraunus Blue 5
• Fatal Metalmark 2
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• Curve-winged Metalmark 1
• American Snout lots
• Gulf Fritillary 10
• Julia Heliconian 1
• Mexican Fritillary 3
• Theona Checkerspot 1
• Crimson Patch 5
• Pale-banded Crescent 3
• Phaon Crescent 12
• Common Buckeye 4
• White Peacock 10
• Mexican Bluewing 6
• Common Mestra 1
• Tropical Leafwing 3
• Tawny Emperor lots
• Monarch 2
• Queen lots
• Soldier 4
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Dorantes Longtail 3
• Brown Longtail 4
• Two-barred Flasher 1
• Glazed Pellicia 2
• Sickle-winged Skipper 3
• White-patched Skipper 5
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 3
• Laviana White-Skipper 15
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 8
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper lots
• Whirlabout 15
• Southern Broken-Dash 6
• Sachem 6
• Common Mellana 12
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 4
• Eufala Skipper 6
• Ocola Skipper 10