Xami Hairstreak at Progreso Lakes, 12/21/18

It's been kind of a slow fall for butterflies and I've been doing more birding so the blog has been neglected a bit.  But this morning I was out in our Progreso Lakes yard checking out the birds when I peered into our flame vine as I usually do when I pass it.  And there was this little green hairstreak.  At first I just got a glimpse of only green and started thinking about greenstreaks but a better look revealed the white "M" of the Xami Hairstreak.  Yowzer!  There's been a few around the Valley lately so I was not shocked but darn!  What a good butterfly!  And #111 for the yard.

Mike and Ginny came over before doing the Estero walk and Mike found this Mazan's Scallopwing.  Only the third time for our yard.

Here's a Guava Skipper in action.

Lots of Sickle-winged Skippers this fall.  This is the first butterfly I have ever seen nectar on a pigeon berry.

Nice sunny weather in the forecast so maybe some other good stuff will show up.

Four-spotted Sailor at National Butterfly Center, 11/18/18

I was going to spend my morning in the yard today, but word came out of a Smudged Hairstreak at the National Butterfly Center.  So I raced over only to find the butterfly was gone.  And there was discussion it may have been a Marius Hairstreak anyway.  But then the Four-spotted Sailor found several days ago was refound.  And it was a male which I had never seen before so my trip was worthwhile.  Love that metallic teal!

Didn't see anything else noteworthy.  Here's a sharp Mexican Fritillary and a Mex Frit chrysalis.

And the hard-not-to-photograph Gulf Fritillary.

Don't know why but there were lots of White Checkered-Skippers around.

It's been a good fall for Theona Checkerspots.

I liked these Whirlabout photos.

So it was nice afternoon and I got so see all my butterfly friends who visit this time of year.

Progreso Lakes, 11/1/18

This morning a strong cool front blew through our Progreso Lakes yard and after the sun popped out the butterflies went wild.  Finally after two years I was able to add Mexican Bluwing to our yard list.  This ovipositing female was butterfly #109.

A few minutes later I was trying to photo graph a Julia's Skipper when the big bright orange thing flew in.  Ruddy Daggerwing was butterfly #110 for our yard.  It was not far from our little blooming brush holly.  The insignificant flowers of this spiny bush really attract the daggerwings at the National Butterfly Center.  Maybe they drew in this one.

And then my first Mexican Yellow for the year fluttered around the red salvia.

 A couple of Orange-barred Sulphurs were the first I've seen in a while.

Two Long-tailed Skippers show the variability in this species.

Dorantes Longtail.

Finished up the day with 44 species.

Pipevine Swallowtail 2

• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 10
• Orange-barred Sulphur 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 5
• Lyside Sulphur 3
• Mexican Yellow 1
• Little Yellow 3
• Gray Hairstreak 2
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Ceraunus Blue 1
• Rounded Metalmark 3
• Red-bordered Metalmark 6
• American Snout 3
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Bordered Patch 5
• Vesta Crescent 2
• Phaon Crescent 8
• White Peacock 15
• Mexican Bluewing 1
• Ruddy Daggerwing 1
• Tawny Emperor 8
• Carolina Satyr 5
• Monarch 1
• Queen 80
• Soldier 10
• Long-tailed Skipper 2
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 12
• Sickle-winged Skipper 6
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 3
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper12
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 8
• Clouded Skipper 25
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Whirlabout 2
• Southern Broken-Dash 3
• Common Mellana 2
• Eufala Skipper 2

Progreso Lakes, 10/11/18

Butterflies have been picking up a bit with some recent rains in the area.  We had 29 species in our Progreso Lakes Yard today.  Best were two Erichson's White-Skipper.  I had one last year on 10/19/17.

We had a half dozen or more of the Common Laviana White-Skippers.

And a single Turk's-cap White-Skipper.  Still waiting for an East Mexican White-Skipper.  They occur periodically at Santa Ana NWR so it's not out of the realm of possibility that we could get one.

Queens are starting to pile up.  We had an estimated 75 today.

Last year we were getting Statira Sulphurs but none so far this year.  Only Large Orange and Cloudless Sulphurs today.

Here's today's List.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 12
• Large Orange Sulphur 5
• Little Yellow 3
• Rounded Metalmark 2
• Red-bordered Pixie 1
• American Snout 2
• Bordered Patch 1
• Phaon Crescent 2
• White Peacock 3
• Hackberry Emperor 3
• Queen 75
• Soldier 4
• Brown Longtail 2
• Sickle-winged Skipper 5
• White Checkered-Skipper 2
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper10
• Erichson's White-Skipper 2
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 3
• Clouded Skipper 15
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper 4
• Whirlabout 1
• Southern Broken-Dash 3
• Common Mellana 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2

Progreso Lakes, 9/23/18

With the long hot dry summer there has been few butterflies around.  But we've had some rain lately and another shower last night seem to really bring out the butterflies in our Progreso Lakes yard.  Glad to have Double-dotted Skippers back after an absence of a few months.

Guava Skippers have been regular lately though I don't have any guavas.

This White-striped Longtail looked really fresh.

But this Long-tailed Skipper barely had enough markings left to be identifiable.

A fresh Clytie Ministreak is always pretty.

Been a while since I've seen the common Fiery Skipper.

Queens are starting pick up in numbers.

Nothing rare but the 31 species seen is the most we've had since last winter.  I will try to post a little more regularly now that we're getting bugs.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 3
• Little Yellow 3
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Rounded Metalmark 1
• American Snout 12
• Phaon Crescent 3
• White Peacock 2
• Tawny Emperor 1
• Carolina Satyr 2
• Queen 3
• Guava Skipper 2
• White-striped Longtail 2
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Brown Longtail 1
• Mimosa Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• Funereal Duskywing 2
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 6
• Laviana White-Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 8
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Whirlabout 2
• Southern Broken-Dash 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 1

Progreso Lakes, 3/12/18

This afternoon I was working in the butterfly garden in our yard at Progreso Lakes when a sharp Julia's Heliconian came cruising by.  It told me to put down the shovel and pick up the camera.

Then I saw a little brown spreadwing skipper....Mazan's Scallopwing!  This is a butterfly that likes shady brushy areas and I thought it might be a while before we add this one to our yard list.  But there it was, butterfly #106.

Then there was this guy.  I thought it was just a Celia's Roadside-Skipper in a nice pose.  But looking at Glassberg, it has a lot of the field marks of Bell's Roadside-Skipper from NE Texas.  We will see what people think.

Here's a Turk's-cap White-Skipper.

When we bought this place fifteen months ago I never dreamed that Double-dotted Skipper would be a regular in our yard.  I love 'em.

Here's a very bright female Sachem.

And a Southern Broken-Dash.

This White-striped Longtail was all over our acre yard.

A couple of hours later the day's list stood at 34 species.  Pretty good.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Checkered White 1
• Orange Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 1
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 6
• Reakirt's Blue 1
• American Snout 1
• Julia Heliconian 1
• Bordered Patch 2
• Texan Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Pearl Crescent 1
• Red Admiral 1
• Carolina Satyr 15
• Monarch 1
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 4
• Mazans Scallopwing 1
• Funereal Duskywing 3
• White Checkered-Skipper 3
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper20
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Julia's Skipper 3
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 4
• Double-dotted Skipper 2
• Whirlabout 1
• Southern Broken-Dash 2
• Sachem 2
• Bell's Roadside-Skipper 1
• Eufala Skipper 2