Warm, windy day at National Butterfly Center, 12/13/12

A cold front is scheduled to roll in tomorrow morning so I figured warm southerly winds ahead of the front might bring some stuff in.  As expected it was a good day at the National Butterfly Center though all of the butterflies seen were also reported yesterday.  Best of the day was this Blomfild's Beauty.  It's been a few years since I've seen one.

This Guatemalan Cracker has been around for a few days.

It's been a while since I've seen a Marius Hairstreak. 

A few days ago eight Malachites were reported but I saw only one today.

This ratty Florida White is the first I've seen this fall.

Curve-winged Metalmarks are being seen daily at the NBC and there's plenty of Mexican Caesalpinia so maybe they will start breeding.

I guess this is an aberrant Fatal Metalmark.

After the front blows though there is supposted to be some sun so Maybe I can find something good in the yard.

Pale-spotted Leafwing at Progreso Lakes, 12/4/22

I was away most of the day and didn't get home till after 3:30.  It was mostly cloudy and I didn't expect to see much as I made rounds of the yard.  But some sun popped out and made for a very good hour of butterflies.  First thing I saw was the continuing (or a different) Mexican Silverspot.  It was clinging to the flame vine exposed to the southerly winds.

Then there was the usual as of late Boisduval's Yellow.

Then I checked the bait station.  I could see a leafwing..... with a dark medial arch on the forewing and what looked like back lit spots!  Wow!  Pale-spotted Leafwing!  Yard butterfly species #148 and one I thought I might have to wait a while for.

On the otherside a big chunk of missing hind wing expose a dark reddish brown upper surface of a female.  Not the blue I was hoping for but maybe she found some of our Crotons and laid a few eggs.

   

Finally a small silvery hairstreak proved to be a Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreak.  I tried to turn it into a Red-lined but I don't think so.

Warm, humid, windy weather is in the forecast so stay tuned.

Our Bait Station at Progreso Lakes, 11/22

Through the years I have not been happy with our bait station at Progreso Lakes.  I make butterfly brew and put it on a branch of the Mexican Olive.  It works pretty well, but squirrels and chachalacas eat it as soon as they find it and you can forget about it lasting over night.  I also put out fruit rinds and rotting fruit and it attracts stuff but raccons eat it up during their nocturnal forays.  What to do?

I discovered that oranges and fruit put in a suet cake cage for birds attract butterflies after a while.  I was in my barn looking for another suet cake cage when I noticed a crowdad trap I had bough several years ago.  That got the wheels turning.  Could I use that for a bait station.  I found a way to hang it in the Mexican Olive and filled it with rinds and rotting fruit and presto!  So far it has attracted Tawny Emperors, Question Marks, Red Admirals, Tropical and Goatweed Leafwings and South Texas Satyrs.

 

Now I need the good ones which I will not mention.  Do not say their names.

White Scrub-Hairstreak at Progreso Lakes, 12/2/22

Despite a week long cold spell it's been a pretty good fall butterfly season in the Rio Grande Valley.  Visiting Linda Cooper topped 120 species for November including the rare Dusted Spurwing at the National Butterfly Center.  Here at Progreso Lakes things have been a little more subdued.  We finally had a good south wind ahead of a cold front that brought several Mexican Yellows.

And a Giant White,

These two species along with Florida White often seem to be a harbinger of good butterflies from Mexico.  But it got cool again and nothing else showed up till today.  It was foggy, humid and mostly cloudy so I wasn't expecting much.  It was nice to get a Boisduval's Yellow.  It's been around for a couple of days.

The recent cold front also brought in a few birds.  So I was sitting on the back porch this afternoon watching a flock of mostly Yellow-rumped Warblers when a funky little hairstreak landed on the Tunera ulmifolia.  I fired a quick shot at a strongly patterned hairstreak.

I was hoping it was something good and then it flew.  I was up and after it before I got to look at the photo.  Then it landed on the Mexican Coral Bean.  I fired a few more shots and then thought "Gee. what if it's only a winter Clytie Ministreak?"  So I looked at the back of the camera and saw black eyes and realized I had the first White Scrub-Hairstreak for our yard, butterfly #147.

Last Monday I visited the National Butterfly Center and got to see several of my old butterflying friends who were visiting for the Texas Butterfly Festival and Thanksgiving..  We didn't see a whole lot but it was fun to visit.  Before I left I though I would make a final round of the baitlogs.  Along the way a butterfly landed and looked black and white striped.  It looked exactly like the Whitened Blueings I have seen in the past in Panama.

My was was racing as this would be a first US record.  But it repositioned itself and morphed into the expected Mexican Bluewing.  I was not surprised.

Warm weather is forecast for the next week.  I bet some good shows.