National Butterfly Center, 2/24/24

Things at the National Butterfly Center are trying to recover form the hard freeze this winter.  Some good rain last week and warm temperatures have got trees leafing out and flowers blooming.  39 species for the day is a pretty good February total.  The Mexican Bluewings were putting on a show,

My first Texas Powdered-Skippers for the year.  They like to hang out int he ditch.

Three Turk's-Cap White-Skippers were on the big Azureum patch by the trail that crosses the ditch.  Probably over half my day's butterflies were from that patch.

I think it's been a few years since my last Nysa Roadside-Skipper.

One Celia Roadside-Skipper looked kind of normal and the other was pretty freaky.

First Sachem of the year.

What a fantastic Southern Broken-Dash!

Five of the butterflies I saw today were new for the month at the National Butterfly Center bringing the February total to 70.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Black Swallowtail 1
• Checkered White 5
• Orange Sulphur 3
• Southern Dogface 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 5
• Little Yellow 6
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Fatal Metalmark 2
• American Snout 8
• Gulf Fritillary 5
• Bordered Patch 2
• Phaon Crescent 30
• Pearl Crescent 1
• American Lady 3
• Red Admiral 25
• Mexican Bluewing 8
• Empress Leilia 2
• Queen 10
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 2
• Funereal Duskywing 2
• White Checkered-Skipper 10
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 30
• Laviana White-Skipper 15
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 3
• Common Sootywing 1
• Clouded Skipper 20
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 15
• Whirlabout 25
• Southern Broken-Dash 1
• Sachem 2
• Common Mellana 3
• Nysa Roadside-Skipper 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 20

CR 30, Teniente Tract, Willacy County, 2-9-24

After seeing a blooming elbo bush coverd with butterflies at the National Butterfly Center and Cats Facebook photo of an Erichson's White-Skipper at her ranch, I decided I needed to make a run up to the Teniente Tract in Willacy County to see how the spring butterflies were doing.  Rains have been spotty this winter so you never know what you are going to find.  Well it turned out to be pretty dry up there but there were a few tiny things blooming alomg CR 30 and then I found a good spot with some blooming elbo bush and bladder mallow.  Best butterflies were these two Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreaks who use the bladder mallow as a host plant.  They have been absent for a while.

Another bladder mallow butterfly is the Erichson's White-Skipper.

Usually the Desert Checkered Skippers outnumber the White Checkered-Skippers along CR 30 but not today.  This was my only Desert Checkered-Skipper.

This Turk's-Cap White Skipper was ovipositing on some kind of a mallow.

I really like this Gray Hairstreak on the elbo bush.

Not far away was a Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak.

Most of the butterflies on  the ebo bushes were American Snots but there was a Red Admiral.  They have been abundant this winter.

This Common Buckeye was really dark below.  Seems like a lot of winter butterflies have a little extra pigment.  My guess is it's from the darker pigments that some plants have during winter.

So considering how dry it's been, 30 species is a pretty good total.

• Black Swallowtail 1
• Checkered White 2
• Southern Dogface 8
• Large Orange Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 8
• Little Yellow 10
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Dainty Sulphur 30
• Gray Hairstreak 6
• Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Western Pygmy-Blue 1
• Ceraunus Blue 1
• Reakirt's Blue 2
• American Snout 200
• Gulf Fritillary 3
• American Lady 4
• Painted Lady 3
• Red Admiral 2
• Common Buckeye 1
• Queen 3
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 10
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 1
• Erichson's White-Skipper 1
• Laviana White-Skipper 2
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Whirlabout 1
• Eufala Skipper 6

National Butterfly Center, 1/31/24

I made it over to the Nation Butterfly Center for my first trip of the year.  The last freeze hit pretty hard and not a lot was blooming.  The Azureum is late this winter and a lot of them are still in bud but the frost didn't affect them at all.  The Crucita which is about all bloomed out got fried.  But it was warm and looks to be warm for the foreseeable future so it looks like spring is on the way.  Not a lot flying.  Here's a couple of Mexican Bluewings.

I have never seen so many Red Admirals.  Much of the action today was on the bait logs.

Only one each of the other two Vanessas, Painted and American Ladies.

The most common Emperor, the Tawny has been absent for a while.  There were a few Epress Leilias and the more locally rare Hackberry Emperor.

A couple of Fatal Metalmarks played on the Azureum.

Here's a list of the 29 species seen today.  Spring forbes are coming up so maybe more action is a few days.

Checkered White 1

• Orange Sulphur 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 25
• Little Yellow 6
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Ceraunus Blue 2
• Reakirt's Blue 1
• Fatal Metalmark 2
• American Snout 100
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• American Lady 1
• Painted Lady 1
• Red Admiral 30
• White Peacock 3
• Mexican Bluewing 6
• Hackberry Emperor 1
• Empress Leilia 3
• Carolina Satyr 1
• Queen 1
• Brown Longtail 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 3
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 6
• Laviana White-Skipper 5
• Clouded Skipper 4
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper 3
• Eufala Skipper 2