More Elfins near Huntsville, 3/28/24

A few weeks ago I ran up to San Antonio to find my lifer Henry's Elfin.  Since then I've been wanting to see more elfins and have been studying iNaturalist for possibilities.  Eastern Pine Elfin used to occur in the Lost Pines near Bastrop but there's only one record since the big fire.  The next closest possiblity seemd to be the Sam Houston Forest Wildlife Management Area by Huntsville and there were also records of Frosted Elfin in the area.  The next thing I had to do was keep an eye on the weather.  Cold fronts preceded by warm days have been the pattern and I needed to go soon because these butterflies are only around for a short time in early spring.  I finally got a favorable weather forecast at a time I could get away so I made a quick run up there.

I decided to try County Line Road first as it seemed to pass through good pine forest habitat.  It was a cold clear morning but warmed up fast and soon butterflies were nectaring on the early spring blooms.  Problem was I really had no idea how to search for elfins.  The Henry's Elfins in San Antonio were a stakeout at a lone scraggily red bud in a city park.  This was different as I had thousands of acres  to search but no experience to guide me.  So I just looked for butterflies on the flowers.  The Spicebush Swallowtails were my first for Texas.  In fact at first I was passing them off as Black Swallowtails.  They use sassafrass as a host plant.

I was hoping for duskywings and this fresh Juvenal's Duskywing did not disappoint.

But other duskywings were more worn and I'm not sure of the ID's but I think they may also be Juvenal's but I can't rule out Horace's..

Grass skippers included the common Clouded, Fiery and Huron Sachem (split from Sachem recently).

My first butterfly of the day was this Little Wood Satyr.

I found several small satyrs and hoped for the newly described Intricate Satyr but I think they were all Carolina Satyrs.

Then as I was walking along a damp sandy side track I saw a small dark butterfly flush from the ground and move ahead of me to land again.  I thought it was another satyr and was going to ignore it but I raised the camera and looked though it and was amazed that the small dark butterfly was infact an Eastern Pine Elfin.  I chased it quite a ways down the sandy track and got a few shots but nothing great.  But what a cool butterfly!

Then I remembered that most of  photos of Eastern Pine Elfin I had seen on iNaturalist were of indiviuals on the ground.  At one point another small butterfly interacted with this one and it proved to be my lifer Red-banded Hairstreak.  I was hoping to see one.

Then I flushed another small butterfly and expeced another Easterrn Pine Elfin but I was pleasantly surprised to find it was a Frosted Elfin.  It posed for a while.

During the rest of the day a few more small dark butterflies flushed from the ground but they shot straight up into the pines not to be seen again.  I guess they were getting minerals from the damp sand.  Anyway I was happy to have scored on my two targets.  Otherwise it was just common stuff around.  I was surprised to see so many Goatweed Leafwings.

The Red-spotted Purple is now the Red-spotted Admiral as it has been lumped with the White Admiral.  This is the eastern subspecies.  I've seen the western subspecies at Big Bend.

This Eastern Giant Swallowtail was a Texas lifer I think.  The ones we have in the RGV are Western.  Nick Grishin made this split a few year ago.

There's still more east Texas butterflies I need to see but it's too early in the spring.  So I will make another trip in a few weeks for southeastern hairstreaks and skippers.  I finished the trip with three lifers and two more Texas lifers.

Santa Ana NWR, 3/14/24

I ran over to Santa Ana NWR this morning to see what might be around before it gets fried  by the spring heat.  Unless it rains in the next few days which might make things pretty good.  Anyway I wanted to check out the azureums by the old manager's residence and walk down to the old cemetery and look for Potrillo Skippers.  The azureums or blue mist flower as they're called were empty on the way down but on the return after some some sun came out were really hopping.  It was nice to finally see Long-tailed Skipper, Dorantes Longtail and Brown Longtail.

It's been a good spring for Checkered Whites.

The walk to the old cemetery was pretty dull.  I did find a couple of Elada Checkerspots.

This Common Mestra looking lookinghard for noseburn but there's little around this spring.

A single Great Southern White gave me brief looks as it nectared on a tulipane.

Not much going on at the old cemetery.  There were lots of spring wild flowers but not many butterflies.  Plenty of Lyside Sulphurs on the way back.

A Variegated Fritillary put on a show as did a Gulf Fritillary.

Only one Queen on the day.

Back in whats left of the butterfly garden by the visitor's center I added one last butterfly to the list, my first Zebra Heliconian for the year.

Considering how dry it's been, 31 species was not too bad.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 5
• Checkered White 15
• Great Southern White 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 4
• Lyside Sulphur 25
• Little Yellow 5
• Sleepy Orange 2
• Dainty Sulphur 15
• American Snout 10
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Zebra Heliconian 1
• Variegated Fritillary 2
• Bordered Patch 1
• Elada Checkerspot 4
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Red Admiral 8
• Common Mestra 3
• Empress Leilia 5
• Queen 2
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 10
• Laviana White-Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 2
• Fiery Skipper 15
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 3

Henry's Elfin in San Antonio, 3/2/24

Every early spring I see photos on Facebook of Henry's Elfin from east Texas and I think someday I will go up and see one.  Well yesterday I got up early and was deciding where to go for the day.  Brownsville Landfill for gulls?  Salineno to refind the Crane hawk?  Resaca de la Palma for that darn Cassin's Vireo?  I also had been thinking about running over to east Texas to look for Henry's Elfin.  They had been seen at Brazos Bend.  Recently I've been entering butterflies into iNaturalist and learning how to use it and I though maybe I could find a closer Henry's Elfin.  Well I put it into the search engine and darned if Henry's Elfin wasn't being seen in San Antonio at Hardberger Park.  Weather look great for the day so I packed up the jeep and headed north.

When I arrived at Phil Hardberger Park I realized I had no idea where to look.  I haven't put iNaturalist on my phone yet so I tried to remember where where the Henry's Elfin was being see.  I remembered something about a native palnt garden.  I new they liked redbuds but I wasn't seeing any.  So I wandered around seeing only Red Admirals and a gray Hairstreak on the blooming Agaritas and Mountain Laurels.  Then I found a lone scraggly redbud near the fenced in demonstration garden.  And sure enough it held my lifer Henry's Elfins.

I had never seen any of the Elfins and they turned out to be larger than I thought, about the size of the many nearby Juniper Hairstreaks.  I never get tired of these guys.

Gray Hairstreak seem to be about everywhere I go.

I also found a couple of Henry's Elfins on a nearby wild plum.

Red Admirals were abundant as they have been in the Valley this spring.

Well that was nice!  I celebrated at Bill Miller's BBQ and headed home.  There are still many butterfly species I have not seen in the state.  Maybe I will get a few of them this year.