Double-dotted Skipper at Sabal Palm, 3/28/15

With the long drought the RGV has experienced the past decade, a number of regularly occurring butterflies have become scarce or have disappeared altogether.  But with the winter and spring rains, I was hoping that I might be able to find one of them, the Double-dotted Skipper.  The only thing I knew about them was they came out in the spring at Sabal Palm Sanctuary in Brownsville.  When I arrived this morning I spent some time in the new gardens and was pleased to find a Walker's Metalmark.  A few have been seen recently at Resaca de la Palma State Park.  Otherwise it was just common stuff.

I made my way to the old butterfly garden and after a while found a good sized rusty brown grass skipper on the flame vine.  I immediately noticed the large white spots on the wings and had a feeling this was my bug. Soon it posed and I could see the double dots on the hind wing.

Then a second appeared and the way they acted we may have more Double-dotted Skippers in the future.

Here's the Walker's Metalmark.

Otherwise it was lots of Clouded and Fawn-spotted Skippers and Mazan's Scallopwings.  I could not find any Boisduval's Yellows.

I then ran over to Palo Alto National Battlefield to get my Definite Patch for the year.  I found a half dozen without too much trouble.  They were right in front of the building, some on the grass and others along the edge of the parking lot.  Their patterns seem highly variable much like Theona Checkerspot.

Definite Patch at Palo Alto, 5/9/14

I got up this warm, humid, breezy morning and headed over to Cameron County with the intent of seeing a Definite Patch.  The only site I knew for them was Palo Alto National Battlefield north of Brownsville.  I arrived about noon and saw nothing in the little garden in front of the visitors center.  So I walked down the sidewalk, checking out the Sea Ox Eye Daisies, and eventually found a patch/checkerspot back behind the building.  Sure enough, it was my first Definite Patch.  I searched a bit more but didn't see any others.  The underwing looks right but the top is colored a bit differently than the photos in Glassberg.

A very brightly colored Gray Hairstreak.

Feeling lucky I drove on down to Sabal Palm Sanctuary to look for Double-dotted Skipper.  There were a few butterflies in the new garden but nothing unusual and the old garden was extremely dry and bugless as was the palm grove.  This drought has been relentless.  I'll try again some day.

When I got home I found this really sharp Texan Crescent in our garden.