Guatemalan Cracker at NBC, 8/24/25

Yesterday Tom Forwood found a Gautemalan Cracker at the National Butterfly Center.  Tom is the new Superintendent at nearby Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park and is a fine naturalist.  I ran over and Alex told me where to look.  It took about a minute to find the Guatemalan Cracker in the row of Retama trees where it was feeding on sap.  The common name comes from the specific epithet guatemalena.  Many butterfly common names are Anglicizations of the the Latin name.

The Brown-banded Skipper was still hanging out by the old visitors center.

Long-tailed skippers are finally showing after a long absense.  Here's White-striped Longtail,  Long-tailed Skipper and Brown Longtail.

This Red-bordered Pixie was not doing a very good of hiding under this leaf.  Many of the brightly colored tropical metalmarks can be found hiding under leaves,

Finally a White Peacock after months without seeing one.

Mexican Fritillaries were out.

I guess this is just a Common Mellana.  It was down in the "ditch" in the shade, atypical of where I usually see it up in the flowers.  But nothing else in the Mexican guide seems to fit.

Last butterfly of the day was this fresh Mournful Duskywing.

The Valley has gotten some rain this past weeks and it's cooled off a tiny bit.  It feels like fall!

• Pipevine Swallowtail 3
• Giant Swallowtail 5
• Southern Dogface 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 15
• Lyside Sulphur 10
• Little Yellow 5
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Ceraunus Blue 8
• Fatal Metalmark 2
• Red-bordered Pixie 1
• American Snout 10
• Gulf Fritillary 8
• Mexican Fritillary 3
• Bordered Patch 10
• Phaon Crescent 20
• White Peacock 1
• Mexican Bluewing 8
• Guatemalan Cracker 1
• Tropical Leafwing 8
• Tawny Emperor 15
• Queen 8
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Brown Longtail 5
• Brown-banded Skipper 1
• White-patched Skipper 1
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 6
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 20
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Whirlabout 2
• Southern Broken-Dash 2
• Common Mellana 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 6
• Eufala Skipper 5

Guatemalan Leafwing at Estero Llano Grande St Pk, 12/1/24

As a birder and butterfly watcher I am amazed by of the serendipity of nature.  As a long time naturalist in the Rio Grande Valley I know what's supposed to happen, but there are often surprises.  

This morning I woke up and tried to decide where to go.  South Padre Island with maybe some late migrants seemed tempting.  Maybe check out Delta Lake or Santa Ana?  In the end I decided to go west and walk the trail at Yturria Brush.  I was thinking about Sage Thrashers and towhees.  At the very least I would get in a good walk. 

Well not only did I get in three and a half miles of walking but I also saw seven species of sparrows, including a couple of Green-tailed Towhees.  So I was eating lunch in the jeep, exhaused but satisfied with the morning when the Discord "bonged".   Usually it's the WhatsApp or the GroupMe "dinging" to catch my attention, but Indiana butterfly watcher Phil Kelly moved our RGV Rare Butterflies alert to the Discord plantform.  So now I get a "bong".  And what a bong it was.

Kristy Baker was reporting a Guatemalan Leafwing at Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco.  Hmmm....  There's been a Guatemalan Cracker.  Is that what she meant?  No, she replied it was a leafwing.  Dang!  Guatemalan Leafwing is probably my most wanted Valley butterfly.  I chased this cool Mexican leafwing with the blue upper wing surfaces a couple of times and came up short both times.  There are just a handful of records.

So I raced over from Yturria, about thirty miles total, parked in the lot at Estero and raced to the bait log near the park entrance.  About a dozen happy butterfly watchers saw me running towards them and they yelled "It's right here!"  So fifteen years after my first chase I finally get my Guatemalan Leafwing.  This one was missing half of one rear wing and had a chunk gone out of the other.  Now that's a leafwing!

The little bit of tail on one wing indicates a female.  Males have a smooth hind wing.  She flew up into the tree, found a sunny spot and opened up her wings.  The pale violet also indicated a female as males are much more dark blue.  I like that hook on the trailing edge of the fore wing.  A number of the tropical leafwing species (like the Pale-spotted below) share this trait.

She flew back to the bait log where she was joing by another leafwing, the rare Pale-spotted Leafwing.

Then Kristy yelled that she had the Guatemalan Cracker.  It's been a few years since I've seen one.  This is my third cracker species for the year.

The more common Gray Cracker put in a showing back behind the bait log.

I missed the Blomfild's Beauty which was seen earlier but I can't complain.  The Guatemalan Leafwing was my 227th RGV butterfly species.  It's not every day you see two Guatemalans!  Only warm weather in the extended forecast so full steam ahead.  What's going to be next?

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.

Texas Butterfly Festival. 11/5-7/17

The past few days I have been leading field trips for the 2017 Texas Butterfly Festival at the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas.  I don't know the cause, but as far as rare butterflies are concerned, this has been the best of the past five festivals in which I have participated.  Things started on Saturday afternoon when guides and participants started findings some pretty rare butterflies.  Best was the fourth US record of Shadowed Hairstreak found at Retama Village just north of Bentsen State Park.  This was followed by about another ten or more of the same species found along the Retama Village wall.

In the process of searching along the wall, Robin Zurovec found this cool Telea Hairstreak.

And we all saw plenty of gray-eyed Marius Hairstreaks.

Sunday morning I took a small group out to Cameron County to check some hot spots.  Resaca de la Palma turned up the usual specialties like Blue Metalmark, Boisduval's Yellow and Band-celled Sister.

Then it was on to the the infamous Smiley Face where Xami Hairstreaks flew from under out feet as we walked the track north.  We saw at least a dozen.

We also got the aptly named Obscure Skipper.

I could not get the group to go down to the end of the track whee I had found Saltbush Sootywings a couple of days earlier.

And finally some digging through the tall grass along the highway turned up a Pale-rayed Skipper.

The next day I led the trip to Weslaco where out Progreso Lakes yard thrilled the group with Red-bordered Pixie and Guava Skipper.  Frontera Audubon Thicket and Estero Llano Grande State Park had butterflies but nothing outstanding.  Meanwhile good stuff like Smudged Hairstreak and Mercurial Skipper were being seen by other groups.  

I had no trip scheduled for Tuesday, so I just hung around our yard while others led Festival trips.  I was getting ready to take a nap when I got a text from Linda Cooper that Martin Reid had just found an Orange Banner at the National Butterfly Center, a fourth US record.  So I raced over and no one had seen it since.  But I got a rare Pale-spotted Leafwing to show a bit of the upper wing so that made the trip worthwhile.

And then there this really sharp Guatemalan Cracker.

And of course everyone enjoyed the Malachites.

And just as I was leaving the NBC, people looking along the "wall" had found a Four-spotted Sailor.

Well this old birder had had enough of butterflies for a while and just rested today to get ready for the Rio Grande Birding Festival  Meanwhile back at the NBC, a Common Banner was found and thrilled the hardcore butterfliers that remained.  What a productive butterfly festival!

National Butterfly Center, 12/24/15

Over the past four warm breezy days, fifteen species of hairstreaks have been photographed at the National Butterfly Center.  One new one today was the rare Pearly-gray Hairstreak.  There was two present on Christmas of 2012.

Also new for this week was Lacey's Scrub-Hairstreak.  Several have been seen during the fall after being absent for a couple of years.

While yesterday, this cute White Scrub-Hairstreak was added to the list.

My first Guatemalan Cracker for the year was a nice one.  Mike found it yesterday.

Silver Emperor is no longer a surprise.  Lots have been seen this year.

Purple-washed Skippers have been absent for a few weeks.

And two nice spreadwing Skippers, Brown-banded and White-patched.