Quinta Mazatlan, 10/29/24

An impromtu run over to Quinta Mazatlan turned into a pretty darn good butterfly day.  The private garden just outside the entrance gave up its usual Mexican Fritillary.

The crucita by the entrace to the beautiful old visitor's center hosted a worn Julia.  It is often called the Julia Heliconian but it is not a Heliconius.

After checking in I hit the little garden just outside and things started getting good.  I have never seen so many Pale-banded Crescents.  They have been hard to find this year.

A male Red-borded Metalmark showed off his scarlet underwings.

Then I found a good one.  This is the first Potrillo Skipper I have seen this year.  The usual spot at the Old Cemetery at Santa Ana NWR has failed to produce any.  Nick Grishin's new name is Caballo Skipper.  Hard to keep up with all the new splits from the recent DNA work.  

And then a Giant White made a brief appearance.

I checked the plumbago patch where the Mexican Violetear hung out a few years ago and found this sharp Two-barred Flasher.  Nick Grishin has split this one off and is calling it Qian's Flasher.

Lots of Mourful Duskywings around, each one different.

A walk back to the Ebony Grove Turned up a massive patch of crucita.  McAllen had some heavy rain in August that other local spots missed.  Here I found both Long-tailed Skipper and Brown Longtail.

Good grass skipper diversity nectaring on the crucita.  Here are Ocola, Sachem and Fiery Skippers.

A return to the little garden by the visitors center gave me my best butterfly.  Curve-winged Metalmark has been nonexistent in the RGV this year.

One last loop around the park turned up a Silver-banded Hairstreaak.

Finally, after seeing a half dozen during the day, I got a decent Zebra Heliconian shot back at the private garden where I started.  This really is a Heliconius (for now) but some call it the Zebra Longwing.  In the birding world, The American Ornithological Society does a good job of keeping bird names uniform in the New World.  But lepidopterists are a petty, divided bunch with a frustrating lack of uniformity in common names and even species recognition.  Oh well.....

Here's today list of 44 species

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 6
• Giant White 1
• Southern Dogface 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 3
• Large Orange Sulphur 6
• Lyside Sulphur 1
• Little Yellow 3
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Cassius Blue 1
• Red-bordered Metalmark 2
• Red-bordered Pixie 1
• Curve-winged Metalmark 1
• American Snout 1
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Julia Heliconian 1
• Zebra Heliconian 5
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 3
• Texan Crescent 1
• Pale-banded Crescent 25
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Pearl Crescent 1
• White Peacock 5
• Mexican Bluewing 1
• Common Mestra 4
• Tawny Emperor 2
• Queen 5
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Brown Longtail 2
• Two-barred Flasher 1
• Potrillo Skipper 2
• Sickle-winged Skipper 8
• Mournful Duskywing 8
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 2
• Laviana White-Skipper 4
• Clouded Skipper 3
• Fiery Skipper 15
• Whirlabout 2
• Sachem 5
• Eufala Skipper 3
• Ocola Skipper 6
• Purple-washed Skipper 1

Santa Ana NWR, 8/4/24

We had quite a bit of rain a couple of weeks ago so I ran over to Santa Ana NWR yesterday to check out the conditions.  In particular I wanted to check out the lakes and see if they had any water and maybe some dragonflies.  Turns out there is no surface water at all.  The thirsty ground soaked up all the rain so things actually look pretty lush despite the ponds all being dry.  Unfortuanately the refuge staff had mowed the dry Willow Lakes complex to prepare for the fall waterfowl season and in the process wiped out the balloon vines which had produce a good crop of lovely Silver-banded Hairstreaks earlier in the summer.  I couldn't find any so heres a photo from June14.

There was a nice patch of frog fruit which attracted a bunch of Phaon Cresents and this Julia's Skipper.

I've recently gotten adicted to iNaturalist and to native bees in particular.  I've yet to work out an ID on these little green sweat bees.  The blooming flower head is only about 5 mm wide.

So I wandered back over to the tour road and found the Tenaza were blooming.  For some reason they always all bloom on the same day and are only open a couple of days.  They were loaded with butterflies, mostly American Snouts, but I did mange to pick out a good one.  I am guessing this is the first Gold-spotted Aguna to be seen in the US this year.

Also nectering on the fluffy Tenaza blooms were White-striped and Brown Longtails.  They have been hard to find this year.

Also high in the Tenaza were Large Orange Sulphurs and Soldiers.

Mimosa Skippers are usually found on the ground.  They use the thorny pink mimosas that grow in area ditches as a host plant.  It's unusual to see one up in the Tenaza.

It was getting hot so I returned to the old manager's residence area and checked out the only blooming white lantana.  There were several Common Mestras.

And this metalmark looking somewhat in between a Fatal and a Rounded.  I'm guessing it's a Rounded.

Earlier I had noticed activity in the butterfly garden at the entrance to the parking lot.  So afer cooling down and having some lunch I checked it out.  A medium sized yellow with a boyant flight had me thinking of Dina Yellow but it was the more common Boisduval's Yellow which is actually pretty uncommon at Santa Ana.  I think this is the lightly makred summer form.

Well that was nice.  A few Phaon Crescents bounced around the non native flowers (I can't remember the name) by the entrance kiosk and one was a little larger.  This beat up Pale-banded Cresent is my first of the year.

So things are starting to pick up as the summer progresses.  Unfortunately we have a week of 100 degrees temperatures ahead with no rain.  Maybe that little low pressure brewing in the Caribbean can help us out.

Ovipositing Mexican Silverspot at Progreso Lakes, 12/10/21

Strong southerly winds ahead of an approaching cold front can mean good butterflies during fall and winter.  Today the prize was a Mexican Silverspot, only the second ever for our Progreso Lakes yard.  I got a few shots of it and hoped it would find one of our passionvines.  Well, she did and laid several eggs.

The other exciting news is that the wind blew in our first Boisduval's Yellow since the hard freeze in February.  Not only have they been missing from our yard but none have been sighted at their ususal location at Resaca de la Palma State Park.  Hope it's a female and she takes an interest in our Senna pedula.

I call Giant and Florida Whites my barometer species.  When they blow in I tend to get some good stuff.  This Giant White was hunkered down in the shade but the black fore wing spot is barely visible through the hind wing.

Another good butterfly today was this Pale-banded Crescent.  They have been hard to find this year.

Today's ovipositing Mexican Silverspot came on the heels of another that I saw yesterday at the National Butterfly Center.

I thought about going back to the NBC today as I figured the wind would blow in some good stuff.  Turns out I missed both Angled and Pale-spotted Leafwings, two Pearly-gray Hairstreaks and a mega Orion Cecropian.  Ugh!!!!  Well I stand by my decision and maybe I can dig out something in the yard tomorrow morning before the cold front hits.

Alana White-Skipper at National Butterfly Center, 11/28/16

My plan today was to run a few errands (like turn on the water for our new house) and then hit the National Butterfly Center.  Good stuff seen there in the past few days included Chestnut Crescent and Xami Hairstreak.  But when I arrived I had just missed seeing Mike Rickard's first US record of Alana White-Skipper Heliopetes alana.  Other butterfliers present had also missed it but, after a while, it reappeared only to give up the most frustrating photo ops.  Then there were a couple of fifty yard sprints in attempt to follow this lively little butterfly on its rounds.  As the afternoon progressed the skipper seemed to slow down and nectar more giving us much better shots.  Wow, two first US records in three days.  Looks like it's going to be a good fall butterfly season

Another good butterfly present for the past few days was this beat up Spot-celled Sister.  I only managed a couple of shots.  This is only the second I've ever seen.

A sharp Curve-winged Metalmark posed well for us.

The Chestnut Crescent was sighted again but I missed it.  Here's a Pale-banded Crescent.

Marius Hairstreaks have been more common than usual lately.

Not a lot of Purple on this Purple-washed Skipper but more than most I've been seeing this fall.

Looks like I forgot the grass skippers on my list submitted to NABA.

• Great Southern White 1
• Southern Dogface 5
• Cloudless Sulphur 5
• Large Orange Sulphur 20
• Lyside Sulphur 50
• Mexican Yellow 1
• Tailed Orange 3
• Little Yellow 15
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Sleepy Orange 3
• Marius Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Western Pygmy-Blue 8
• Cassius Blue 1
• Ceraunus Blue 6
• American Snout 200
• Gulf Fritillary 5
• Julia Heliconian 2
• Zebra Heliconian 2
• Mexican Fritillary 5
• Bordered Patch 3
• Crimson Patch 8
• Elada Crescent 1
• Texan Crescent 1
• Pale-banded Crescent 5
• Vesta Crescent 4
• Phaon Crescent 50
• Pearl Crescent 1
• Red Admiral 4
• Common Buckeye 8
• White Peacock 15
• Common Mestra 10
• Tawny Emperor 10
• Monarch 1
• Queen 200
• Soldier 40
• Brown Longtail 2
• Glazed Pellicia 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper10
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 5