Last Butterflies before the Freeze at NBC, 1/18/25

The strongest cold front of the winter is scheduled to blast in tomorrrow and the butterflies at the National Butterfly Center were out enjoying one last glorious warm day.  The wind was from the south yesterday however today it had already switched from the north and despite that, the temperature was still in the 80's.  Now sure of the effect of this on the species composition of butterflies.  There were no real Mexican rarities but a few local uncommon species were out, some pretty fresh.  Best was this Caballo (formerly Potrillo) Skipper.

A White-patched Skipper was close by.

And later a Texas Powdered-Skipper popped up in the same Azureum patch.

And with it a fresh Marius Hairstreak.  It was a lifer for visiting butterflier Jeff Pavlik who I notice is a couple butterflies ahead of me on eButterfly.  But I recently discovered a few Australian lifers while putting bugs into iNaturalist so maybe I can get back ahead.

Here's a good looking Dusky-blue Groundstreak.

And the humble but still sharp looking Gray Hairstreak.

John Rosford found the bug of the day.  I have yet to ID this litle lady beetle but I'm pretty sure it's a lifer.

35 species is pretty good for mid January.  In a couple of days there won't be any and then we start the slow build up into spring.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 2
• Southern Dogface 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 6
• Little Yellow 5
• Sleepy Orange 2
• Marius Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Ceraunus Blue 4
• Reakirt's Blue 1
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• American Snout 10
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Texan Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 4
• Red Admiral 4
• White Peacock 3
• Mexican Bluewing 1
• Monarch 2
• Queen 4
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 2
• Potrillo Skipper 1
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 1
• White-patched Skipper 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 2
• Laviana White-Skipper 5
• Clouded Skipper 4
• Fiery Skipper 3
• Sachem 2
• Eufala Skipper 6

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

Santa Ana NWR, 5/30/23

With all the recent rain I thought a trip to Santa Ana NWR was in order.  Trails were muddy so I walked the tour road to the cemetery.  Things are pretty lush but not a lot was blooming except at the cemetery where I found this Potrillo Skipper.  I had seen them there in the past but a check of my records found my last one was 5/31/15.  Almost the same date eight years ago.

Nearby was this Texas Powdered Skipper.  I found my lifer at Santa ana years ago.

A group of 25 Laviana White-Skippers were sucking at the moist soil.

Along with a Mimosa Yellow.

Checking the piles of animal scat can always be productive.  Here's a Sickle-winged Skipper and a Texan Crescent.

Here's today's list of 31 species.  Gotta get back over there in a couple of weeks.

• Giant Swallowtail 6
• Great Southern White 1
• Southern Dogface 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 40
• Little Yellow 3
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Reakirt's Blue 2
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• American Snout 3
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 2
• Texan Crescent 12
• Vesta Crescent 15
• White Peacock 3
• Common Mestra 25
• Queen 1
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 2
• Potrillo Skipper 1
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 6
• White Checkered-Skipper 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 1
• Laviana White-Skipper 30
• Clouded Skipper 2
• Whirlabout 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 3

National Butterfly Center, 3/17/22

Warm weather is pretty much back to stay and butterflies were in good supply at the National Butterfly Center today despite a lack of rain.  Several present were species that are normally more common in the arid brush country west of here like this Common Streaky Skipper.

And this Texas Powdered Skipper.

Coyote Cloudywing is also much more common west of here.  I tried to turn them into Jalapus Cloudywings but I couldn't get enough of a tail on the wings.

Butterfly of the day was probably this fresh Great Purple Hairstreak, another brush country specialist.

This list of 48 species is exceptionally large for early spring.  Hope we get some rain but none is forecast anytime soon. 

• Pipevine Swallowtail 2
• Black Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Checkered White 3
• Orange Sulphur 2
• Southern Dogface 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 1
• Little Yellow 3
• Sleepy Orange 2
• Great Purple Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 2
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 6
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• American Snout 5
• Zebra Heliconian 1
• Bordered Patch 3
• Texan Crescent 10
• Vesta Crescent 2
• Phaon Crescent 12
• Painted Lady 3
• Red Admiral 10
• White Peacock 1
• Mexican Bluewing 4
• Carolina Satyr 6
• Monarch 1
• Queen 4
• Brown Longtail 3
• Coyote Cloudywing 2
• Mimosa Skipper 1
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 2
• White-patched Skipper 1
• Mournful Duskywing 2
• Funereal Duskywing 6
• White Checkered-Skipper 10
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 15
• Laviana White-Skipper 12
• Common Streaky-Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 8
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 10
• Whirlabout 6
• Southern Broken-Dash 3
• Sachem 1
• Common Mellana 2
• Eufala Skipper 3

Santa Ana NWR, 2/19/16

This morning I went over to Santa Ana NWR to do some birding but it was so windy that I soon switched to bugs.  Best butterfly goes to this Band-celled Sister.  I think I only saw one last year.

My first butterfly of the day was this Texas Powdered-Skipper by Willow Lake.  I've seen them in this area before.

The azureum is blooming nicely in response to the rains of last fall but it's really dry now and little else has flowers.  Several large whites all turned out to be Great Southern White.

First Pale-banded Crescent I've seen in a long time.

A striking Red-bordered Metalmark.

Sickle-winged Skippers like wooded areas.

My first list for the year.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Great Southern White 5
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 8
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Gray Hairstreak 2
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 2
• Red-bordered Metalmark 2
• American Snout 10
• Texan Crescent 1
• Pale-banded Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 20
• Pearl Crescent 1
• Red Admiral 2
• Band-celled Sister 1
• Carolina Satyr 3
• Monarch 6
• White-striped Longtail 2
• Brown Longtail 2
• Mimosa Skipper 1
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 2
• Sickle-winged Skipper 2
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper10
• Laviana White-Skipper 15
• Clouded Skipper 10
• Fiery Skipper 6
• Whirlabout 10
• Southern Broken-Dash 1
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 3