Sunday, March 23, 2014

Santa Ana NWR, 3/22/14

A warm, cloudy afternoon walk down the main tour road at Santa Ana NWR netted 22 species of butterflies.  When I got to the old manager's residence area area I remembered this was the site of my first Texas Powdered-Skipper a couple of years ago.  And right on cue a little brown butterfly does a couple of laps around me and then poses.  Pretty weird.



Here's a strongly patterned female Checkered White.


I got past the start of the Bobcat Trail and started looking for East Mexican White-Skipper.   But the small croton I had found them on last fall was nowhere to be found.  Instead a little blue catches my eye and lands and starts wobbling from side to side.  Another Cyna Blue!


As I approached the Old Cemetery, the tour road was lined with Dakota Vervain.  Most of the butterflies were in this area.  This is a Clouded Skipper.



American Ladies have big eyes.  They also have falcate wingtips.



A tiny dark skipper toyed with me a while before giving itself up as a Celia's Roadside-Skipper.


Several South Texas Satyrs cavorted along the road but were hard to photograph.


There were lots of flowering plants but not much sunshine.  So I'll have to try this walk again in a few days.