Progreso Lakes yard and a Green-backed Ruby-eye, 11/28/17

This morning Linda Cooper brought some butterfly friends over to the house to check out the butterflies in our yard.  The South Texas Satyrs were lifers for some of them.

As was the Orange-barred Sulphur.

I had found this Red-crescent Scrub Hairstreak yesterday for yard butterfly #100.  We saw two today.

After they left (and found Blue-eyed Sailor over at Estero!) I found this Hackberry Emperor on our fruit peel pile for yard butterfly # 101.  There are plenty of hackberries around so maybe we'll see more of them.

I was going back into the house after putting out some bait when I spotted a funny colored pinkish-orange thing on our Betony.  I didn't even check it out.  I just ran straight into the house for my camera cuz the only thing that comes in that color is Curve-winged Metalmark.  Yard butterfly #102.  And it was a nice fat female and there's plenty of the host plant, Caesalpinia, in the neighbor's yard so you do the math.

Well, Linda had told me she was going to help some people look for the Green-backed Ruby-eye that has been seen the past couple of evenings on the Retama Village wall north of Bentsen State park.  So I raced over with hopes of getting some shots of it in the setting sun light.  But it didn't pop out till after sun set and I forgot to bump up my ISO so this is what I wound up with.

But I was still happy to see this rare tropical grass skipper, my 210th species for the Valley.