Pale-spotted Leafwings, Spot-celled Sister at National Butterfly Center, 11/29/20

Yesterday while I was at home waiting for the termite exterminator, the WhatsApp dinged with the news that a Pacific-slope Flycatcher was visible and calling at Quinta Mazatlan.  Arg!!!!!  Then a bit later I got a text that a Guatemalan Leafwing had just been found at the National Butterfly Center.  Arg!!!!  That's my most wanted butterfly and there's nothing I can do about it.  And to add insult to injury, the exterminator found lots of termites in the attic.  Then a cold front blew in and who knows what that will do to the staked out birds and butterflies.

So this morning it was cool and drippy.  Quinta Mazatlan was closed and butterflies weren't out so I decided to look for birds at Frontera.  I didn't find much but by noon the sky was clearing and temperatures were going up so I made the run over to the National Butterfly Center.  Bait was out at the location of yesterday's magical apparition of the Guatemalan Leafwing.  People checked the spot off and on all afternoon and the blue bug never showed.  But it was still a great day.  Phil Kelly put me onto the Spot-celled sister, only the fourth I've ever seen.

Though not as rare as the sister, this very cooperative Pale-spotted Leafwing was the bug of the day for me.  I had been thinking about them just a few minutes earlier when I found this one on a bait lot.  I could not believe it when it opend up and sunned itself.

I got the word out and everyone at the park came running.  It's been a while since we've had one in the Valley.  But just a few minutes later Phil goes out and finds a second one.  A bit of blue is visible on the nape in the second photo.

A Tropical Leafwing battled the Pale-spotted over a spot on the bait log and then showed off a bit.

It's been a few years since I've seen a Two-barred Flasher.  I'm still waiting for one of these in the yard.

The male Pavon Emperor was on the top of the chomonque and did not show well.

Cool sunny weather is forcast for the week and the chomonque is blooming like crazy so maybe some more good butterflies are in store.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Great Southern White 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 10
• Little Yellow 2
• Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 10
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 25
• Clytie Ministreak 2
• Cassius Blue 10
• Fatal Metalmark 2
• Red-bordered Pixie 20
• American Snout 5
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Julia Heliconian 3
• Zebra Heliconian 6
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Mexican Fritillary 2
• Bordered Patch 2
• Texan Crescent 2
• Phaon Crescent 8
• Question Mark 1
• Red Admiral 1
• White Peacock 5
• Mexican Bluewing 6
• Common Mestra 2
• Tropical Leafwing 5
• Pale-spotted Leafwing 2
• Tawny Emperor 50
• Pavon Emperor 1
• Carolina Satyr 6
• Monarch 1
• Queen 50
• Soldier 5
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 6
• Two-barred Flasher 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 6
• White Checkered-Skipper 6
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 6
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 50
• Clouded Skipper 25
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 10

Potrillo Skipper at Progreso Lakes, 11/19/20

Lately they've had some really good butterflies at the National Butterfly Center near Mission and I was very temped to go over there today.  But if they can get good butterflies over there, shouldn't I be able to find some here?  We also have a Selasphorus Hummingbird I wanted to photograph so staying here seemed to be a good choice.  Well the hummer didn't cooperate and there wasn't much butterfly wise till I found this skipper.  My first impression was it was a well marked Brown Longtail lacking its tails.  But I was going to shoot it anyway and what a surprise when through the camera I discovered it was a Potrillo Skipper.  I saw her several more times during the day and she seemed to be trying to oviposit on Ruellia.  These have been hard to find in recent years.  This Potrillo Skipper was Progreso Lakes yard butterfly #127.

Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreak continues to not be a surprise this year.

We don't get many Zebra Heliconians and this one ovipositing on on the Corky-stemmed Passionvine was especially welcome.

It was one year ago when visiting butterfly watchers found our first Boisduval's Yellows.  Now they are a regular resident in our yard.

I put out some butterfly bait and attracted Tawny Emperors and this Tropical Leafwing.

Red-bordered Pixies are back.

A few days ago the Malachite returned and I was able to get much better photos.

Warm dry weather is forcast for the foreseeable future so the good butterflies should just keep coming.

Great Purple Hairstreak at Progreso Lakes, 11/12/20

I spent the morning washing windows on our house at Progreso Lakes and I even washed Honey's car for good measure so I piled up a lot of good karma points.  Consequently I decided to redeem them for some quality afternoon butterflies.  I was sitting on the porch watching the bird bath when I saw this Giant White nectaring in the garden.

I returned to the porch and saw this female Orange-barred Sulphur ovipositing on the Senna at the other end of the porch.  She's a little beat up but I'm wondering if she's the really pretty one from a week ago.

Then I returned to my chair on the porch where I was watching the bird bath.  Something green and black caught my eye.  This is only the second Malachite to ever visit our yard.

So it's going to be a butterfly afternoon.  I wandered around our brush patch, not seeing much, and I stopped by the brush holly.  It was blooming and their flowers have a tendency to attract daggerwings.  No daggerwings but this big dark hairstreak got my attention.  This ragged Great Purple Hairstreak is yard butterfly #126.  It was long overdue.

Finally I caught up with one of our Boisduval's Yellows.  About a year ago the first one showed up in our yard and they've been pretty regular ever since.

The clouds really thickened up and put an end to the butterfly activity.  We are approaching prime rare butterfly season so let's hope I have a few karma points left.

Progreso Lakes, 11/2/20

Nothing fantastic but a really busy day in our Progreso Lakes yard.  I kept doing loops around the yard and kept adding species and finished with a total of 56.  This Julia Heliconian was the first good one.

Then I saw a ragged Orange-barred Sulphur but failed to get a decent photo.  So this is the nice one I found the next day.

New for the year were the five Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreaks.  They have been popping up all over the Valley.

Always enjoy finding a Silver-banded Hairstreak.  I either found three of them or saw the same on in three different places.

A Guava Skipper was hiding under a papaya leaf.

Long-tailed skippers included Long-tailed Skipper and Dorantes, White-striped and Brown Longtails.

Here's a nice Brown-banded Skipper.

The two Panoquinas were pretty similar but the Purple-washed has a spot that the Ocola lacks.

Wind has been blowing from the north and east.  We need it to shift around from the south to bring us some rare Mexican stuff.

Pipevine Swallowtail 1

Giant Swallowtail 1

• Cloudless Sulphur 8
• Orange-barred Sulphur 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 6
• Lyside Sulphur 4
• Boisduval's Yellow 2
• Little Yellow 8
• Mimosa Yellow 2
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 3
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreak 5
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 8
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Cassius Blue 5
• Ceraunus Blue 2
• Rounded Metalmark 3
• American Snout 1
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Julia Heliconian 1
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 4
• Elada Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 3
• Phaon Crescent 5
• White Peacock 20
• Tropical Leafwing 2
• Tawny Emperor 6
• Carolina Satyr 5
• Monarch 2
• Queen 150
• Soldier 15
• Guava Skipper 1
• White-striped Longtail 3
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Dorantes Longtail 3
• Brown Longtail 30
• Sickle-winged Skipper 40
• Brown-banded Skipper 1
• White-patched Skipper 1
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 10
• Laviana White-Skipper 10
• Julia's Skipper 2
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 10
• Clouded Skipper 10
• Double-dotted Skipper 4
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 8
• Whirlabout 3
• Southern Broken-Dash 2
• Common Mellana 10
• Eufala Skipper 6
• Ocola Skipper 2
• Purple-washed Skipper 1

•