Two More New Butterflies at Progreso Lakes, 10/29/21

With the Texas Butterfly Festival coming up, today I was joined at Progreso Lakes by Linda Cooper, Barbara Volkle, Steve Moore, Sarab Seth and Jon McIntyre.  The extra eyes helped run today's tally to 56 species.  New for the yard was this sharp Desert Checkered-Skipper.  Butterfly #134!

Later Barbara, Steve and I saw this Violet-banded Skipper for just a couple of seconds.  I was able to fire off one shot as it took off.  The dark band and wing spot are visible on our yard butterfly #135.  We could not relocate it.

We found another Mexican Yellow.

Jon found the first Texan Cresent I've seen in our yard in a long time.

We had three Purple-washed Skippers.

Several more Double-dotted Skippers.

Here's a Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak.

And the male Mexican Bluewing showed off the best ever.

Wind was still coming from the north today.  Hoping for more exotic stuff when it switches back around to the south.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Checkered White 1
• Great Southern White 2
• Cloudless Sulphur 5
• Large Orange Sulphur 8
• Lyside Sulphur 3
• Mexican Yellow 1
• Little Yellow 8
• Sleepy Orange 3
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 4
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Western Pygmy-Blue 6
• Ceraunus Blue 4
• Reakirt's Blue 2
• American Snout 2
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Texan Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Question Mark 2
• Red Admiral 1
• Common Buckeye 1
• White Peacock 6
• Mexican Bluewing 1
• Common Mestra 1
• Tawny Emperor 10
• Carolina Satyr 2
• Monarch 3
• Queen 50
• Soldier 10
• White-striped Longtail 4
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Dorantes Longtail 2
• Brown Longtail 25
• Mimosa Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 8
• Mournful Duskywing 2
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 8
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 6
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 1
• Laviana White-Skipper 8
• Clouded Skipper 25
• Double-dotted Skipper 3
• Southern Skipperling 6
• Fiery Skipper 25
• Whirlabout 10
• Southern Broken-Dash 2
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 8
• Ocola Skipper 1
• Purple-washed Skipper 2
• Violet-banded Skipper 1

Fifty Species at Progreso Lakes, 10/28/21

A cold front blew though yeasterday and the northerly winds dumped a bunch of different butterflies in our yard today.  Best was our first Mexican Yellow of the fall.

Three Common Mestras were new for fall.

We get few Mazan's Scallopwings.

Still have a pair of Mexican Bluewings.

American Lady.

It's unusual to get Reakirt's and Ceraunus Blues on the same day.

Here's the fifty species for today.

Pipevine Swallowtail 1

• Giant Swallowtail 3
• Checkered White 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 5
• Large Orange Sulphur 8
• Lyside Sulphur 5
• Mexican Yellow 1
• Little Yellow 6
• Sleepy Orange 2
• Dainty Sulphur 1
• Gray Hairstreak 4
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Western Pygmy-Blue 5
• Ceraunus Blue 3
• Reakirt's Blue 2
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Phaon Crescent 3
• Question Mark 1
• American Lady 1
• Painted Lady 1
• Red Admiral 1
• Common Buckeye 1
• White Peacock 6
• Mexican Bluewing 2
• Common Mestra 3
• Tropical Leafwing 1
• Tawny Emperor 10
• Carolina Satyr 1
• Monarch 4
• Queen 50
• Soldier 12
• White-striped Longtail 3
• Dorantes Longtail 2
• Brown Longtail 20
• Mazans Scallopwing 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 8
• White-patched Skipper 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 8
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 8
• Laviana White-Skipper 8
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 30
• Double-dotted Skipper 3
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper 25
• Whirlabout 8
• Southern Broken-Dash 1
• Eufala Skipper 8

Tailed Aguna at Progreso Lakes, 10/25/21

My goal today was to get out and do some scouting for the Texas Butterfly Festival.  But as usual I needed to check out our yard first.  My reward was our first Tailed Aguna at Progreso Lakes.  Yard butterfly #133 was the third I have found on my own of this species, the other two being years ago at Estero and the Hidalgo Pumphouse.

The other good find was this fresh male Mexican Bluewing which was just a few feet from the female who has been hanging out in our brush patch.  Maybe they will get "busy".  The female has more extensive white spotting on the forewing.

Been a while since I've seen a Painted Lady.

I finally got out of the yard and did some scouting up in the brush country north of TX 186.  Not many flowers out there but there were a few clumps of Crucita on Brushline Rd and some blooming Coma.  Best find was a couple of Erichson's White-Skippers.

And a few Turk's Cap White-Skippers.

Found a few Desert Checkered-Skippers on CR 30 just over in Willacy County but the few floweres had few butterflies.

And also a Mexican Fritillary.  Notice this one and the one above are both perched onthe nasty grass burs which take some of the fun out of CR 30.

Here's my yard list for the morning.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Cloudless Sulphur 2
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Elada Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 1
• Painted Lady 1
• White Peacock 3
• Tawny Emperor 3
• Queen 20
• Soldier 5
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Tailed Aguna 1
• Brown Longtail 3
• Mimosa Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 2
• Laviana White-Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 8
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Fiery Skipper 3
• Whirlabout 2
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 2
• Ocola Skipper 1

Progreso Lakes, 10/23/21

The Texas Butterfly Festival is coming up in a week and that means it's time for visiting butterfly watchers.  After few visitors last year because of the pandemic, it was great to see Barbara and Steve today.  They showed up while I was doing some yard work.  We made a few rounds of the yard and didn't see anything great.  But here's a few pics anyway.

This Mexican Bluewing showed up very fresh a few days ago.  I think it may have hatched in our brush patch.  She seems to be looking for a husband.

We got four of the five expected long-tailed skippers, Dorantes Longtail, White-striped Longtail, Brown Longtail and Long-tailed Skipper.  but getting Zilpa Longtail is always tough.

First Double-dotted Skipper I've seen in weeks.  It's got a few extra dots.

Cloudless Sulphur on a Heliconia latispatha.

A striking Gulf Fritillary.

Western Giant Swallowtail caterpillar.

Less than thirty species today so there's still stuff that 's missing.  Warm breezy weather should bring in a few more.

Osca Skipper at Progreso Lakes, 10/14/21

Late summer and the first part of fall this year has produced little in the way of interesting butterflies in our Progreso Lakes yard.  Probably just a hangover from the big freeze in February.  Then I was gone for a couple of weeks out west and I returned to find the crucita blooming and lots of butterflies.  With a strong warm southeasterly wind today and an Emerald Aguna at the National Butterfly Center, I thought it might be a good time to work the yard over for butterflies.  My reward was our first Osca Skipper!  This rare Mexican grass skipper is reported very infrequently in the RGV of south Texas.  It was butterfly #132 for our yard.  It was not a lifer though as I had found one back in Oct of 2011 at the National Butterfly Center.

I did a double take on this Florida White and had to run inside and check the book.  I've never seen a female this dark.

There was a beat up Wester Giant Swallowtail flapping around me and I ignored it till it landed nearby.  I took a few shots only to discover it was a very yellow Ornythion Swallowtail.  It was the fifth ever for our yard.

First Purple-washed Skipper for the year.

Mimosa Skippers have been hard to come by this year.

Lots of Soldiers and Queens in the yard today.  These copulating Soldiers say "Dont ask.  Dont tell."

I had a list of 29 species for today but I forgot to copy it.  More southerly winds ahead of a cold front are forecast for tomorrow so more good stuff is possible.