Eleven days ago Barbara Volkle, Steve Moore and I got to see a Violet-banded Skipper in our Progreso Lakes yard for a total of about two seconds. There it was and there it went. Well I saw another one today and it stayed for a total of 34 seconds. That was the elapsed time between my first photo and my last. And then it was gone. This Mexican grass skipper is so distinctly marked that it doesn't take long to identify it.
The Tailed Orange didn't stay much longer.
We've had very few Julia's Skippers since the February freeze.
Still several Double-dotted Skippers around.
My bait station hosted a few Tawny Emperors, a couple of South Texas Satyrs and a Red Admiral.
A very fresh Cloudless Sulphur chrysalis.
44 species on the day was not too bad. I'm leading butterfly trips for the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival over the next few days so maybe we can come up with something interesting.
- Pipevine Swallowtail 1
- Giant Swallowtail 3
- Great Southern White 3
- Orange Sulphur 1
- Southern Dogface 1
- Cloudless Sulphur 6
- Large Orange Sulphur 2
- Tailed Orange 1
- Little Yellow 2
- Gray Hairstreak 1
- Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
- Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
- Ceraunus Blue 1
- American Snout 1
- Gulf Fritillary 1
- Bordered Patch 2
- Vesta Crescent 1
- Phaon Crescent 2
- Painted Lady 1
- Red Admiral 1
- White Peacock 6
- Tawny Emperor 6
- Carolina Satyr 3
- Monarch 3
- Queen 25
- Soldier 6
- White-striped Longtail 3
- Dorantes Longtail 6
- Brown Longtail 12
- Sickle-winged Skipper 8
- White Checkered-Skipper 6
- Tropical Checkered-Skipper 6
- Laviana White-Skipper 4
- Julia's Skipper 1
- Clouded Skipper 15
- Double-dotted Skipper 3
- Southern Skipperling 3
- Fiery Skipper 8
- Whirlabout 5
- Sachem 3
- Common Mellana 3
- Eufala Skipper 4
- Ocola Skipper 1
- Violet-banded Skipper 1
