Teniente Tract of Lower Rio Grande NWR, 10/21/22

This afternoon I ran up to the Teniente Tract of the Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR  to do a little scouting for the upcoming Texas Butterfly Festival.  It's pretty dry up there with absolutely no crucita or lantana blooming.  But they had enough rain so that the silver croton and some little yellow composite were common though getting a little dry.  I did much better than expected getting all the specialties for the area.  I found two Red-crescent Scrub Hairstreaks on CR30 and then ten more on CR20 without looking very hard.

Six Erichson's White-Skippers were an all time high for me.

Saw at least three of the recently split Twintip Buckeyes.

The other expected specialty for the area is Desert Checkered-Skipper.  I saw 8 to 10 of them.

There were equal numbers of White Checkered-Skippers,

And even a Tropical Checkere-Skipper to complete the trifecta.

Turk's-Cap White-Skipper is another specialty of the area.

Earlier in the day I found the first Zebra Heliconian of the fall in our yard at Progreso Lakes.

The list of 32 species is by far the most I've ever seen up there.  It's drying up quickly so I hope they can hold on for the Festival.

Pipevine Swallowtail 1

• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Southern Dogface 10
• Cloudless Sulphur 2
• Little Yellow 2
• Dainty Sulphur 5
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreak 12
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 5
• Western Pygmy-Blue 50
• Ceraunus Blue 5
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• American Snout 8
• Gulf Fritillary 4
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Common Buckeye 1
• Tropical Buckeye 1
• White Peacock 1
• Common Mestra 1
• Queen 8
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 2
• White Checkered-Skipper 8
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 1
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 8
• Erichson's White-Skipper 6
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 2
• Julia's Skipper 2
• Whirlabout 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 1
• Eufala Skipper 5

Good south wind at Progreso Lakes, 10/16/22

Our first cold front of the fall is due tomorrow and that usually sucks up warm wind from the south before it arrives.  So I made a conscious effort to run up a butterfly list for our Progreso Lakes yard today.  Our yard is also blooming nicely and combined with the southerly wind my expectations were high.  As it turned out, there were a lot of butterflies but not anything unusual.  I think it may take a few more fronts and a few more days of southerly wind to bring up the good stuff.

Butterfly of the day goes to a couple of Fawn-spotted Skippers.  Formerly common in our yard, this species was wiped out by last year's February freeze.  These are the first I've seen since then though they are still present in the Brownsville area.

Mimosa Skippers are a specialty of the mid and lower RGV.  They use the thorny pink flowered   

mimosas that line the ditches and resacas to as a host plant.  Today I had five which is pretty unusal.

The wind brought a Mazan's Scallopwing to the yard.  We only get one or two per year.

White-patched Skippers are finally showing after a long absense.

Dorantes Longtails have also just arrived.  It seems many butterflies time their reproduction to coincide with the fall flower season.

Soldiers have recently marched into the yard for the fall.

Here's today's list of 51 species.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 5
• Cloudless Sulphur 8
• Large Orange Sulphur 4
• Lyside Sulphur 2
• Little Yellow 10
• Mimosa Yellow 2
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 2
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Western Pygmy-Blue 5
• Ceraunus Blue 6
• Rounded Metalmark 6
• Red-bordered Metalmark 10
• American Snout 200
• Gulf Fritillary 5
• Bordered Patch 10
• Pearl Crescent   1
• Vesta Crescent 5
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Painted Lady 1
• Red Admiral 1
• White Peacock 15
• Tawny Emperor 8
• Queen 50
• Soldier 5
• White-striped Longtail 3
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 8
• Mimosa Skipper 5
• Mazans Scallopwing 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 60
• White-patched Skipper 1
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 6
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 8
• Laviana White-Skipper 12
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Common Sootywing 2
• Julia's Skipper 3
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 2
• Clouded Skipper 50
• Double-dotted Skipper 4
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 6
• Whirlabout 6
• Southern Broken-Dash 10
• Common Mellana 10
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 6
• Eufala Skipper 8

First Horace's Duskywing at Progreso Lakes, 10/8/22

Well, I haven't posted in a while.  So as fall butterfly season approaches I guess I had better get with it.  We've had northerly to northeasterly winds for the past couple of weeks, starting with Hurricane Ian so I've been hoping we might get something different in our yard.  Today it finally happened.  This female Horace's Duskywing is the 146th species to be seen in our yard.  Though I've seen very few of these through the years, the instant I saw it with the tawny color and bold markings, I was pretty sure it was a Horace's.  It also has a remnant of the brown edging on the hind wings.

Crucita, Betony and Wire Weed are all blooming so there were plenty of butterflies today.  Hoping winds shift to the south to bring in the Mexican stuff.  Here's today's list of 34 species.

Giant Swallowtail 1

• Cloudless Sulphur 8
• Large Orange Sulphur 4
• Lyside Sulphur 2
• Little Yellow 2
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Ceraunus Blue 3
• Rounded Metalmark 3
• American Snout 3
• Gulf Fritillary 3
• Bordered Patch 2
• Vesta Crescent 1
• White Peacock 2
• Tawny Emperor 2
• Carolina Satyr 1
• Queen 10
• White-striped Longtail 2
• Brown Longtail 3
• Mimosa Skipper 2
• Sickle-winged Skipper 10
• White-patched Skipper 1
• Horace's Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 6
• Laviana White-Skipper 12
• Julia's Skipper 3
• Clouded Skipper 100
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Fiery Skipper 2
• Whirlabout 5
• Southern Broken-Dash 5
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 5
• Eufala Skipper 5