Butterfly #150 at Progreso Lakes, 12/8/23

Well, I see that I haven't posted anything since June.  Well maybe that's because we had 90 days of at least 100F and no rain over the ensuing four months.  The harsh summer and fall decimated butterfly populations here in the Rio Grande Valley.  But in last couple of monts we've had a few showers and things are looking better.  The Texas Butterfly Festival had OK numbers of butterflies but really low diversity.  Crucita was late blooming but showers and cooler weather have kept blooms on much later than usual.  Our garden at Progreso Lakes looks pretty good now.

So yesterday I was making the rounds, hoping for some thing different, when I spied this striped long-tailed masterpiece.  Finally our first Many-banded Daggerwing and butterfly species #150 for our yard!  It was the species I thought was most overdue for our yard considering we've already had several Ruddy Daggerwings.

Red-bordered Pixies have made a strong someback.  They are a favorite in our yard for visiting butterfly watchers.

I put our word about the Many-banded Daggerwing and visiting butterfly watchers rushed over but it was present for only a minute and never refound.  But in turn they manged to turn up other good stuff like this Boisduval's Yellow.  I haven'st seen one in our yard since spring.

They also found this Purple-washed Skipper which is maybe the first I've seen this year.

Our bair station has had Red Admirals, Tawny Emperors and finally an Empress Leilia.

There is no shortage of Queens.

Here's a list of 47 species of butterflies seen in our yard over the past two days .

• Giant White 1
• Southern Dogface 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 8
• Large Orange Sulphur 4
• Lyside Sulphur 4
• Boisduval's Yellow 1
• Little Yellow 5
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Sleepy Orange 2
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• Rounded Metalmark 1
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• Red-bordered Pixie 4
• American Snout 50
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Bordered Patch 2
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Pearl Crescent 2
• Painted Lady 1
• Red Admiral 5
• Common Mestra 1
• Many-banded Daggerwing 1
• Empress Leilia 1
• Tawny Emperor 3
• Monarch 1
• Queen 25
• Soldier 6
• Guava Skipper 1
• Brown Longtail 5
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 6
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 3
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Common Sootywing 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 5
• Whirlabout 4
• Sachem 2
• Common Mellana 3
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 1
• Eufala Skipper 8
• Purple-washed Skipper 1

Progreso Lakes, 6/14/23

I was sitting on the back porch this morning and thinking about going to the NABA Butterfly Center in Mission.  A lot of good stuff was seen there yesterday.  And then a Dingy Purplewing landed on the hummingbird feeder so I just stayed in the yard.

A little later something orange buzzed by the Ficus elastica.  I've read that Ficus species are the host plant for Ruddy Daggerwings.  We've had several in that tree.

First Tailed Orange of the year.  This is the summer form.

A Sleepy Orange was ovipositing on the Senna pendula.

While a Mexican Fritillary did the same on the Turnera.  They are supposed to have some pretty cool caterpillars.

Boisduval's Yellows are present daily along with Double-dotted Skippers.

It's always nice to get a Question Mark.

Here's today's list.

• Giant Swallowtail 4
• Great Southern White 4
• Cloudless Sulphur 10
• Large Orange Sulphur 5
• Lyside Sulphur 1
• Boisduval's Yellow 2
• Tailed Orange 1
• Little Yellow 5
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• American Snout 6
• Gulf Fritillary 6
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 3
• Vesta Crescent 2
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Pearl Crescent 3
• American Lady 1
• White Peacock 5
• Dingy Purplewing 1
• Ruddy Daggerwing 1
• Tawny Emperor 2
• Queen 5
• Brown Longtail 6
• Sickle-winged Skipper 2
• Mournful Duskywing 2
• White Checkered-Skipper 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 8
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Clouded Skipper 8
• Double-dotted Skipper 5
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Whirlabout 3
• Southern Broken-Dash 3
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 3
• Eufala Skipper 1

Banded Patches at Yturria Brush, 6/6/23

Today was supposed to be the last "coolish" day before temps ramp up to the upper 90's and above.  So I decided to make a run up to Falcon State Park before it gets super hot.  With all the spring rain I was hoping to find some good stuff, maybe even a Banded Patch.  As I passed through La Joya, I wondered if I should check out the Yturria Brush Unit of the Lower Rio Grande NWR.  Last time I was there the entrance trail was grown up and it was really dry.  I pulled into the parking area and checked the start of the trail.  It was lush and I was welcomed by a Texas Powdered-Skipper.

Lots of blooming stuff but I was a little early and it was still cool.  The entrance trail was still overgrown and it was a thorny proposition getting to the main track that goes north.  There were a few Lyside Sulphurs and lots of Empres Leilias.

A late Eastern Kingbird was nice as was an immature singing Varied Bunting but butterflies were disappointing,  I made it to the lush monte about a mile up,  The vegetation along the track had been cleared by Refuge staff, probably at the bidding of Border Patrol and all of the good butterfly plants were chopped down.  Not good.  I walked a couple hundred more yards and I saw a dark patchy checkerspotty looking thing.  Wow!  It was a Banded Patch.

And then I found two more.

I started back towards the monte and found a very frest Banded Patch.  Unfortunately the camera wouldn't give me a sharp focus.

The walk back to the car turned up a few Desrt Checkered-Skippers.

And all three Fritillaries; Gulf, Variegated and Mexican.  Here's the Mexican Fritillary.

So the brush country is started to turn out some butterflies after the spring rain.  But 100 degree days with no rain are starting next week so We'll see how long the butterflies last.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 3
• Giant Swallowtail 3
• Checkered White 2
• Great Southern White 1
• Southern Dogface 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 20
• Little Yellow 4
• Sleepy Orange 5
• Dainty Sulphur 12
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Reakirt's Blue 1
• American Snout 2
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Theona Checkerspot 8
• Banded Patch 4
• Texan Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 1
• Pearl Crescent 1
• American Lady 1
• White Peacock 1
• Common Mestra 2
• Tropical Leafwing 1
• Empress Leilia 40
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 3
• White Checkered-Skipper 1
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 4

 

Progreso Lakes yard, 6/1/23

Well the species score in our yard today at Progreso Lakes, Texas was Birds 27 Butterflies 37.  Nothing exciting but the butterflies kicked the birds asses.  This oddly marked Double-dotted Skipper got my attention today.  I tried to turn it into some new Mexican Species but it's not.  Not only are the dots variable, so is the white at the base of the atenna clubs.

Boisduval's Yellows showed nicely.

White Peacocks have popped out.

Had Mimosa and Little Yellows side by side but my camera could not get focused on them both in the same shot..

First Turk's-Cap White-Skipper I've seen in a while.  Females are pretty uncommon in my experience.

Here today's list of 37 species.

• Giant Swallowtail 4
• Great Southern White 2
• Cloudless Sulphur 6
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 2
• Boisduval's Yellow 3
• Little Yellow 5
• Mimosa Yellow 2
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Ceraunus Blue 5
• American Snout 1
• Gulf Fritillary 6
• Bordered Patch 1
• Texan Crescent 12
• Vesta Crescent 4
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Pearl Crescent 3
• White Peacock 5
• Queen 4
• Brown Longtail 5
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 15
• Laviana White-Skipper 4
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 5
• Double-dotted Skipper 5
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Whirlabout 8
• Southern Broken-Dash 6
• Sachem 1
• Common Mellana 3
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 4
• Eufala Skipper 3

Santa Ana NWR, 5/30/23

With all the recent rain I thought a trip to Santa Ana NWR was in order.  Trails were muddy so I walked the tour road to the cemetery.  Things are pretty lush but not a lot was blooming except at the cemetery where I found this Potrillo Skipper.  I had seen them there in the past but a check of my records found my last one was 5/31/15.  Almost the same date eight years ago.

Nearby was this Texas Powdered Skipper.  I found my lifer at Santa ana years ago.

A group of 25 Laviana White-Skippers were sucking at the moist soil.

Along with a Mimosa Yellow.

Checking the piles of animal scat can always be productive.  Here's a Sickle-winged Skipper and a Texan Crescent.

Here's today's list of 31 species.  Gotta get back over there in a couple of weeks.

• Giant Swallowtail 6
• Great Southern White 1
• Southern Dogface 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 40
• Little Yellow 3
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Reakirt's Blue 2
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• American Snout 3
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 2
• Texan Crescent 12
• Vesta Crescent 15
• White Peacock 3
• Common Mestra 25
• Queen 1
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 2
• Potrillo Skipper 1
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 6
• White Checkered-Skipper 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 1
• Laviana White-Skipper 30
• Clouded Skipper 2
• Whirlabout 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 3