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