Red-lined Scrub-Hairstreak at the NBC, 12/18/24

It's been a good fall for Red-lined Scrub-Hairstreaks in the lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas with half a dozen or more being reported at the National Butterfly Center.  Somehow I've manged to miss them all but yesterdaay I learned one had been present for a couple of days in the blooming Coma by the Conservatory.  So I spent quite a bit of time scrutinizing the tiny butterflies attracted to tiny but fragrant flowers.  Eventually I managed to pull out this scruffy specimen.  It might be the fourth I've ever seen.

Even scruffier was this poor Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak.

But this Dusky-blue Groundstreak was looking pretty sharp.

Mallow Scrub-Hairstreaks are everywhere.

Who doesn't like a Clytie Ministreak?  There were several in the Comma.

A Red-bordered Pixie hid on a nearby hackberry.

Walking the Hackberry Trail I found the long staying Gray Cracker on the same tree at the same spot posing at the same anlgle as a few days ago.

Here's a sharp Zebra Heliconian.

Nothing exciting in the the sunken gardens.  Best I could get was a Western Pygmy Blue.

The Discord "bonged".  A Pale-spotted Leafwing was on a bait log.  I hurried but just missed it by seconds.  Luckily it didn't go far.  What a striking specimen!

A cool front has dropped the temps into the sixties.  Not too bad.  Sometimes good stuff shows up after a front.  I've got my Christmas wish list!

Just a normal December day at the NBC, 12/14/24

Warm breezy days in December and visiting butterfly watchers always make a good recipe for rare butterflies in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas.  So I ran over to the National Butterfly Center hoping for something good; maybe the Barred Yellow seen yesterday.  There was nothing earth shattering but some pretty uncommon butterflies posed nicely for photos like this Blomfild's Beauty.

At the same bait log was this striking Question Mark.

Uusally Malachites are found at the bait logs so it was nice to find one nectaring of the purple Duranta.

Still a few Mexican Bluewings around.

Tailed Orange feeding on a flame acanthus.

The normally common Dusly-blue Groundstreaks have been hard to find this year.

We have still not had a strong cold front yet this winter.  Lowest temperature has been about forty so butterfly so butterflies are still on the wing and no real cold is in the forcast for the next ten days.  It is prime time for more rarites to show.

Guatemalan Leafwing at Estero Llano Grande St Pk, 12/1/24

As a birder and butterfly watcher I am amazed by of the serendipity of nature.  As a long time naturalist in the Rio Grande Valley I know what's supposed to happen, but there are often surprises.  

This morning I woke up and tried to decide where to go.  South Padre Island with maybe some late migrants seemed tempting.  Maybe check out Delta Lake or Santa Ana?  In the end I decided to go west and walk the trail at Yturria Brush.  I was thinking about Sage Thrashers and towhees.  At the very least I would get in a good walk. 

Well not only did I get in three and a half miles of walking but I also saw seven species of sparrows, including a couple of Green-tailed Towhees.  So I was eating lunch in the jeep, exhaused but satisfied with the morning when the Discord "bonged".   Usually it's the WhatsApp or the GroupMe "dinging" to catch my attention, but Indiana butterfly watcher Phil Kelly moved our RGV Rare Butterflies alert to the Discord plantform.  So now I get a "bong".  And what a bong it was.

Kristy Baker was reporting a Guatemalan Leafwing at Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco.  Hmmm....  There's been a Guatemalan Cracker.  Is that what she meant?  No, she replied it was a leafwing.  Dang!  Guatemalan Leafwing is probably my most wanted Valley butterfly.  I chased this cool Mexican leafwing with the blue upper wing surfaces a couple of times and came up short both times.  There are just a handful of records.

So I raced over from Yturria, about thirty miles total, parked in the lot at Estero and raced to the bait log near the park entrance.  About a dozen happy butterfly watchers saw me running towards them and they yelled "It's right here!"  So fifteen years after my first chase I finally get my Guatemalan Leafwing.  This one was missing half of one rear wing and had a chunk gone out of the other.  Now that's a leafwing!

The little bit of tail on one wing indicates a female.  Males have a smooth hind wing.  She flew up into the tree, found a sunny spot and opened up her wings.  The pale violet also indicated a female as males are much more dark blue.  I like that hook on the trailing edge of the fore wing.  A number of the tropical leafwing species (like the Pale-spotted below) share this trait.

She flew back to the bait log where she was joing by another leafwing, the rare Pale-spotted Leafwing.

Then Kristy yelled that she had the Guatemalan Cracker.  It's been a few years since I've seen one.  This is my third cracker species for the year.

The more common Gray Cracker put in a showing back behind the bait log.

I missed the Blomfild's Beauty which was seen earlier but I can't complain.  The Guatemalan Leafwing was my 227th RGV butterfly species.  It's not every day you see two Guatemalans!  Only warm weather in the extended forecast so full steam ahead.  What's going to be next?

Hairstreak City at NBC, 11/22/24

Visiting butterfly watchersfrom all over the country are en masse at the National Butterfly Center and are seeing some pretty good stuff.  Yesterday Matt Orsie saw eleven species of hairstreaks.  Wow!  I don't know if I've ever seen that many in a day so I thought I would run over and try to run up a hairstreak list.  I did ok finishing with eight species.  Best was this probably impossible to ID female Electrostrymon, wither Ruddy or Muted Hairstreak.

Usually Marius Hairstreak is pretty rare but this fall there is a bunch of them.

This Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreak was a lifer for some.

Silver-banded Hairstreaks are not rare this fall.

Bob Yukich got me on this Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak.

Everyone loves Clytie Ministreak.

Only saw a couple of Gray Hairstreaks today.

Mallow Scrub-Hairstreaks probably outnumbers the rest by five fold.

This magnificent Malachite was probably everyone's favorite butterfly for the day.

I found Michael Newton his lifer Curve-winged Metalmark.

Here's your daily Red-bordered Pixie playing in the Hamelia patens.

I missed Dusky-blue Groundstreak and people have been seeing Great Purple Hairstreak, so I could have gotten ten spieces.  Now it's time for some of the really rare ones to show up.

National Butterfly Center, 11/16/24

It's prime butterfly season in the RGV and with strong SSE wind forecast ahead of a weak cold front, I put in a few hours at the National Butterfly Center.  Pretty good butterflies were on the wing but nothing super rare.  Best was another Blomfild's Beauty.  This one is a male.

Red Rim is annual in the Valley but usually is pretty rare.  Two today is a very uncommon occurance.

And both of the above on the same baitlog is pretty much unheard of.

There were three Marius Hairstreaks on the same Hamelia.

I like the angle on this Guava Skipper.  They have been more common than usual lately.

I couldn't turn down a Red-bordered Pixie.

After I had a couple of Curve-winged Metalmark sightings at Quinta Mazatlan while the dozen or more visiting butterfly watchers had seen none, Linda Cooper jokingly told me to find her one.  I didn't find one but she manged to find her own.

This beatup Band-celled sister has been around a few days.

Another woolly long-horned bee stole my attention.  Maybe someday I can ID it.

Today's list of 58 species.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 2
• Giant Swallowtail 5
• Florida White 1
• Southern Dogface 3
• Cloudless Sulphur 3
• Large Orange Sulphur 6
• Lyside Sulphur 2
• Little Yellow 5
• Marius Hairstreak 3
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 20
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Cassius Blue 2
• Ceraunus Blue 6
• Red-bordered Pixie 1
• Curve-winged Metalmark 1
• American Snout 5
• Gulf Fritillary 3
• Julia Heliconian 1
• Zebra Heliconian 10
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 1
• Elada Checkerspot 2
• Texan Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Question Mark 1
• Red Admiral 2
• Common Buckeye 1
• White Peacock 2
• Mexican Bluewing 2
• Common Mestra 10
• Red Rim 2
• Tropical Leafwing 3
• Empress Leilia 2
• Tawny Emperor 15
• Carolina Satyr 1
• Queen 15
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 3
• Dorantes Longtail 3
• Brown Longtail 2
• Coyote Cloudywing 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 3
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Double-dotted Skipper 6
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 2
• Whirlabout 1
• Sachem 1
• Eufala Skipper 5
• Brazilian Skipper 3