I made it over to the Nation Butterfly Center for my first trip of the year. The last freeze hit pretty hard and not a lot was blooming. The Azureum is late this winter and a lot of them are still in bud but the frost didn't affect them at all. The Crucita which is about all bloomed out got fried. But it was warm and looks to be warm for the foreseeable future so it looks like spring is on the way. Not a lot flying. Here's a couple of Mexican Bluewings.
I have never seen so many Red Admirals. Much of the action today was on the bait logs.
Only one each of the other two Vanessas, Painted and American Ladies.
The most common Emperor, the Tawny has been absent for a while. There were a few Epress Leilias and the more locally rare Hackberry Emperor.
A couple of Fatal Metalmarks played on the Azureum.
Here's a list of the 29 species seen today. Spring forbes are coming up so maybe more action is a few days.
Checkered White 1
- Orange Sulphur 2
- Large Orange Sulphur 1
- Lyside Sulphur 25
- Little Yellow 6
- Gray Hairstreak 1
- Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
- Ceraunus Blue 2
- Reakirt's Blue 1
- Fatal Metalmark 2
- American Snout 100
- Gulf Fritillary 2
- American Lady 1
- Painted Lady 1
- Red Admiral 30
- White Peacock 3
- Mexican Bluewing 6
- Hackberry Emperor 1
- Empress Leilia 3
- Carolina Satyr 1
- Queen 1
- Brown Longtail 1
- White Checkered-Skipper 3
- Tropical Checkered-Skipper 6
- Laviana White-Skipper 5
- Clouded Skipper 4
- Southern Skipperling 2
- Fiery Skipper 3
- Eufala Skipper 2
