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?
