National Butterfly Center, 4/27/26

While I was on my west Texas trip, the Valley got some rain and things have really greened out.  But the spring bird migration has been really good so butterflies have taken a back seat.  Which is fine because I didn't feel like battling the mosquitos.  So Monday I finally got over to the National Butterfly Center and it was alive with flowers and butterflies.  Granted most of them were Lyside Sulphurs and Reakirt's Blues.

On the big board in the visitors center, I saw Ornythion Swallowtail had been reported among the healthy for April 63 species.  So that was my target as I headed for the Mexican Orchid bush in the south garden.  It didn't take long.  But getting a photo of this amorous male was close too impossible as he chased the female Western Giant Swallowtails.  This was the best I could do.

Western Giant Swallowtail.

Nearby I saw a Gray Hairstreak on a blooming fiddlewood.  But the color and luster seemed off so I fired at a shot at what I expected would be a Marius Hairstreak.  Wrong again!  It was a sharp really fresh Red-lined Scrub Hairstreak.  I've never seen one in spring.

Lots of Clytie Ministreaks out.

Good to see a couple of Curve-winged Metalmarks out.

All of the big whites were Great Southern White.

Marine Blue is uncommon in the RGV.

And then there were these.  We've gotten Mexican Crescent happy in the last year.  Are these Mexican Crescents?  Or are they female Vesta?  That spot in the middle of the pale jagged median band has me concerned.  But I just went on Butterflies of American and solved my problem.  These are both males.  Male Vesta is distinctly two toned black and orange.  These are two male Mexican Crescents.  I feel better now.  I think.

Distracting me from the butterflies were the bees.  Lots of species out today.  I saw a dozen or more species.  These two little cuckoo bees will give me something to study.  Triepeolus?  Epeolus?  I've never seen one with a red scutellum.  For reference the flower head of the Bidens is about 5-6mm wide.  (PS:  The first one is Epeolus interruptus.  Oddly there are scattered records across the country but the only three from Texas are in the Valley with none in Mexico.  This was the first for Hidalgo County.  I'm still working on the second.)

And a few Nomada cuckoo bees.  Cuckoo bees are kleptoparasites meaning they lay their eggs in the nest of another species know as the host species.  The larvae consume the host larvae.

I should be out playing today but I wanted to get caught up on some of this stuff.  Also going to be hot with bad air quality today.  Up river Laredo had hazardous air quality yesterday thanks to a thermal inversion.

Trans-Pecos, River Loop, 4/10/26

I woke up to a sunny cool morning and had to decide where to go.  I wanted something different and I thought I needed Painted Crescent so I decided on a loop through Marfa down through Shafter and back along the Rio Grande to Terlingua might be fun.  In restrospect I had forgotten I had already seen Painted Crescent in Arizona.  Oh well, it would still be a new Texas butterfly for me.

The drive to Marfa and south through the high grasslands proved uneventful.  It was still a little cool for the few flowers to produce anything.  It was starting to warm by the time I reached the old mining town of Shafter and the always fun Cibolo Creek crossing.  I pulled off before the stream crossing and was greeted by a soaring Zone-tailed hawk.  Bet there's a nest in the nearby cottonwoods.

Got my only Nysa Roadside-Skipper for the trip.

Marine Blues were by the stream but it was still a little early for odes to be out.

I bid adieu to the javelina and headed on down to Presidio.

It was nice to pass through Presidio on a pleasant cool morning.  This remote border town on the Rio Grande often boasts the daily high temperature the Nation.  There are a half dozen or so iNat records of Painted Crescent along the river.  I figured the nearby BJ Bishop Wetlands might be a good place to look.  At least I might see a few migrant birds.

The little set of  ponds for the city of Presidio's treated wastewater is an oasis in this part of the Chihuahuan Desert.  I didn't see much at the little butterfly garden at the entrance.  Driving along the ponds I saw a couple of impossible to photograph Orange Sulphurs.  I parked at the covered picnic table and walked to the south border of the pond.  Lincoln's and Swamp Sparrows called but there were few birds.

Then I spied a couple of blues flitting in the clover at the water's edge.  I fired a few shots.  These blues have tails!  Eastern Tailed-Blue!  This was not a butterfly I was expecting.  Later I found it would be a first Presido County record on iNat.  They are common in moist east Texas.

Well that was cool.  As I returned to the picnic table and sat down to eat lunch, a small pale butterfly sailed past me.  The shallow dainty wing beats made it look like a Nymphalid.  Small pale Nymphalid?  I chased after it and managed a few shots.  My recent experiences with Mexican Crescent in the RGV made this one easy to ID.  It was like a Mexican Crescent with pale submarginal spots on the fore wing.  I had found my Painted Crescent.

After lunch I walked the south border of the pond and found my only Western Pygmy Blue for the trip.

And then a surprise grass skipper.  The default small orange skipper out here is Orange Skipperling.  But this one has a wite band on the under hind wing.  It's our old friend the Southern Skipperling.  Only the third Presidio County record on iNaturalist.  There are no records for next door Brewster County.

 

I saw several more Painted Crescents.  They seem variable like our Mexican and Phaon Crescents.

This dead Poorwill was a sad find.  Hope it wasn't the result of a local jackass with a gun but I bet it was.

With Painted Crescent in the bag, I thought why not go up to Ojito Adrentro in Big Bend Ranch State park.  I've not heard of any ode reports from there in years.  The beautiful isolated riparian canyon used to hold a population of Mayan Setwings.  After all the dry years I don't know if there's even any water up there.  My only visit was fifteen years ago so what the heck.

It's a long bumpy ride though the dusty desert to the trail head.  It was just as I remembered it though maybe with a few more dead cottonwoods.

The half mile hike through the desert was easy but the portion through the cottonwoods was rough.  Trees had fallen and the trail had been poorly maintained.  I did manage to find my only Erichson's White-Skipper for the trip.

And a Texan Crescent.

I scrambled around fallen dead trees and boulders hoping to find some water.  It looked grim.  But a Springwater Dancer gave me hope there was some water somewhere.

Then I found a few pools guarded by Flame Skimmers.

Here's a fun photogenic net-winged beetle.  iNat calls it the Bloody Net-winged Beetle.  Mike Quinn concurred.

The end of the box canyon was lush and had a nice pool.  No sign of the Mayan Setwings.  It may be early in the year for them. 

Lots of Lavender Dancers.

Well the Ojito Aldentro side trip took a lot longer than I had planned.  Also the rugged hike about wore me out and by the time I had driven the long dirt road back out to US 90, I was running out of time.  I would have like to have spent some time along the river, but I barely had time to race though the beautiful scenery to get to a restaurant in Study Butte for dinner.  I was exhausted by the time I got back to Alpine.

The next day I drove an uneventful 530 miles back to Mission.  I picked up a few sparrows but clouds kept the butterflies away.  Not a bad trip.  I'd give it a B.

Trans-Pecos Trip, Davis Mnts, 4/9/25

It rained during the night as a front came through and dropped the morning low into the upper 40's in Alpine.  But the forecast said high in the 70's so maybe things would be OK butterfly wise.  I headed north up TX 118 toward Fort Davis and was happy to see stuff blooming along the highway.  But it was way too cold for bugs.  So I stopped by Davis Moutains State Park to check the bird feeders and let things warm up.  Nothing fantastic but it was nice to see a few western birds up close like this Acorn Woodpecker and Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay.

The day was warming up nicely so I got back on the road and drove toward the high country.  My goal was to look for skippers.  It was also dry up here in the Davis Mountains.  Past the solar demonstration park, I saw a few tiny flowers along the road and stopped.  I found a skipper but it was the common Huron Sachem.

And then a beat up Arizona Powdered-Skipper.

And then a dark cloudywing with a pale underwing edge.  This is the albosuffusa subspecies of Northern Cloudywing.  Nick Grishin has decided this taxon merits specific status.  He calls this one Cecropterus albosuffusa, White-washed Cloudywing.  I've seen it before and called it Northern Cloudywing.  It goes by both names on iNaturalist.

And some more albosuffusa.

A brightly patterned duskywing was a female Mournful Duskywing.

We rarely get Orange Skipperings in the RGV so it was nice to see a few.

A half mile up the road I made another stop and was rewarded with what I had hoped was a rare roadside-skipper.  But upon further review it was a Sheep Skipper.  At least it was a Texas lifer and one I had hoped for on this trip

Another mile up the road I finally got a real Amblyscirtes roadside-skipper.  But it was the common Dotted Roadside-Skipper.

I pulled into the grounds of the McDonald Observatory at noon and it was clouding up.  I parked by a field and watched Western Bluebirds as I ate my lunch.  

No time for tourist stuff.  I had butterflies to find.  I walked the field which had some purple Verbena like stuff and found my only Painted Lady and Southern Dogface for the trip.

I drove up towards the telescopes where I had seen Poling's Hairstreaks a few years ago but there was nothing in bloom.  So I drove back out to the highway and hoped for flowers and sun.  About two miles down the road I found these fuzzy legume like things.  And more Dotted Roadside-Skippers.

And then an orange thing caught my eye.  An orange thing with white dots...  Dang.  I didn't know what it was but I knew it was a good one.  I got a few shots and consulted the field guide.  Pahaska Skipper!  Not many Texas records for this one.

Little was going on at the LE Wood Picnic Area and it was thinking about raining.  More rain was off to the north.  So I headed back towards Fort Davis and it just got wetter and colder.  No more butterflies for this day.  Not a fantastic day but OK.  I wanted Oslar's and Simius Roadside-Skippers but I'll be happy with the Pahaska.