Pinto Canyon Road, Presidio County, 4/6/15

With a break between storm systems I decided to make a run out to Big Bend to check out the birds and butterflies.  After a late start and spending the night in Sanderson I decided to detour to Marfa to look for Baird's Sparrow which was found without much effort so I decided to continue on south along RR 2810 and Pinto Canyon Road to see what I might find.  There was a spectacular display of flowers all across west Texas but finding butterflies took some work.  As the day warmed up I started to find some butterflies along Pinto Canyon Road.  Best was this Acacia Skipper, only the second I've ever seen.  This was my only shot. It was attracted to salts leaching out on the damp sand.

Another interesting butterfly at this site was this southwestern Bordered Patch.

A great Purple Hairstreak was also enjoying the salty road.

A butterfly was trapped in my car and I was surprised to see it was a powdered-skipper.  Turns out it was my first ever Arizona Powdered Skipper.

Other butterflies in this area were Pipevine Swallowtail, Sleepy Orange and Desert Checkered-Skipper. Despite a fantastic bloom of wild flowers I saw not additional interesting butterflies as I drove the Camino del Rio to Big Bend. 

Great day at NBC, 10/21/13

Today was another of those warm, humid prefrontal days when lots of butterflies are often found.  So I drove over to the National Butterfly Center to see what was about and to hopefully find the Acacia Skipper that was found yesterday.  It took a while but the Cogia hippalus appeared where it had been seen previously and posed nicely.  There are few records for this desert loving species for the Valley.

Earlier I found only the second Falcate Skipper I have ever seen.  This is one sharp looking butterfly.  I like those muscular looking legs.

This Violet-banded Skipper was also the only the second I have ever seen.  It was in the gardens out front.

Other good stuff like Gray Cracker, Ruddy Daggerwing, Texas Powdered Skipper and Red-bordered Pixie have become expected at NBC.  Here's one of the toy butterflies.

I was going to try to not post a photo of a Mexican Bluewing but I can't help myself.

Ocola Skippers are starting to appear in the Valley.

Gee, I almost forgot the Malachite.

John Rosford found this Twelve-spotted Skimmer at the little pond out in front.  Common in much of the country, it's pretty rare down here.

Well it turned out to be a great day.  I saw 71 species and know I missed some pretty easy ones.  And look what was waiting in my backyard in Weslaco when I got home.