Progreso Lakes, 10/23/21

The Texas Butterfly Festival is coming up in a week and that means it's time for visiting butterfly watchers.  After few visitors last year because of the pandemic, it was great to see Barbara and Steve today.  They showed up while I was doing some yard work.  We made a few rounds of the yard and didn't see anything great.  But here's a few pics anyway.

This Mexican Bluewing showed up very fresh a few days ago.  I think it may have hatched in our brush patch.  She seems to be looking for a husband.

We got four of the five expected long-tailed skippers, Dorantes Longtail, White-striped Longtail, Brown Longtail and Long-tailed Skipper.  but getting Zilpa Longtail is always tough.

First Double-dotted Skipper I've seen in weeks.  It's got a few extra dots.

Cloudless Sulphur on a Heliconia latispatha.

A striking Gulf Fritillary.

Western Giant Swallowtail caterpillar.

Less than thirty species today so there's still stuff that 's missing.  Warm breezy weather should bring in a few more.

Progreso Lakes, 10/19/17

Wow!  What a great day in our yard at Progreso Lakes.  I had to stay home for the plumber and started casually looking around the yard.  First good butterfly was a female Statira Sulphur.  I later found a male.

After dealing with the plumber, I went back outside and quickly found this ratty Mexican Yellow, yard butterfly #91.  I was expecting to get one sometime during the winter.  Now I wonder if I'll see a bunch of them.

Things slowed down a while and I was about to quit when this Dorantes Longtail popped in.

I had earlier gotten White-striped Longtail.

And as usual there were plenty of Brown Longtails.

This nice Double-dotted Skipper was an afternoon surprise.  I usually get them early in the day.

I made one more round of our one acre yard, checking the purple Duranta.  It's had few floweres lately.  I notice a boldly marked female White Checkered-Skipper and thought that it looked a bit like an Erichson's White-Skipper.  But it wasn't.  I was going to quit for the day and thought I should check the garden one last time.  And guess what I found.  Of all things, it was an Erichson's White-Skipper.  I could not believe it.  I thought it was a possibility for our yard but might take years to get one.  #92!

And for good measure I saw another little grass skipper that turned out to be Olive-Clouded Skipper.

Finished the day with another new high, 47 species.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 2
• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 10
• Large Orange Sulphur 3
• Statira Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 2
• Mexican Yellow 1
• Tailed Orange 1
• Little Yellow 6
• Mimosa Yellow 3
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Rounded Metalmark 2
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• American Snout 1
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 3
• Phaon Crescent 8
• Pearl Crescent 2
• Painted Lady 3
• White Peacock 10
• Carolina Satyr 1
• Monarch 2
• Queen 30
• Soldier 3
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 8
• Mimosa Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 3
• Mournful Duskywing 2
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 8
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
• Erichson's White-Skipper 1
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Julia's Skipper 2
• Clouded Skipper 10
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 10
• Whirlabout 3
• Southern Broken-Dash 2
• Sachem 2
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 3
• Olive-clouded Skipper 1