National Butterfly Center, 2/24/24

Things at the National Butterfly Center are trying to recover form the hard freeze this winter.  Some good rain last week and warm temperatures have got trees leafing out and flowers blooming.  39 species for the day is a pretty good February total.  The Mexican Bluewings were putting on a show,

My first Texas Powdered-Skippers for the year.  They like to hang out int he ditch.

Three Turk's-Cap White-Skippers were on the big Azureum patch by the trail that crosses the ditch.  Probably over half my day's butterflies were from that patch.

I think it's been a few years since my last Nysa Roadside-Skipper.

One Celia Roadside-Skipper looked kind of normal and the other was pretty freaky.

First Sachem of the year.

What a fantastic Southern Broken-Dash!

Five of the butterflies I saw today were new for the month at the National Butterfly Center bringing the February total to 70.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Black Swallowtail 1
• Checkered White 5
• Orange Sulphur 3
• Southern Dogface 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 5
• Little Yellow 6
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Fatal Metalmark 2
• American Snout 8
• Gulf Fritillary 5
• Bordered Patch 2
• Phaon Crescent 30
• Pearl Crescent 1
• American Lady 3
• Red Admiral 25
• Mexican Bluewing 8
• Empress Leilia 2
• Queen 10
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 2
• Funereal Duskywing 2
• White Checkered-Skipper 10
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 30
• Laviana White-Skipper 15
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 3
• Common Sootywing 1
• Clouded Skipper 20
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 15
• Whirlabout 25
• Southern Broken-Dash 1
• Sachem 2
• Common Mellana 3
• Nysa Roadside-Skipper 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 20

Progreso Lakes, 2/23/19

It hasn't been very cold this winter but there's been lots of cool drizzly days and not many butterflies.  But today they were active so I spent some time in the yard and did pretty good.  Here's my first Forida White for the year.

I saw a big grass skipper with some large white spots on the wings.  I figured it was a Double-dotted Skipper.  I was right.

An even bigger grass skipper with even more white spots was buzzing around the purple Duranta and our male papaya.  Gotta be a Brazilian Skipper.

I think this big beautiful Monarch hatched from our garden.  I saw a big caterpillar the other day.

We don't get Mazan's Scallopwing very often.

A Southern Skipperling seemed a little larger than usual.

This Celia's Roadside-Skipper was our first for the year.

The morning was humid and warm but then a little front blew through and brought a couple of American Ladies.

Thirty three species is the most we've had in a while.

• Black Swallowtail 1
• Florida White 1
• Checkered White 1
• Southern Dogface 3
• Cloudless Sulphur 3
• Orange-barred Sulphur 1
• Little Yellow 3
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 4
• American Snout 2
• Phaon Crescent 1
• American Lady 2
• Red Admiral 1
• White Peacock 1
• Carolina Satyr 4
• Monarch 3
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 5
• Mazans Scallopwing 1
• Funereal Duskywing 4
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper20
• Common Sootywing 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 3
• Whirlabout 2
• Sachem 1
• Common Mellana 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 1
• Eufala Skipper 2

Variegated Skipper at Estero, 3/1/17

Yesterday Michael Delasantro found a Variegated Skipper at Estero Llano Grande State Park.  I've seen this beautiful skipper in Panama but I've missed the few that we've had in the Rio Grande Valley so I really wanted to find this butterfly.  I arrived at Estero at 10 AM and ran into Rick and May Snider at their bait log. The Variegated Skipper had not been seen yesterday after the initial sighting and Rick was happy to accompany me to the rear of the Tropical Zone where it had been found.

We looked around for over an hour and saw some pretty good stuff but no Variegated Skipper.  It was getting cloudy and the butterflies were getting scarce when a Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet called.  Well we wandered off in search of that and then we wandered over to the hummingbird feeder were Rick had seen four species of hummers earlier in the morning.  And near there he wanted to check out a patch of azureum and he commented about how it was nice that Ruben had mowed around the patch to make it more accessible.  And then what should magically appear before our eyes?  None other than the Variegated Skipper.  After getting home I checked on Google Earth and found it was 257 yards from the azureum bush where it was originally found.    Amazing!

Well it flew while we were trying to get the word out on our phones.  In the process of searching we came across this female Chestnut Crescent.  No one gets excited anymore this spring when they come across one of these rare butterflies.  They are all over the place.

Nearby May pointed out a Band-celled Sister.

Earlier in the morning Rick and I saw this Brown-banded Skipper in the rear of the Tropical Zone.

Celia's Roadside-Skippers are common in the shady Tropical Zone.

Near Rick and May's bair log we had a pair of copulating Southern Broken-Dashes.  The golden females give me problems.  They can look a lot like a Common Mellana.

Red-bordered Metalmarks must be on of the easiest butterflies to photograph and they move in slow motion while meticulously searching for every little bit of nectar on a flower.

This Western Pygmy-Blue out in the parking lot was about the largest I've ever seen.

Somedays it takes skill and some days you just get lucky.  We were sure lucky today.

Angled Leafwings at National Butterfly Center, 2/11/17

Lorna Graham found an Angled Leafwing yesterday afternoon at the National Butterfly Center and no one else got to see it.  The only ones I have ever seen were back in  Dec. 2012.  But not to worry as the butterfly was refound today.

And for good measure I found another one shortly thereafter.  It's amazing how often rare butterflies show up in multiples.

It's been awhile since I've seen a Common Streaky-Skipper at the NBC.

Prior to last week I had only seen three Chestnut Crescents.  Now I've seen four in four days.  With both sexes being seen, I wonder if they will leave any caterpillars behind.

My afternoon started with this Band-celled Sister.

And yet another Double-dotted Skipper.

Celia's Roadside-Skipper are starting to appear again.

The winter form of South Texas Satyr has really tiny occelli.

NABA Sightings won't allow me to copy and past my list for the day so you have to go there now to see it.

https://sightings.naba.org/

Our Yard, 6/27/15

We got up late this morning and decided to stay home today.   So I was doing some yardwork when a nice looking Banded Peacock flew by.  I dropped the pruners and ran into the house for the camera but I was too late.  I kept an eye on the yard throughout the day hoping it would return, but now such luck.  Anyway it was yard butterfly #96.

I did get lucky when a Large Orange Sulphur I was watching landed in our Golden Rain Tree and I happened to have the camera.  The luck was that it actually was an Orange-barred Sulphur.  It took me a while to notice the orange bar.

Another yellow that I don't see too often in our yard is Mimosa Yellow.

I see Little Yellows almost every day.

A couple of small skippers hanging out in the shade proved to be Celia's Roadside-Skipper.

Guava Skipper is becoming an almost daily occurrence in our yard.  This one was under a heliconia leaf.

So we had 26 species in the yard today which is the most I've seen in a while.

• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Great Southern White 2
• Cloudless Sulphur 1
• Orange-barred Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 1
• Little Yellow 3
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 3
• Cassius Blue 1
• Bordered Patch 15
• Elada Crescent 1
• Texan Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Pearl Crescent 2
• Banded Peacock 1
• Guava Skipper 1
• Brown Longtail 2
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 8
• Clouded Skipper 2
• Whirlabout 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 1

National Butterfly Center, 8/31/14

Well the RGV finally got some rain and the National Butterfly Center south of Mission is looking good. Butterfly numbers are still low but I expect to see things pick up in the coming weeks.  Best bug today goes to this Silver-banded Hairstreak.

Fiery Skippers have really increased since a week ago.  There's quite a difference between the sexes.  The first is the male.

Finally saw a Turk's-cap White-Skipper.

Celia's Roadside-Skippers have also increased.  I saw six today after seeing none a week ago.

I chase down every Little Yellow hoping to find a Mimosa Yellow and finally got one today.

Separating Julia's and Eufala Skippers can be a challenge.  Julia's is usually browner or more golden but I find Jan Dauphin's "eyebrow rule" to be equally helpful.  Eufala always has a big gleaming white eyebrow that goes all the way forward above the eye.

While Julia's eyebrow is much less distinct.

I thought I had a big "white" flopping around high up in the tree tops but I couldn't tell which it was.  So I fired a bunch a photos.  I was disappointed to find it was just a female Large Orange Sulphur.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 10
• Giant Swallowtail 4
• Southern Dogface 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 3
• Lyside Sulphur 5
• Little Yellow 4
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Ceraunus Blue 2
• American Snout 1
• Gulf Fritillary 3
• Zebra Heliconian 4
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Empress Leilia 1
• Tawny Emperor 4
• Queen 30
• Soldier 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 7
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 3
• Laviana White-Skipper 5
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper 12
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 6
• Eufala Skipper 4