Our new yard at Progreso Lakes, 11/24/16

For years I've been looking at houses on the resaca at Progreso Lakes south of Weslaco and we finally decided to buy one.  I really wanted to be in the area for the outstanding birding but it looks like butterflies are going to be good also.  The previous owners were enamored by grass so there is little in the way of blooming plants, a situation I hope to rectify in the future.  But there is a nice purple duranta and some bottle brush and these were doing a good job at attracting butterflies.  A real surprise were several Double-dotted Skipper.

An even bigger surprise was to see two of them copulating.

A little more expected were several Red-bordered Pixies.

Otherwise it was just common stuff.  I like this Dorantes Longtail in action.

A pale ray is showing on this grass skipper but otherwise it looks like a worn Julia's Skipper.

Clouded Skipper is highly variable depending on the season.  I like the frosted cold weather form.

Here's a pretty Southern Dogface.

Here's a list from the last couple of days.  Our yard list is up to 29.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Southern Dogface 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 6
• Large Orange Sulphur 6
• Lyside Sulphur 2
• Little Yellow 1

Cassius Blue  1

• Red-bordered Pixie 3
• American Snout 2
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Red Admiral  1
• Common Mestra 1
• Tawny Emperor 2
• Carolina Satyr 1
• Monarch  1
• Queen 1
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Dorantes Longtail  1
• Brown Longtail 1
• Laviana White-Skipper 1
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 1
• Double-dotted Skipper  3
• Fiery Skipper 4
• Whirlabout 1
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 2
• Ocola Skipper 1

Santa Ana, 7/3/16

The temperature was forecast to hit 100 today and all of next week so I figured I had better visit Santa Ana NWR before it fries.  Despite the heat of the past week it still looks good but some things like frog fruit are starting to wither.  Best butterflies once again goes to Blue-eyed Sailor.  This one was hanging around a blooming coma (photographed on an elm) and a half hour later and fifty yards away I found the same one again or maybe another.

Saw my first Silver Emperors for this year.  1 and 3/4 of them.

Benton Basham found the nation's first East-Mexican White Skipper at Santa Ana back in 2004.  Lately it's not such a big deal.  Saw two today.

Four Banded Peacocks were nice.  First photo is on P mode at about f 8 while the second is on A mode at f 20.  The depth of field difference is noticeable but I really need a tripod when it's closed down.  I don't know why the colors came out so different.  The first is more accurate.

Common Mestras have been abundant lately.  One was ovipositing on noseburn.  Ouch!

Fawn-spotted and Clouded Skippers for comparison.

And a Soldier for this Fourth of July weekend.

• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Great Southern White 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 40
• Lyside Sulphur 3
• Little Yellow 2
• Mimosa Yellow 6
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 3
• Clytie Ministreak 2
• Reakirt's Blue 1
• Rounded Metalmark 15
• Red-bordered Metalmark 6
• American Snout 1000
• Gulf Fritillary 5
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 25
• Crimson Patch 2
• Texan Crescent 5
• Pale-banded Crescent 20
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Pearl Crescent 2
• Common Buckeye 2
• White Peacock 50
• Banded Peacock 4
• Mexican Bluewing 5
• Blue-eyed Sailor 1
• Common Mestra 50
• Tropical Leafwing 4
• Tawny Emperor 15
• Silver Emperor 2
• Queen 2
• Soldier 1
• Brown Longtail 3
• Mazans Scallopwing 2
• Sickle-winged Skipper 20
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 6
• Laviana White-Skipper 30
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 8
• Clouded Skipper 15
• Whirlabout 6
• Southern Broken-Dash 2
• Eufala Skipper 1
• East Mexican White-Skipper 2

National Butterfly Center, 7/10/14

Yesterday I ran over to the National Butterfly Center to look for Mike Rickard's Liris Skipper. When I arrived Louie showed me a sharp looking Ruddy Daggerwing, the first I've seen in a while. We had quite a few last year. It spent the day in a Cortez Croton.

Out in the front garden a male Florida White was nectaring on the Flame Vine.

This is the first White Peacock I've seen at the NBC this year.

There were a few lantana in bloom, a favorite of the Zebra Heliconian..

As I earlier stated my goal was to find the Liris Skipper. With the cloudy weather there seemed to be more grass skippers out than usual. I scrutinized every dark skipper. The coastal dashes say Clouded Skipper on most of them.

The smaller dark ones with the gray square and lacking the coastal dashes are Fawn-spotted Skippers. They like the shady ditch.

Here's a good looking Julia's Skipper (at least I'm pretty sure.)

I think this may be one too but I'm not so sure. But it's none of the other common species.

So I left without a Liris Skipper. During the evening I watered our butterfly garden at home. I found this Guava Skipper caterpillar out in the open wandering around on a guava leaf. As most of my Guava Skipper larvae succomb to parasitic wasps, I decided to rescue this one. It's in the house now with a clump of guava leaves. We'll see how it does.

Giant Swallowtail 3
Florida White 1
Large Orange Sulphur 3
Lyside Sulphur 30
Little Yellow 3
Gray Hairstreak 5
Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 10
Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
Ceraunus Blue 1
Reakirt's Blue 5
Fatal Metalmark 1
American Snout 2
Gulf Fritillary 5
Zebra Heliconian 3
Bordered Patch 2
Crimson Patch 5
Texan Crescent 1
Phaon Crescent 25
White Peacock 1
Ruddy Daggerwing 1
Tropical Leafwing 1
Tawny Emperor 40
Queen 40
Brown Longtail 5
White Checkered-Skipper 12
Tropical Checkered-Skipper 3
Laviana White-Skipper 5
Turk's-cap White-Skipper 2
Common Sootywing 2
Julia's Skipper 2
Fawn-spotted Skipper 2
Clouded Skipper 15
Fiery Skipper 1
Southern Broken-Dash 7
Celia's Roadside-Skipper 6
Eufala Skipper 4

Santa Ana NWR, 3/22/14

A warm, cloudy afternoon walk down the main tour road at Santa Ana NWR netted 22 species of butterflies.  When I got to the old manager's residence area area I remembered this was the site of my first Texas Powdered-Skipper a couple of years ago.  And right on cue a little brown butterfly does a couple of laps around me and then poses.  Pretty weird.

Here's a strongly patterned female Checkered White.

I got past the start of the Bobcat Trail and started looking for East Mexican White-Skipper.   But the small croton I had found them on last fall was nowhere to be found.  Instead a little blue catches my eye and lands and starts wobbling from side to side.  Another Cyna Blue!

As I approached the Old Cemetery, the tour road was lined with Dakota Vervain.  Most of the butterflies were in this area.  This is a Clouded Skipper.

American Ladies have big eyes.  They also have falcate wingtips.

A tiny dark skipper toyed with me a while before giving itself up as a Celia's Roadside-Skipper.

Several South Texas Satyrs cavorted along the road but were hard to photograph.

There were lots of flowering plants but not much sunshine.  So I'll have to try this walk again in a few days.

National Butterfly Center, 2/21/14

With all the cold weather we've had this winter, it's been difficult to see ten species of butterflies.  But it got really hot yesterday with a strong southerly wind, followed by a weak cold front last night so I thought today might be a good day at the National Butterfly Center.  Turns out I was right.  The weather was perfect and I saw 43 species of butterflies, many new for the year.  Exciting for me was my first Goatweed Leafwing.  I think I've seen it before up north but it was my first for the Valley.

The rest of 'em were among our more common species.  I guess this beat up female Black Swallowtail was less common.

If Clouded Skippers were rare, we would get all excited about them.  The winter form is pretty sharp looking.

Many of our butterflies have a tropical look to them, but Orange Sulphur looks like something you would see up north.

Even during some pretty cold days this winter you could still find a Red Admiral.

Our two duskywings, Funerial and Mournful, often present ID problems.  Today all I saw at the NBC were Funerial Duskywing.

When I got home, the first thing I saw in the garden was a couple of Mournful Duskywings.  They are really different.

Strophius Hairstreak at NBC, 11/21/13

After a relatively dull day at the National Butterfly Center south of Mission, Honey and I decided to check the betony mistflower in front of the visitor's center one last time before leaving.  After a bit she asked "What's this little brown hairstreak?"  Well, after I got on it, I realized it was a Strophius Hairstreak, a pretty darn good bug for the Valley.  Luckily we were able to get a few people up to see it.

Otherwise it was a bit of  a weird day.  Numerous Giant Whites and at least ten Purple-washed Skippers were really unusual.  On the other hand, I was only able to dig out one Ocola Skipper.  Here's a lovely Giant White, another species I can't resist.

And here's a striking Purple-washed Skipper that was along the "wall" just north of Bentsen.

We had two or three Malachites.

And a beautiful Questionmark.

A few brief views of a strange haistreak got me all aflustered (Is that a word?).  But eventually it stayed put for a photo and proved to be just a sharp Clouded Skipper.

And lastly, here's a Hermes Skipper that could use a good shave.