Good south wind at Progreso Lakes, 10/16/22

Our first cold front of the fall is due tomorrow and that usually sucks up warm wind from the south before it arrives.  So I made a conscious effort to run up a butterfly list for our Progreso Lakes yard today.  Our yard is also blooming nicely and combined with the southerly wind my expectations were high.  As it turned out, there were a lot of butterflies but not anything unusual.  I think it may take a few more fronts and a few more days of southerly wind to bring up the good stuff.

Butterfly of the day goes to a couple of Fawn-spotted Skippers.  Formerly common in our yard, this species was wiped out by last year's February freeze.  These are the first I've seen since then though they are still present in the Brownsville area.

Mimosa Skippers are a specialty of the mid and lower RGV.  They use the thorny pink flowered   

mimosas that line the ditches and resacas to as a host plant.  Today I had five which is pretty unusal.

The wind brought a Mazan's Scallopwing to the yard.  We only get one or two per year.

White-patched Skippers are finally showing after a long absense.

Dorantes Longtails have also just arrived.  It seems many butterflies time their reproduction to coincide with the fall flower season.

Soldiers have recently marched into the yard for the fall.

Here's today's list of 51 species.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 5
• Cloudless Sulphur 8
• Large Orange Sulphur 4
• Lyside Sulphur 2
• Little Yellow 10
• Mimosa Yellow 2
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 2
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Western Pygmy-Blue 5
• Ceraunus Blue 6
• Rounded Metalmark 6
• Red-bordered Metalmark 10
• American Snout 200
• Gulf Fritillary 5
• Bordered Patch 10
• Pearl Crescent   1
• Vesta Crescent 5
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Painted Lady 1
• Red Admiral 1
• White Peacock 15
• Tawny Emperor 8
• Queen 50
• Soldier 5
• White-striped Longtail 3
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 8
• Mimosa Skipper 5
• Mazans Scallopwing 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 60
• White-patched Skipper 1
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 6
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 8
• Laviana White-Skipper 12
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Common Sootywing 2
• Julia's Skipper 3
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 2
• Clouded Skipper 50
• Double-dotted Skipper 4
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 6
• Whirlabout 6
• Southern Broken-Dash 10
• Common Mellana 10
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 6
• Eufala Skipper 8

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 yard, 11/30/19

Another warm and windy day ahead of the approaching cool front.  The star today was this sharp Yellow Angled-Sulphur.  It's been two years since we have had any though they have been reported at other sites.

A few other butterflies were carried in by the wind like this beat up female Orange-barred Sulphur.

Empress Leilia is common at Santa Ana NWR twelve miles away but they are rare in our yard.  It's unusual to see one nectaring.

Another new arrival was this Dorantes Longtail.

Our local Double-dotted Skippers were in the same spots as yesterday.  They seem to like the white plumbago.

And the Guava Skipper was in the same spot.

After some cooler weather tomorrow, things should warm up again.  Over at Estero they had a Blomfild's Beauty and a Gold-spotted Aguna and over at Frontera they had a Red Rim so there's still some good stuff waiting to be seen in our yard.

Mexican Silverspot at Progreso Lakes, 11/27/19

Today was forecast to be warm and windy so I thought it would be a good opportunity to get some work done in our yard at Progreso Lakes.  After a couple of hours visiting butterfly watchers showed up and I used that as an excuse to stop working and have some fun.  We quickly discovered the stiff breeze was blowing in some good stuff.  First was this uncooperative Florida White.

A few minutes later a Mexican Yellow fluttered by.  We later found a second but I failed to get a great shot.

While I was trying to get them on the Florida White I caught a glimpse of a pale green sulphur with purple wing tips....Statira Sulphur!

At this point we had to get word out to other visiting lepidophiles who soon arrived only to find the Mexican Yellow but nothing else.  But they went to work and soon turned up this magnificent Mexican Silverspot, yard butterfly #115.  It's a been a few years since I have seen one.

Everyone loved the Guava Skipper as usual.

I don't get many Questionmarks.  Here's an unusual shot.

Then Linda Cooper's sharp eyes found us a Silver-banded Hairstreak.

Though I had not seen a Double-dotted Skipper in weeks, the group wanted one and so they found a couple.

I like Dorantes Longtails.  This one stayed for only a few seconds.

Not a butterfly but a cool day flying moth, this Saucy Beauty was a first for our yard.

So we found 48 species in the yard including some good quality bugs.  Meanwhile Blomfild's Beauties have been found at the National Butterfly Center and at nearby Estero Llano Grande State Park and Estero also had a Chestnut Crescent so things are looking up.

Pipevine Swallowtail 1

• Florida White 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 5
• Large Orange Sulphur 3
• Statira Sulphur 1
• Mexican Yellow 2
• Little Yellow 1
• Mimosa Yellow 2
• Dainty Sulphur 2
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 5
• Ceraunus Blue 2
• Reakirt's Blue 3
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• American Snout 1
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Mexican Silverspot 1
• Texan Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 3
• Phaon Crescent 3
• Question Mark 1
• Painted Lady 1
• Red Admiral 1
• White Peacock 2
• Tawny Emperor 1
• Carolina Satyr 2
• Monarch 4
• Queen 10
• Soldier 2
• Guava Skipper 2
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 4
• Sickle-winged Skipper 3
• White Checkered-Skipper 4
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 2
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 2
• Double-dotted Skipper 2
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 8
• Whirlabout 4
• Southern Broken-Dash 3
• Sachem 2
• Eufala Skipper 2
• Ocola Skipper 2

Progreso Lakes, 10/17/19

Butterflies have really increased in both numbers and diversity in our Progreso Lakes yard, with over 50 species seen during the past week.  Best was yesterday's Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreak.

Not much else unusual but Guava Skipper is always a treat.

Dorantes Longtail has been present the past few days.

Nice to see a Common Mestra.

I'm estimating about 75 Queens in the yard.

And maybe ten Soldiers.

Been a long time since we've had a Common Sootywing.

This Common Mellana retains a portion of the chrysalis scale on it's eye.

I hope the Gulf Fritillaries find my Corky-stemmed Passionvine.

Pipevine Swallowtail likes everything except my giant pipevine.

Well let's hope something rare shows up soon.  It's that time of year.

Yard Butterfly #112 at Progreso Lakes, 1/8/19

I was doing a little birding and yard work today in our Progreso Lakes yard.  There was a little action on our flame vine while I was working in our cactus garden but nothing major.  I made a few sweeps of our brushy native patch and saw a Pixie and some Queens and a little pale blue that I passed off as a Cassius Blue.  After lunch I checked our garden again and saw the little blue and decided to photograph it.  What a surprise when I saw it was a Cyna Blue!  It was bigger than normal and I wonder if it's a female.  Hope it finds my little snake herb or some of our tube tongue.

Back at the flame vine there was a sweet Guava Skipper.  I see these a couple of times per week.

Much less common was this Dorantes Longtail.

It took a while before I could get a shot of this White-striped Longtail.  Finally it rested on the palm stump.

Still a few Red-bordered Pixies around.

We would make a big deal about Queens if they weren't so common.