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

Santa Ana NWR, 6/27/16

I ran over to Santa Ana NWR this morning to check out the birds.  They turned out to be pretty non-noteworthy but the butterflies were smokin'.  Along the sidewalk past the old manager's residence area was this sharp Blue-eyed Sailor feeding on scat.  I think it's my new favorite butterfly.

Along the Willow Lakes Trail the frog fruit was blooming and loaded with butterflies.  Best was this rare East-Mexican White-Skipper.  Several have been seen this summer.

Nearby was a Turk's-cap White-Skipper.

Three Banded Peacocks were noteworthy.

Dozens of White Peacocks nectared on the frog fruit.

As did this Mimosa Skipper.  They were out in force today.

A sharp Gray-Hairstreak.

Turquoise antenna knobs a blazing, if Great Southern Whites could talk they would sound like Foghorn Leghorn.

Twenty five Pale-banded Crescents were my most ever for one day.

It's hard for this Rounded Metalmark to hide behind this frog fruit flower.

Well, while most of the butterflies were enjoying frog fruit, this White-striped Longtail exhibited a more exotic palate.  I guess it's an acquired taste.

First butterfly of the day was this poor Ruddy Daggerwing.

• Giant Swallowtail 5
• Great Southern White 5
• Large Orange Sulphur 15
• Lyside Sulphur 2
• Little Yellow 3
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Ceraunus Blue 3
• Rounded Metalmark 5
• Red-bordered Pixie 1
• American Snout 5000
• Gulf Fritillary 3
• Zebra Heliconian 3
• Bordered Patch 100
• Crimson Patch 5
• Elada Crescent 1
• Texan Crescent 5
• Pale-banded Crescent 25
• Phaon Crescent 15
• White Peacock 70
• Banded Peacock 3
• Mexican Bluewing 3
• Blue-eyed Sailor 1
• Common Mestra 50
• Ruddy Daggerwing 1
• Tawny Emperor 3
• Carolina Satyr 1
• Queen 4
• White-striped Longtail 2
• Brown Longtail 10
• Mimosa Skipper 10
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper10
• Laviana White-Skipper 50
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 4
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 3
• Clouded Skipper 8
• Whirlabout 3
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 1
• East Mexican White-Skipper 1

Hoary Skipper at Santa Ana NWR, 5-31-16

After having visited Santa Ana NWR each of the past three days for birds and butterflies, today I had to make it four days in a row after Javi Gonzalez found a fresh Hoary Skipper yesterday.  I spent nearly four hours looking for it, had given up and was leaving when guess what I found?  Only it wasn't Javi's Hoary.  It was a different one.  So with the beat up one he found a couple of weeks ago that makes three of this pretty rare bug at Santa Ana.  It was only the second one I have ever seen.

Three days ago I took a hot afternoon walk at Santa Ana hoping to find something good over there and I did.  This East-Mexican White-Skipper was on the tour road just past the canopy walk.

Other stuff I saw along the tour road included Common Mestra and Mimosa Skipper.

Then Sunday morning visiting birders found a Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher at the refuge so I ran over and failed to see it but did see this Two-barred Flasher.

There were at least a half dozen Pale-banded Crescents.

Yesterday I went back again to give the Sulphur-belly another shot when I found this Banded Peacock.

This is proving to be a good summer for Mexican Bluewing.  They have been hard to find the past couple of years.

Then today I went back for the Hoary Skipper.  While looking for it I found an ovipositing Brown-banded Skipper.  Barbados Cherry is the host plant.

After searching for a couple of hours, I walked up the tour road and checked out the Willow Lakes area.  A large number of the granjeno (spiny hackberry) bushes were completely stripped of leaves.  Upon closer inspection I discovered the culprits, American Snout caterpillars.

Walking back to the visitors center I found a Pearl Crescent which has been in short supply lately.

So here's a compound list from the past four visits to Santa Ana NWR.

• Giant Swallowtail 6
• Checkered White 1
• Great Southern White 8
• Cloudless Sulphur 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 8
• Lyside Sulphur 20
• Little Yellow 5
• Mimosa Yellow 5
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 8
• Clytie Ministreak 15
• Western Pygmy-Blue 1
• Cassius Blue 4
• Reakirt's Blue 4
• Rounded Metalmark 3
• American Snout 50
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Zebra Heliconian 2
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 3
• Elada Crescent 2
• Texan Crescent 8
• Pale-banded Crescent 6
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Pearl Crescent 1
• White Peacock 3
• Banded Peacock 1
• Red-spotted Admiral 1
• Mexican Bluewing 6
• Common Mestra 4
• Tawny Emperor 10
• Carolina Satyr 5
• Monarch 10
• White-striped Longtail 2
• Brown Longtail 6
• Two-barred Flasher 1
• Mimosa Skipper 3
• Mazans Scallopwing 1
• Hoary Skipper 1
• Brown-banded Skipper 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper15
• Laviana White-Skipper 20
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 5
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 5
• Clouded Skipper 5
• Whirlabout 5
• Southern Broken-Dash 10
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 10
• Eufala Skipper 3
• East Mexican White-Skipper 1

Sal del Rey, 11/7/15

This week I've led two birding trips up to Sal del Rey off of Brushline Road north of TX 186.  We walked in to the salt lake along a road used by water trucks that transport brine pumped from the lake to be used in the gas well fracking.  Along the way we had some pretty good butterflies.  This was my first East Mexican White-Skipper for this year.

We actually saw all four of the south Texas white-skippers.  Here's Erichson's.

And here's Turk's-cap White-Skipper and the more common Laviana White-Skipper.

A few weeks earlier I had walked this road and had seen lots of globemallow which had been absent during our prolonged drought.  Globemallow is the host plant for Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreak and they were out today.

I would like to have spent more time with the butterflies but this was a birding trip.  I'll have to get back up here in a few days.

East Mexican White-Skipper at Santa Ana NWR, 10/29/14

Yesterday someone found an Emerald Aguna at Santa Ana NWR so I headed out that way late this morning.  Didn't have any luck finding it but still saw some good bugs.  I walked the tour road to check the area past Bobcat Trail where I had seen East-Mexican White-Skipper last year.  It took a bit of searching but I eventually found one a bit farther down the road.

Earlier in the morning I found this Violet-banded Skipper in the blooming crucita near the trail head.  This is the first time I've ever seen one with its wings open.

Even though it doesn't look like one, all the marks point toward Pearl Crescent.

And then there were several Long-tailed Skippers.  This first one looks pretty normal.

But this one I'm not so sure about.  It looks a lot like esmeraldus but when I really find one that's not proteus I think I'll know it.

Saw a couple of Mimosa Yellows today.

Mike Rickard found this Great Southern White, the first I've seen in Hidalgo County in quite a while.  I have a difficult time saying "Great Southern White" with using my Foghorn Leghorn voice.  Love those blue knobs.

I don't feel like doing a list so here's an American Snout for consolation.  A real teat!