Butterfly #150 at Progreso Lakes, 12/8/23

Well, I see that I haven't posted anything since June.  Well maybe that's because we had 90 days of at least 100F and no rain over the ensuing four months.  The harsh summer and fall decimated butterfly populations here in the Rio Grande Valley.  But in last couple of monts we've had a few showers and things are looking better.  The Texas Butterfly Festival had OK numbers of butterflies but really low diversity.  Crucita was late blooming but showers and cooler weather have kept blooms on much later than usual.  Our garden at Progreso Lakes looks pretty good now.

So yesterday I was making the rounds, hoping for some thing different, when I spied this striped long-tailed masterpiece.  Finally our first Many-banded Daggerwing and butterfly species #150 for our yard!  It was the species I thought was most overdue for our yard considering we've already had several Ruddy Daggerwings.

Red-bordered Pixies have made a strong someback.  They are a favorite in our yard for visiting butterfly watchers.

I put our word about the Many-banded Daggerwing and visiting butterfly watchers rushed over but it was present for only a minute and never refound.  But in turn they manged to turn up other good stuff like this Boisduval's Yellow.  I haven'st seen one in our yard since spring.

They also found this Purple-washed Skipper which is maybe the first I've seen this year.

Our bair station has had Red Admirals, Tawny Emperors and finally an Empress Leilia.

There is no shortage of Queens.

Here's a list of 47 species of butterflies seen in our yard over the past two days .

• Giant White 1
• Southern Dogface 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 8
• Large Orange Sulphur 4
• Lyside Sulphur 4
• Boisduval's Yellow 1
• Little Yellow 5
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Sleepy Orange 2
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• Rounded Metalmark 1
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• Red-bordered Pixie 4
• American Snout 50
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Bordered Patch 2
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Pearl Crescent 2
• Painted Lady 1
• Red Admiral 5
• Common Mestra 1
• Many-banded Daggerwing 1
• Empress Leilia 1
• Tawny Emperor 3
• Monarch 1
• Queen 25
• Soldier 6
• Guava Skipper 1
• Brown Longtail 5
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 6
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 3
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Common Sootywing 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 5
• Whirlabout 4
• Sachem 2
• Common Mellana 3
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 1
• Eufala Skipper 8
• Purple-washed Skipper 1

Banded Patches at Yturria Brush, 6/6/23

Today was supposed to be the last "coolish" day before temps ramp up to the upper 90's and above.  So I decided to make a run up to Falcon State Park before it gets super hot.  With all the spring rain I was hoping to find some good stuff, maybe even a Banded Patch.  As I passed through La Joya, I wondered if I should check out the Yturria Brush Unit of the Lower Rio Grande NWR.  Last time I was there the entrance trail was grown up and it was really dry.  I pulled into the parking area and checked the start of the trail.  It was lush and I was welcomed by a Texas Powdered-Skipper.

Lots of blooming stuff but I was a little early and it was still cool.  The entrance trail was still overgrown and it was a thorny proposition getting to the main track that goes north.  There were a few Lyside Sulphurs and lots of Empres Leilias.

A late Eastern Kingbird was nice as was an immature singing Varied Bunting but butterflies were disappointing,  I made it to the lush monte about a mile up,  The vegetation along the track had been cleared by Refuge staff, probably at the bidding of Border Patrol and all of the good butterfly plants were chopped down.  Not good.  I walked a couple hundred more yards and I saw a dark patchy checkerspotty looking thing.  Wow!  It was a Banded Patch.

And then I found two more.

I started back towards the monte and found a very frest Banded Patch.  Unfortunately the camera wouldn't give me a sharp focus.

The walk back to the car turned up a few Desrt Checkered-Skippers.

And all three Fritillaries; Gulf, Variegated and Mexican.  Here's the Mexican Fritillary.

So the brush country is started to turn out some butterflies after the spring rain.  But 100 degree days with no rain are starting next week so We'll see how long the butterflies last.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 3
• Giant Swallowtail 3
• Checkered White 2
• Great Southern White 1
• Southern Dogface 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 20
• Little Yellow 4
• Sleepy Orange 5
• Dainty Sulphur 12
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Reakirt's Blue 1
• American Snout 2
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Theona Checkerspot 8
• Banded Patch 4
• Texan Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 1
• Pearl Crescent 1
• American Lady 1
• White Peacock 1
• Common Mestra 2
• Tropical Leafwing 1
• Empress Leilia 40
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 3
• White Checkered-Skipper 1
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 4

 

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.

National Butterfly Center, 5/20/14

With recent rain and a good south wind I decided to run over to the National Butterfly Center south of Mission to see what was flying.  I put in about three hours and saw only 28 species.  But there was lots of flowers in bloom so I'll go check it again in a few days.  Guess "bug of the day" goes to this Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak.

Cyna Blue laying eggs on its host plant.  They're common this year after being absent for a while.

My only Crimson Patch of the day.

I don't know who this spiny caterpillar is going to become.  Looks like a nymphalid of some kind.

The newly split South Texas Satyr.

Graceful Zebra Heliconians always make me wonder when I'll finally get to see an Erato.

Earlier in the morning several Epress Laelias were getting warmed up on the pavement at Anzalduas.

Santa Ana NWR, 9/5/13

Yesterday I made a run over to Santa Ana NWR to look for migrants warblers.  Didn't see too many and as usual was distracted by butterflies.  Santa Ana is one of the best places in the Valley for Mimosa Skipper but this one was not too photogenic.

I saw a few skippers on a little sunflower and was hoping for something interesting but the costal dashes say Clouded Skipper.

I don't know why but I like Celia's Roadside-Skippers.  Maybe because they're out early for bird watchers to see.

Another one that comes out early is Empress Leilia.  There are always a few warming up on the tour road as I walk in.

Things were starting to fly when it clouded up and a much needed cloud burst drove me out of the refuge.