NABA Butterfly Count at Santa Ana NWR, 7/16/16

  This past Saturday I was joined by Dick and Sherry Wilson and Chris Balboni at Santa Ana NWR for the NABA butterfly count.  We had a very successful day finding 61 species including some pretty uncommon stuff.  But Tipp Davenport found the best butterfly the next day, a Spot-celled Sister.  The following afternoon I ran over and managed to find it in the brush west of the entrance kiosk as Tripp described.  Four of these rare leps have been seen in the Valley this year and it was a lifer for me.

On the NABA count, this Erato Heliconian would normally drawn rave reviews but it was the fourth seen the year in the RGV and the fifth was seen the next day at Quinta Mazatlan.

There were six Ruddy Daggerwings and my first Many-banded Daggerwing of the year.

An amazing three species of green hairstreaks included Silver-banded Hairstreak, Tropical Greenstreak and this Telea Hairstreak.

I found the only Mimosa Skipper of the day way down on the tour road.

The morning started with this Gray Cracker in the butterfly garden.

• Giant Swallowtail 3
• Large Orange Sulphur 95
• Lyside Sulphur 49
• Tailed Orange 3
• Little Yellow 10
• Mimosa Yellow 21
• Telea Hairstreak 1
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Tropical Greenstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 6
• Clytie Ministreak 5
• Cassius Blue 2
• Ceraunus Blue 3
• Fatal Metalmark 8
• Rounded Metalmark 24
• Red-bordered Metalmark 27
• American Snout 700
• Gulf Fritillary 18
• Julia Heliconian 2
• Zebra Heliconian 4
• Erato Heliconian 1
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 5
• Crimson Patch 3
• Texan Crescent 9
• Pale-banded Crescent 22
• Phaon Crescent 30
• White Peacock 93
• Banded Peacock 3
• Band-celled Sister 1
• Mexican Bluewing 20
• Dingy Purplewing 1
• Common Mestra 28
• Gray Cracker 1
• Many-banded Daggerwing 1
• Ruddy Daggerwing 6
• Tropical Leafwing 12
• Tawny Emperor 100
• Carolina Satyr 3
• Queen 8
• Soldier 1
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 8
• Mimosa Skipper 1
• Glazed Pellicia 1
• Mazans Scallopwing 2
• Sickle-winged Skipper 34
• Brown-banded Skipper 2
• White Checkered-Skipper 3
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper21
• Laviana White-Skipper 36
• East-Mexican White-Skipper  1
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 4
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 8
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Whirlabout 4
• Sachem 2
• Common Mellana 9
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 10

Amazing day at Bentsen and NBC, 7/5/16

The past couple of days there been a lot of good butterflies seen between Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park and the National Butterfly Center.  I finally made it over to Bentsen this morning hoping to see the Erato Heliconian and there was john Rosford.  And he was filming two Erato Heliconians!  I think it's the first time there has ever been more than one of these at a time here in the USA.  Unfortunately I missed my photo opp.

The other thing I wanted to see was the Rosita Patch and I found it up high in the Wright's Catclaw.  Valley lifer #201 for me.

Two Clench's Greenstreaks were reported yesterday and I thought I found one but it turned out to be a Telea Hairstreak.

And then I did find a greenstreak but I'm not sure if it's a Clench's or a Tropical Greenstreak.  Hard to tell what the color is on the frons but it almost looks green which would be Tropical.

And then there were two magnificent Ruddy Daggerwings.

And plenty of Banded Peacocks, this one mourning the death of a Gulf Fritillary.

After an hour and a half I ran over to NBC and immediately found the Silver Emperor.  They found theirs here the same day I found the one at Santa Ana.

There target here at the National Butterfly Center were an Amazon Darner dragonfly and more Rosita Patches.  So I spent a couple of hours on the Hackberry Trail and in the Ditch.  I ran into Mike Rickard and we soon found a Rosita Patch.

We could not find the Amazon Darner but were pleased with this Bronzed River Cruiser.

Two Gray Crackers were nice.

I have to include a Mexican Bluewing.

I failed to get a photo of the Band-celled Sister but did get the Glazed Pellicia.

Here are separate lists for Bentsen and NBC.

• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 8
• Lyside Sulphur 4
• Telea Hairstreak 1
• Clench's Greenstreak 1
• Cassius Blue 1
• American Snout 200
• Gulf Fritillary 3
• Erato Heliconian 2
• Rosita Patch 2
• Vesta Crescent 1
• White Peacock 3
• Banded Peacock 4
• Mexican Bluewing 1
• Common Mestra 2
• Ruddy Daggerwing 2
• Tropical Leafwing 1
• Tawny Emperor 10
• Queen 2
• Brown Longtail 2
• Glazed Pellicia 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 5
• Brown-banded Skipper 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 2
• Laviana White-Skipper 1

• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 10
• Lyside Sulphur 3
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 2
• American Snout 500
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Julia Heliconian 1
• Zebra Heliconian 3
• Crimson Patch 1
• Rosita Patch 1
• Texan Crescent 2
• Pearl Crescent 1
• White Peacock 5
• Band-celled Sister 1
• Mexican Bluewing 15
• Common Mestra 3
• Gray Cracker 2
• Tropical Leafwing 6
• Tawny Emperor 300
• Silver Emperor 1
• Queen 6
• Soldier 1
• Glazed Pellicia 1
• Clouded Skipper 5

Erato Heliconian at Old Hidalgo Pumphouse, 7/7/15

This morning I got a call from Mary Beth Stowe saying that she had just found an Erato Heliconian at the Old Hidalgo Pumphouse.  With the strong southerly winds, that's not an unlikely find.  But it's still a good one so I raced over and found it to be very cooperative.  Only my second ever for the Rio Grande Valley.

It was in a nice shady place up against the pumphouse and out of the wind so maybe it will hang around a few days.

Erato Heliconian at NBC, 7/20/14

Lately I haven't got out much as I've been undergoing some chemotherapy for a precancerous skin condition that has left my face looking as if I had contracted smallpox. But I had promised to help out with the NABA butterfly count today so I ran over to the National Butterfly Center hoping to see the Red Rim and White Scrub-Hairstreak that were seen yesterday. They were both seen today, but not by me. But I saw enough other interesting stuff to make for one heck of a day. Leading the way was this very cooperative Erato Heliconian that spent several hours just hanging around. It gets my vote for "most tropical looking butterfly." This is the first I've seen north of the border.

Several of the Erato's more common cousin, the Zebra Heliconian, fluttered in the shady understory.

And another slightly more distant cousin, the Julia Heliconian, was ovipositing on the Corky-stemmed Passionvine.

After seeing a female Silver Emperor a few weeks ago, a colorful male showed up today. Too bad someone had bitten a chunk out of his wings.

The first good bug of the day was this Potrillo Skipper that hung around for just a few seconds.

And then there was my first Malachite of the summer.

Yesterday I saw my first Soldier of the summer in our yard. There were at least ten of them today at the NBC. It seems strange how these things show up all at once.

I almost forgot about seeing my first Banded Peacock of the year.

So just as I was leaving after enjoying a really good day, Mike Rickard catches me to tell me that John and Audrey have a White-crescent Longtail in their yard over in Retama Village. We raced the two miles over there and find the gang (Dot, Bill, Robin and Troy included) leisurely enjoying a lifer butterfly. It was one for me also.

Here's my list from the NBC.

Pipevine Swallowtail 1
Giant Swallowtail 3
Cloudless Sulphur 1
Large Orange Sulphur 3
Lyside Sulphur 10
Little Yellow 3
Gray Hairstreak 2
Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
Ceraunus Blue 1
Reakirt's Blue 2
Fatal Metalmark 1
Rounded Metalmark 1
Gulf Fritillary 3
Julia Heliconian 1
Zebra Heliconian 4
Crimson Patch 6
Elada Crescent 2
Texan Crescent 2
Vesta Crescent 2
Phaon Crescent 20
Pearl Crescent 1
White Peacock 1
Banded Peacock 1
Malachite 1
Tropical Leafwing 1
Empress Leilia 1
Tawny Emperor 35
Silver Emperor 1
Queen 80
Soldier 10
Brown Longtail 5
Potrillo Skipper 1
Sickle-winged Skipper 1
White Checkered-Skipper 15
Tropical Checkered-Skipper 3
Desert Checkered-Skipper 1
Laviana White-Skipper 6
Clouded Skipper 15
Southern Skipperling 1
Fiery Skipper 1
Whirlabout 3
Southern Broken-Dash 6
Eufala Skipper 5