National Butterfly Center, 9/14/25

Well....  My original plan was to go to the HEB supermarket yesterday for groceries and then watch football.  But it was a nice moring so I thought what the hell.  I'll just go to the butterfly park and watch football afterwards.  The decision had disasterous consequences.  Well sort of.

Things started out great with at least a dozen Western Giant Swallowtails in the Mexican Orchid by the nursery.

Then a nice Guava Skipper popped in.  Probably the same one I glimsped last weekend.

Male Red-bordered Metalmarks are vastly under rated.

A few grasskippers were out.  Here is Clouded, Eufala, Wirlabout, and Double-dotted Skippers.

A walk up to the front gardens produced a nice Lanatana Scrub-Hairstreak.

And the first Common Sootywing I've seen in a while.

I'm discovering long-horned bees are a pain to ID except for a few easy ones like the female Tepanec Long-horned Bee with the black blotch on the stripe on abdominal segment four.

A return to the Mexican Orchid tree brought on a flurry of good butterflies.  First it was a Yellow Angled-Sulphur that my camera refused to focus on.  It was only present a few seconds as it often the case.  So I had to settle for a nearby Giant White.

I studied the flock (Do butterflies flock?) of Western Giant Swallowtails searching for an Ornython Swallowtail.  I got one!  It seems most of the ones we get are missing a large chunk of wing.  They have been blown a long ways in the wind and had to fight off a few predators.

Within a couple of minutes all three good butterflies were gone.  I watched the Mexican Orchid a while longer but nothing else unusual showed up.  So I headed for home.  

When I arrived I noticed I had a text from birder, butterflyer, and odester extraordinaire Martin Reid.  A Double-striped Thick-knee had just been found east of San Antonio near Nixon.  Yikes!  It is only the second ever north of Mexico.  As the first was taken as a specimen from the King Ranch in 1961, we've been waiting a long time.  I've seen a number of them in Chiapas near Palenque.

Well it was 2pm and I was exhausted and covered in sweat and sunscreen.  I just wasn't up for the five hour drive to maybe see the bird.  As it turned out a lot of people got it and it was still present in a pasture under a tree as the sun set.  But thick-knees are nocturnal shorebirds so it was just chilling as the hundred or so birders ticked it for their lists.  During the night it would be out feeding and there's a good possibility it might be elsewhere come morning.  So I decided to wait to see if it was refound.

Had I just gone to HEB and then watched football, I might have chased the bird when the word got out.  As I type this the Double-striped Thick-knee has not be refound.  Birders are searching on the private ranch.  I've always got an eye open for these guys as I bird the grasslands of Willacy county.  I guess I will just have to find my own.

Here's today's list of 38 species of butterflies.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 20
• Ornythion Swallowtail 1
• Giant White 1
• Yellow Angled-Sulphur 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 15
• Lyside Sulphur 2
• Little Yellow 2
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Cassius Blue 1
• Ceraunus Blue 8
• Red-bordered Metalmark 3
• American Snout 5
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 4
• Phaon Crescent 20
• White Peacock 1
• Mexican Bluewing 1
• Tropical Leafwing 3
• Queen 15
• Soldier 1
• Guava Skipper 2
• Brown Longtail 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 20
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 1
• Laviana White-Skipper 4
• Common Sootywing 1
• Clouded Skipper 8
• Double-dotted Skipper 3
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Whirlabout 3
• Southern Broken-Dash 1
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 6

National Butterfly Center, 8/31/14

Well the RGV finally got some rain and the National Butterfly Center south of Mission is looking good. Butterfly numbers are still low but I expect to see things pick up in the coming weeks.  Best bug today goes to this Silver-banded Hairstreak.

Fiery Skippers have really increased since a week ago.  There's quite a difference between the sexes.  The first is the male.

Finally saw a Turk's-cap White-Skipper.

Celia's Roadside-Skippers have also increased.  I saw six today after seeing none a week ago.

I chase down every Little Yellow hoping to find a Mimosa Yellow and finally got one today.

Separating Julia's and Eufala Skippers can be a challenge.  Julia's is usually browner or more golden but I find Jan Dauphin's "eyebrow rule" to be equally helpful.  Eufala always has a big gleaming white eyebrow that goes all the way forward above the eye.

While Julia's eyebrow is much less distinct.

I thought I had a big "white" flopping around high up in the tree tops but I couldn't tell which it was.  So I fired a bunch a photos.  I was disappointed to find it was just a female Large Orange Sulphur.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 10
• Giant Swallowtail 4
• Southern Dogface 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 3
• Lyside Sulphur 5
• Little Yellow 4
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Ceraunus Blue 2
• American Snout 1
• Gulf Fritillary 3
• Zebra Heliconian 4
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Empress Leilia 1
• Tawny Emperor 4
• Queen 30
• Soldier 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 7
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 3
• Laviana White-Skipper 5
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper 12
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 6
• Eufala Skipper 4

Trouble in paradise, 8/5/14

Our little butterfly garden at home has a problem.  The past two weeks of triple digit temperatures has really precipitated a decrease in butterflies.  An at the same time, the number of predators has stayed the same or possibly even increased.  After watching a red wasp kill and eat my only Black Swallowtail caterpillar this spring, I've declared war on any I see in my yard.  But they're not the only problem.  I've always had lots of Green anoles in the yard, but now they've migrated to the butterfly garden.  This one boldly snapped up a Fiery Skipper right in front of me.

So what to do?  I've been thinking about capturing them and releasing them elsewhere.  But then there's another problem, the exotic Brown Anoles have invaded our yard in the past year and I'm seeing babies. This morning I saw a confrontation between a Brown Anole and our native Green anole.  After the Brown Anole displayed the Green chased it away.  

So if I get rid of my Green Anoles, I may be losing my best defense against the Brown Anoles.  I have loved lizards since I was a small child so I really enjoy watching them.  I just hate to see them eating my butterflies. Meanwhile there's been plenty of Band-winged Dragonlets around this year.  Are they eating butterflies? Probably some.

But they haven't eaten all the butterflies.  I found this little Celia's Roadside-Skipper in the shade on the foundation of our house.

This nice Eufala Skipper is the first I've seen in our yard for a while.

These Little Yellows are trying their best to beef up our butterfly population.

I glimpsed this one yesterday and managed a weak photo this morning.  Our first Brown-banded Skipper, butterfly #85 for our yard.

I just saw the Brown-banded Skipper again and it was hanging out by the Barbados cherry which is the host plant for the species so maybe we can get some more (if the darn lizards don't eat them).

Red-lined Scrub Hairstreak at OHP, 7/30/13

This morning I decided to check out the Old Hidalgo Pumphouse while on my way over the National Butterfly Center.  There were still plenty of Clytie Ministreaks but I couldn't find a Gray Ministreak.  I did find this nice Gray Hairstreak.

I had pretty much given up hope of seeing the Red-lined Scrub-Hairstreak that Troy and Robin had seen five days ago.  In fact I wasn't even thinking about it.  While I was talking with three teachers from the Donna School District about some common acquaintances, I looked up and there was a Red-lined Scrub Hairstreak, right in the bush where Troy had originally found it.  It's better to be lucky than good!

Bill and Dottie came over to see the hairstreak and Bill let me borrow his 100mm macro.  I can see I'm going to need some practice.  Here's my only shot of the Red-lined Hairstreak before we flushed it.

And a close up of a Clytie.

And a Eufala Skipper.

With the heat building and a good butterfly for the day I changed my mind about going over to the butterfly park, so I thought I would sit in the car and eat my lunch before heading on back.  I looked up and there in the Tecoma in front of me was this Brazilian Skipper begging to have its picture taken.  I see very few butterflies nectaring on Tecoma stans.  This is with my 300mm back on.