Spring at National Butterfly Center, 3/5/26

Spring has sprung!  It is windy, dry and dusty in the Ruio Grande Valley of south Texas and trees are leafing out best then can despite the continuing drought.  The wind is screaming out of the south and the air is full of dust and pollen.  I'm itching all over, inside and out!  New arrivals today at the National Butterfly Center included this Florida White.  I think it's my first for the year.

Spreadwing skippers were abundant today.  Here's the first Sickle-winged Skipper I've seen in a while.

The four most common long-tailed Skippers popped in: Long-tailed Skipper (minus tails), Dorantes Longtail, White-striped Longtail and Brown Longtail.

And some of the little exotic spread-winged skippers:  Caballo Skipper, Common Streaky Skipper and Turk's-Cap White-Skipper.

Plenty of grass skippers too.  At least a half dozen Double-dotted skippers today.

Souther Broken-Dash has been numerous lately.

Here's a pair of cavorting Whirlabouts.

Finally got a Western Giant-Swallowtail.  Big butterflies ave been hard to come by,

An Elada Checkerspot was new but at the species' usual spot by the restrooms.  I am guessing this one hatched locally.  It's fun to speculate who is local and who blew in with the wind.

So I ran the Big Board species total up to 77 which is pretty good for five days into March.  Possible rain on the way!

• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Florida White 1
• Checkered White 1
• Southern Dogface 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 5
• Lyside Sulphur 3
• Little Yellow 5
• Mimosa Yellow 2
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Cassius Blue 2
• Ceraunus Blue 1
• Reakirt's Blue 1
• American Snout 12
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 1
• Elada Checkerspot 1
• Texan Crescent 8
• Pale-banded Crescent 6
• Red Admiral 1
• Band-celled Sister 1
• Mexican Bluewing 1
• Common Mestra 3
• Tropical Leafwing 3
• Tawny Emperor 1
• Queen 1
• White-striped Longtail 2
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 1
• Coyote Cloudywing 1
• Potrillo Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 10
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 1
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Common Streaky-Skipper 1
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Double-dotted Skipper 6
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper 2
• Whirlabout 4
• Southern Broken-Dash 6
• Sachem 2
• Common Mellana 2
• Mexican Crescent 2

Good day at the NBC, 12/28/24

Took a day off to rest and get caught up on photos and work on the blog and stuff.  Yesterday was quite a day at the National Butterfly Center south of Mission, Texas.  I didn't find a lot of great stuff on my own but I manged to survive on the spoils of Mak and Holly Salvato's expertise and efforts.  Their best find was this Spot-celled Sister of which there are not many recordgs for the RGV.  I think it's my fourth.

There were also two of the similar but more common Band-celled sister.

Earlier in the day Mark found a Yellow Angled-Sulphur.  It was distant but that allowed my to fire away multiple exposures to get flight shots.

A short while later Mark called "White Angled-Sulphur!"  I thought it was a female and asked him how he made the ID.  But it was a male.

It took me a while but I eventually found Mark's Glazed Pellicia.

The Gray Cracker continued on its usual trunk.  It did fly into the bait log and allowed a closer shot.

Mark and Holly also found this cool Pale-spotted Leafwing.  Been quite a few this fall.  I crawled down under it and got some interesting shots before it returned to the bait.  I like that hooked fore wing.

More interesting flight shots included Florida White, Tailed Orange and a White-striped Longtail.

Here's the obligatory Mexican Bluewing and REd-bordered Pixie.

That's enough.  Here's the list of 64 species.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 2
• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Florida White 4
• Great Southern White 3
• Southern Dogface 3
• White Angled-Sulphur 1
• Yellow Angled-Sulphur 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 4
• Large Orange Sulphur 15
• Statira Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 10
• Mexican Yellow 1
• Tailed Orange 5
• Little Yellow 5
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Marius Hairstreak 4
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 2
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 12
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 4
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Cassius Blue 2
• Ceraunus Blue 20
• Reakirt's Blue 2
• Red-bordered Pixie 5
• American Snout 12
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Julia Heliconian 1
• Zebra Heliconian 8
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Texan Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Question Mark 1
• Red Admiral 8
• White Peacock 2
• Band-celled Sister 2
• Spot-celled Sister 1
• Mexican Bluewing 4
• Common Mestra 8
• Gray Cracker 1
• Pale-spotted Leafwing 1
• Tawny Emperor 1
• Monarch 6
• Queen 25
• Soldier 2
• White-striped Longtail 3
• Long-tailed Skipper 2
• Dorantes Longtail 3
• Brown Longtail 2
• Glazed Pellicia 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 3
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
• Laviana White-Skipper 10
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 5
• Whirlabout 2
• Sachem 8
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 4

Warm, windy day at National Butterfly Center, 12/13/12

A cold front is scheduled to roll in tomorrow morning so I figured warm southerly winds ahead of the front might bring some stuff in.  As expected it was a good day at the National Butterfly Center though all of the butterflies seen were also reported yesterday.  Best of the day was this Blomfild's Beauty.  It's been a few years since I've seen one.

This Guatemalan Cracker has been around for a few days.

It's been a while since I've seen a Marius Hairstreak. 

A few days ago eight Malachites were reported but I saw only one today.

This ratty Florida White is the first I've seen this fall.

Curve-winged Metalmarks are being seen daily at the NBC and there's plenty of Mexican Caesalpinia so maybe they will start breeding.

I guess this is an aberrant Fatal Metalmark.

After the front blows though there is supposted to be some sun so Maybe I can find something good in the yard.

Happy New Year from Progreso Lakes, 1/1/22

I looked out the window this New Years morning at 7:30 and the first butterfly I saw for 2022 was a Monarch.  I felt that might be a good omen.   And along with today's weather predicted to be very warm and breezy, that was enough to make me decide to stay in our Progreso Lakes yard today and run up a list.  Most interesting butterfly of the day was this Panoquina which seems to be a rare Hecebolus Skipper.  It has the forewing spot anterior to the big spot, it's rather golden colored, and lacks the row of hind wing spots and jutting fore wing of Purple-washed.  As such it is yard butterfly #138.

Then we had our second ever Curve-winged Metalmark.  These have been seen daily at the National Butterfly Center the past couple of weeks.

And then there were the Pierids, thirteen species in total including this big stonking female Orange-barred Sulphur.

And a Florida White.

And four Giant Whites.

And the first Mexican Yellows we've had in a while.

The were a couple of Boisduval's Yellows, one of which was last seen heading into my big Senna patch.

And late in the afternoon I found this sharp Common Mestra and beat up Mazans Scallopwing.

Here's our New Year's Day list of 48 species!

• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Florida White 1
• Checkered White 2
• Great Southern White 1
• Giant White 4
• Orange Sulphur 1
• Southern Dogface 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 8
• Orange-barred Sulphur 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 10
• Boisduval's Yellow 1
• Mexican Yellow 2
• Little Yellow 5
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Reakirt's Blue 2
• Curve-winged Metalmark 2
• American Snout 1
• Gulf Fritillary 6
• Zebra Heliconian 1
• Texan Crescent 3
• Pale-banded Crescent 3
• Painted Lady 1
• Red Admiral 2
• White Peacock 3
• Common Mestra 2
• Tawny Emperor 1
• Carolina Satyr 4
• Monarch 3
• Queen 10
• Soldier 4
• Long-tailed Skipper 2
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 6
• Mazans Scallopwing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 20
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 25
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Whirlabout 5
• Sachem 1
• Common Mellana 2
• Eufala Skipper 8
• Hecebolus Skipper 1
• Purple-washed Skipper 2