Progreso Lakes, 2/28/20

Despite the past two mornings dipping into the 30's there have been butterflies about and Mike Rickard recorded 65 species at the National Butterfly Center yesterday.  So I put a little effort into our Progreso Lakes yard today and was rewarded with 36 species.  Star of the day was our first Coyote Cloudywing, butterfly #120.  Coyote Cloudywing is pretty common out west at Falcon State Park but hard to get in eastern Hidalgo County.  So I wasn't sure how long it would take to record the species in our yard.  This was a really fresh one that only hung around for about a minute.

I was photographing this White-striped Longtail when the coudywing popped in.

There were both Mournful and Funerial Duskywings.

It's been a while since I've seen any Sachems.  We had two today.

We don't get Orange Sulphur very often.

This Gray Hairstreak was fresh and nicely marked.

Otherwise it was just a lot of common stuff today.  So here's a photo of a Red-bordered Pixie from a few day ago.

Here's today's list.

• Checkered White 2
• Orange Sulphur 1
• Southern Dogface 2
• Cloudless Sulphur 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Little Yellow 3
• Sleepy Orange 2
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 2
• Texan Crescent 3
• Vesta Crescent 4
• Phaon Crescent 3
• Red Admiral 1
• White Peacock 1
• Carolina Satyr 4
• Monarch 2
• Queen 4
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 4
• Coyote Cloudywing 1
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 8
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 6
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 3
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 5
• Whirlabout 1
• Southern Broken-Dash 2
• Sachem 2
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 3

National Butterfly Center, 10/18/14

Yesterday Martin Reid found a rare Gilbert's Flasher at the National Butterfly Center.  I made a run over from Yturria Brush where I had spent the morning but was just a few minutes too late.  Louie found it again late in the afternoon so Honey and I ran over again this morning to look for it but no luck.  One of my first butterflies of the morning was my first Purple-washed Skipper of the season.

After a brief check of the front gardens we headed to the back to look for the flasher.  Two Glazed Pellicias showed up, differentiated by their wear.

There were several very orange Julia's Skippers.

The Red-bordered Pixies are starting to pop up.

This might be the first Hackberry Emperor I've seen at the NBC.  People say they used to be a lot more common.

I was pleased to able to get an under wing shot of this Funerial Duskywing.  The small white marks perpendicular to the white fringe are a good field mark when present.

I'm starting to find a few Dorantes Longtails.

Yesterday Mike Rickard found this nice Violet-banded Skipper at the NBC, my consolation for missing the Gilbert's Flasher.

Here's today's list of 53 species.  Not bad for a bit less than three hours and not covering all the park

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Southern Dogface 10
• Cloudless Sulphur 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 6
• Lyside Sulphur 5
• Little Yellow 6
• Sleepy Orange 3
• Dainty Sulphur 3
• Gray Hairstreak 4
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 4
• Western Pygmy-Blue 20
• Ceraunus Blue 6
• Reakirt's Blue 1
• Fatal Metalmark 3
• Red-bordered Pixie 1
• American Snout 5
• Gulf Fritillary 6
• Julia Heliconian 1
• Zebra Heliconian 5
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Vesta Crescent 2
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Pearl Crescent 4
• Painted Lady 1
• Red Admiral 1
• White Peacock 3
• Hackberry Emperor 2
• Tawny Emperor 5
• Monarch 2
• Queen 500
• Soldier 1
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 2
• Glazed Pellicia 2
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 2
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 10
• Laviana White-Skipper 5
• Common Sootywing 1
• Julia's Skipper 5
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 3
• Clouded Skipper 20
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 20
• Whirlabout 1
• Southern Broken-Dash 2
• Sachem 4
• Common Mellana 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 6
• Purple-washed Skipper 1

National Butterfly Center, 2/21/14

With all the cold weather we've had this winter, it's been difficult to see ten species of butterflies.  But it got really hot yesterday with a strong southerly wind, followed by a weak cold front last night so I thought today might be a good day at the National Butterfly Center.  Turns out I was right.  The weather was perfect and I saw 43 species of butterflies, many new for the year.  Exciting for me was my first Goatweed Leafwing.  I think I've seen it before up north but it was my first for the Valley.

The rest of 'em were among our more common species.  I guess this beat up female Black Swallowtail was less common.

If Clouded Skippers were rare, we would get all excited about them.  The winter form is pretty sharp looking.

Many of our butterflies have a tropical look to them, but Orange Sulphur looks like something you would see up north.

Even during some pretty cold days this winter you could still find a Red Admiral.

Our two duskywings, Funerial and Mournful, often present ID problems.  Today all I saw at the NBC were Funerial Duskywing.

When I got home, the first thing I saw in the garden was a couple of Mournful Duskywings.  They are really different.