Blomfild's Beauty at NBC, 7/12/26

I ran over to the National Butterfly Center this morning and took a look at the Big Board in the visitor's center.  They were up to a very respecable 78 species of butterflies for July.  Not bad.  I noticed Desert Checkered Skipper was missing for the month so I thought I would make a try for it.  I can usually find one up front if I dig through enough checkered-skippers.  It didn't take long before I found one.  I called Woody over and he was happy to see it.

Well, what to look for next?  Woody took care of that.  "Blomfild's Beauty" was the cry from the woods.  I ran in the direction of Woody's voice and found him by a bait log holding a big stonking perfect Blomfild's Beauty.  What a knockout!.  Picasso would have been proud of that wild abstract underwing.

That will be hard to beat.  I think it's the first of 2026.  I returned to the front garden and found a nice Brown-banded Skipper.  A pretty good butterfly but it pales in comparison to Woody's find.

Several fresh Theona Checkerspots were about.

Then I saw a big sulphur and the color was wrong for Cloudless or Large Orange.  I was right.  It was a female Statira Sulphur.  I got our first of the year a few days ago.

And a little later I got a male.

Woody had reported a Gray Cracker on the lower Hackberry Trail so I drove to the south garden and it didn't take long to find it.  In fact I foud three Gray Crackers.

Lots of Mexican Bluewings.

It got hot fast and I called it quits.  Woody found a White Scrub-Hairstreak and a Turk's-Cap White-Skipper to push the Big Board to 82.  Hoping for rain.

Giant Swallowtail 10

• Checkered White 3
• Great Southern White 25
• Cloudless Sulphur 3
• Large Orange Sulphur 30
• Statira Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 20
• Little Yellow 8
• Dainty Sulphur 10
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Cassius Blue 6
• Ceraunus Blue 3
• Curve-winged Metalmark 1
• American Snout 25
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Julia Heliconian 1
• Mexican Fritillary 2
• Theona Checkerspot 3
• Bordered Patch 12
• Elada Checkerspot 1
• Texan Crescent 3
• Pale-banded Crescent 2
• Phaon Crescent 20
• White Peacock 15
• Mexican Bluewing 12
• Gray Cracker 3
• Blomfild's Beauty 1
• Tropical Leafwing 10
• Empress Leilia 2
• Tawny Emperor 20
• Queen 6
• Soldier 3
• Brown Longtail 6
• Brown-banded Skipper 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 6
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 12
• Southern Skipperling 6
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Whirlabout 3
• Southern Broken-Dash 3
• Eufala Skipper 1
• Mexican Crescent 3

Fireworks Continue at NBC, 7/5/26

It's hot and dry in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of south Texas, but the good butterflies keep coming.  Gotta get em before they fry!  Still getting hairstreaks.  Along with the usual for this summer Clench's, Ruddy and Marius, I found this guy.  It kind of looks like an Orange-crescent Groundstreak but I'm not getting a lot of support for that ID.  Most think it's a Ruddy.

My first Statira Sulphur for the year was in front in the white Duranta.

Nearby was a Brown-banded Skipper.  Woody found a second in the nursery.

Giant Whites were in the Mexican Orchid.

There were at least two Gray Crackers on the bait logs.

It took me several tries to finally see the Dingy Purplewing.

It was getting really hot and I was ready to head home when Woody reported two Ruddy Dagerwings by the nursery.

Today's list of 53 species

• Giant Swallowtail 10
• Checkered White 2
• Great Southern White 20
• Giant White 2
• Cloudless Sulphur 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 20
• Statira Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 40
• Little Yellow 3
• Dainty Sulphur 2
• Marius Hairstreak 3
• Clench's Greenstreak 8
• Gray Hairstreak 2
• Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 5
• Ruddy Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 6
• Clytie Ministreak 6
• Cassius Blue 3
• Ceraunus Blue 3
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• Curve-winged Metalmark 2
• American Snout 500
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Mexican Fritillary 2
• Theona Checkerspot 1
• Bordered Patch 3
• Elada Checkerspot 1
• Texan Crescent 2
• Pale-banded Crescent 3
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Question Mark 1
• White Peacock 10
• Mexican Bluewing 12
• Dingy Purplewing 1
• Gray Cracker 2
• Ruddy Daggerwing 2
• Tropical Leafwing 8
• Empress Leilia 1
• Tawny Emperor 25
• Queen 3
• Soldier 2
• Brown Longtail 5
• Brown-banded Skipper 2
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 10
• Laviana White-Skipper 5
• Clouded Skipper 10
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Whirlabout 3
• Southern Broken-Dash 3
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 5
• Eufala Skipper 2
• Mexican Crescent 10

• 
  

First Gray Cracker of the Fall at NBC, 8/9/25

Fall?  As a birder my fall season starts with the first returning migrants which usually starts about the first of July.  Then the first Orchard Orioles, Black-andwhite Warblers and Louisiana Waterthrushes start to trickle though.  Purple Martins are staging for migration.  And the first Mexican butterflies start to wander northward.

It's been nasty hot and dry lately.  "Hot and Nasty" as Black Oak Arkansas sang in the 70's.  But somebody, might have been Ryan, found a Gray Cracker at the National Butterfly Center yesterday.  When the alert with photo when out on the Discord app, I noticed the cracker had no red in the marginal "s" spot on the forewing.  After last year's invasion of Glaucous Crackers I brought this up.  The notion was quickly pooh-poohed by others.  I wasn't so sure so I made a trip over there yesterday to try to locate the butterfly.  It was easy to find on the sme bait log as the day before.  The "s" spot seems to have a very sight pinkish wash but more importantly the tell tale seventh submarginal cell on the under side of the fore wing lack the diagnotic white spot of a Glaucous so it's a Gray Cracker as reported.  And a really nice one at that.

Saw my first Soldiers for the fall.

This fat female Tropical Leafwing is missing a piece of wing.  They use crotons for a host plant.

Last year I noticed Blue Spiny Lizards for the first time at the National Butterfly Center.  This RGV specialty is partial to caliche outcrops but has adapted to concrete and brick structures.  There's a nice colony at the entrace to nearby Bentsen State Park.  Anyway they are making their selves at home at the NBC.  This one was on the rest room in the lower garden.

A Yellow Angled Sulphur was also reported yesterday so stuff is on the move.

• Giant Swallowtail 6
• Southern Dogface 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 5
• Large Orange Sulphur 20
• Lyside Sulphur 2
• Little Yellow 6
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Cassius Blue 1
• Ceraunus Blue 3
• American Snout 2
• Gulf Fritillary 12
• Bordered Patch 3
• Elada Checkerspot 3
• Phaon Crescent 12
• White Peacock 1
• Mexican Bluewing 1
• Gray Cracker 1
• Tropical Leafwing 4
• Tawny Emperor 6
• Queen 15
• Soldier 3
• Brown Longtail 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 10
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Clouded Skipper 3
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Southern Broken-Dash 1

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