Orange-crescent Groundstreak, Green-backed Ruby-eye at NBC,12/1/19

A gentle cool front blew in last night dropping temperatures to the 60's so I spent the morning at home looking at birds.  However yesterday an Orange-crescent Groundstreak was found at the National Butterfly Center south of Mission so as the day warmed a little I thought I might give it a try.  I was examining the Dusky-blue Groundstreaks in a clump of whitebrush when Phil Kelly joined me in the search.  Just then word came over Phil's walkie talkie of a Green-backed Ruby-eye in the south garden by the old visitor's center.  A brisk run of a couple of hundred yards got me there in time to get a few shots.  Big tropical grass skippers with their long probosci seem to enjoy the esperanza flowers.  I've seen Brazilian, Guava and Double-dotted Skippers feeding the same way.

As is the nature of Green-backed Ruby-eyes, it darted around a lot and was hard to photograph.  The nearby Tropical Leafwing was begging for attention though.

So I headed back to the whitebrush and with some effort managed to find the Orange-crescent Groundstreak among the Dusky-blues.  This was a much wanted life butterfly for me, # 212 for the Valley.  In fact my last RGV lifer was the Green-backed Ruby-eye on 11/28/17!

Here's the common Dusky-blue Groundstreak.

This past week has gone from dull to sizzling!

Progreso Lakes yard and a Green-backed Ruby-eye, 11/28/17

This morning Linda Cooper brought some butterfly friends over to the house to check out the butterflies in our yard.  The South Texas Satyrs were lifers for some of them.

As was the Orange-barred Sulphur.

I had found this Red-crescent Scrub Hairstreak yesterday for yard butterfly #100.  We saw two today.

After they left (and found Blue-eyed Sailor over at Estero!) I found this Hackberry Emperor on our fruit peel pile for yard butterfly # 101.  There are plenty of hackberries around so maybe we'll see more of them.

I was going back into the house after putting out some bait when I spotted a funny colored pinkish-orange thing on our Betony.  I didn't even check it out.  I just ran straight into the house for my camera cuz the only thing that comes in that color is Curve-winged Metalmark.  Yard butterfly #102.  And it was a nice fat female and there's plenty of the host plant, Caesalpinia, in the neighbor's yard so you do the math.

Well, Linda had told me she was going to help some people look for the Green-backed Ruby-eye that has been seen the past couple of evenings on the Retama Village wall north of Bentsen State park.  So I raced over with hopes of getting some shots of it in the setting sun light.  But it didn't pop out till after sun set and I forgot to bump up my ISO so this is what I wound up with.

But I was still happy to see this rare tropical grass skipper, my 210th species for the Valley.