Progreso Lakes, 10/23/21

The Texas Butterfly Festival is coming up in a week and that means it's time for visiting butterfly watchers.  After few visitors last year because of the pandemic, it was great to see Barbara and Steve today.  They showed up while I was doing some yard work.  We made a few rounds of the yard and didn't see anything great.  But here's a few pics anyway.

This Mexican Bluewing showed up very fresh a few days ago.  I think it may have hatched in our brush patch.  She seems to be looking for a husband.

We got four of the five expected long-tailed skippers, Dorantes Longtail, White-striped Longtail, Brown Longtail and Long-tailed Skipper.  but getting Zilpa Longtail is always tough.

First Double-dotted Skipper I've seen in weeks.  It's got a few extra dots.

Cloudless Sulphur on a Heliconia latispatha.

A striking Gulf Fritillary.

Western Giant Swallowtail caterpillar.

Less than thirty species today so there's still stuff that 's missing.  Warm breezy weather should bring in a few more.

Hermit Skipper and Caterpillars at Progreso Lakes, 9/28/20

South wind ahead of our second cold front of the fall brought our second ever Hermit Skipper to our Progreso Lkaes yard today.  This has been a good summer for Hermit Skippers with several in the Valley and some as far way as Uvalde County.

Yesterday the butterflies weren't doing too much so I switched to looking for caterpillars.  The one that got me started was this cool Forbe's Silkmoth caterpillar.

In the same Colima I found a Western Giant Swallowtail Caterpillar with more nearby on a smaller Colima.

The Gulf Fritillaries have been busy on our Corky-stemmed Passionvine.

I found this Orange-barred Sulphur ovipositing on a Senna pendula.

But the only caterpillars I could find were Cloudless Sulphurs.

There were even two Cloudless Sulphur Chrysalises.

And the Polydamas Swallowtails ae still at it.

It's rewarding to see my plants being put to good use.

Progreso Lakes yard, 6/24/20

Most of the rain seems to be going around our yard at Progreso Lakes but were still getting butterflies.  About every day I check the Giant Dutchman's Pipe for Polydamas Swallowtail caterpillars and find none.  Today I noticed an adult female ovipositing and counted 15 cats.  Some were big.  Don't know how I missed them.

New for the yard this year was this tiny Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak.  Bet we start seeing a lot more now.

Our Gulf Fritillaries are also laying egss.  I wonder if this big fresh one hatched in our yard.

Am I crazy or is that a lot of dots?  The correct Seinfeld response is "That's a lot of dots."  Double-dotted Skippers can have variable numbers of spots.  Here's a freak and a more normal one.

Our other yard specialty, Boisduval's Yellow, fluttered about the brush patch today.

Ten Soldiers was a one day high for the yard.

And there were a dozen Queens.

And even a Monarch.  It's been a while.

We have two more shots at some rain and then it gets dry next week.

Progreso Lakes, 3/16/20

Spent the morning birding and working in our yard at Progreso Lakes.  After lunch I decided to check out the butterfly situation.  It was warm and windy with a little sun.  I was happy to find an ovipositing Gulf Fritillary on our Corky-stemmed Passionvine.

And then a white in our bottlebrush turned out to be a Giant White.

I lost it as it flew around the tree but then I found an Orange-barred Sulphur.   Usually non-native plants are not good at attracting our local butterflies, but they make an exception for the Australian bottlebrush.

Pretty good so far.  Then a bright yellow quarter-sized butterfly got my attention.  As I expected it was a Boisduval's Yellow.  And I soon found a second.  Aside from Resaca de la Palma and Sabal Palm Sanctuary, our yard seems to be the best spot for them.

This Western Giant Swallowtail was earlier seen ovipositing on our Texas Torchwood and Colima.  It even checked out our lemon tree.

This Pipevine Swallowtail was ovipositing on our Giant Duchman's Pipvine.  I've heard their caterpillars can't survive the toxins in this South American plant.  I'm hoping our Pipevine Swallowtails are tropical enough that maybe they have some resistance.  We will see.

Progreso Lakes yard, 12/8/19

After the dull early fall and equally dull butterfly festival, things have been taking off.  It was another warm windy day between cool fronts so I spent most of it in the yard, watering my native plants and looking for butterflies.  We've had several Florida Whites in our Progreso Lakes yard this fall but this was the best looking by far.

Here's another Mexican Yellow.  I'm getting them almost daily as of late.

Also saw another Boisduval's Yellow but I could not get a shot.  It might have been the same as this one from three days ago.

I love Brazilian Skippers and this is the first we've had in quite a while.

Ho-hum....just a Double-dotted Skipper.

Finally saw a Gulf Fritillary on our Corky-stemmed Passion Vine and she was laying eggs.

I saw this big skipper with white spots on the wings and it really had me going, but it's just a tailless Long-tailed Skipper.

I'm wondering if two Red-bordered Pixies may have come from our Guamuchil Pixie Tree.

Here's today's list of 44 species.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Florida White 1
• Checkered White 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 3
• Orange-barred Sulphur 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Boisduval's Yellow 1
• Mexican Yellow 1
• Little Yellow 2
• Dainty Sulphur 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 5
• Ceraunus Blue 1
• Red-bordered Pixie 2
• American Snout 1
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Texan Crescent 2
• Vesta Crescent 2
• Phaon Crescent 1
• Red Admiral 2
• White Peacock 5
• Common Mestra 1
• Carolina Satyr 1
• Monarch 4
• Queen 15
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Brown Longtail 5
• Sickle-winged Skipper 3
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 2
• Laviana White-Skipper 2
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 2
• Clouded Skipper 3
• Double-dotted Skipper 2
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper 8
• Whirlabout 4
• Southern Broken-Dash 2
• Sachem 1
• Common Mellana 2
• Brazilian Skipper 1
• Ocola Skipper 1