Mexican Crescent at NBC, 10/12/25

A weak cool front came through and dropped the morning low to below 70 for the first time since spring.  With clear sky and lower humidity I decided to check out the National Butterfly Center.  Turned out to be a good choice.  Butterfly of the day goes to this worn Mexican Crescent.  I've been checking the Phaons lately as we were invaded by Mexican Crescents last year in October.  Previously they had been extremely rare.

The esperanza was suddenly filled with Doube-dotted Skippers.

A big Brazilian Skipper zoomed in for a sip.

A big dark skipper burried itself in an esperanza flower.  What the hell is this?

Could it be a Guava Skipper?  Can they show a tail?  It zoomed out and did not reappear so I went to the Mexican Orchid and sure enough there was a Guava Skipper.  And yes it has a bit of a stub stail on the hind wings.

Between the Tropical Milkweeds Gregg's Mistflower and Crucita there were well over 200 Queens.

It was a good day for White-patched Skippers.

It's been a while since we've had a Hackerberry Emperor.

A Giant White hit the Mexican Olives.

My first Monarch of the fall.

Last butterfluy of the day was this very fresh Texas Powdered-Skipper.

38 species on the day without any south wind.  The crucita is getting ready to pop.  Good times ahead!

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 6
• Gray Hairstreak 2
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Ceraunus Blue 12
• Fatal Metalmark 2
• American Snout 10
• Bordered Patch 6
• Phaon Crescent 20
• Painted Lady 1
• White Peacock 2
• Mexican Bluewing 1
• Tropical Leafwing 6
• Hackberry Emperor 2
• Empress Leilia 3
• Tawny Emperor 12
• Monarch 1
• Queen 200
• Guava Skipper 1
• White-striped Longtail 2
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 1
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 3
• White-patched Skipper 5
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 15
• Laviana White-Skipper 10
• Clouded Skipper 20
• Double-dotted Skipper 6
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 15
• Southern Broken-Dash 1
• Common Mellana 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 8
• Eufala Skipper 12
• Brazilian Skipper 1
• Mexican Crescent 1

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.

Banded Patch at NBC, 4/8/16

A couple of days ago Chris Balboni found a Banded Patch at the National Butterfly Center and I was fortunate to refind it today.  It's been quite a few years since one has been seen in the Valley and it was a new one for me.

Nearby was my first Crimson Patch of the year.

A few Theona Checkerspots were in the front gardens.

The Double-dotted Skippers had not been reported for a few weeks but I found a worn one today.

Cyna Blues were in several different snake herb patches.

Here's an uncommon Hackberry Emperor.

I picked out a Mimosa Yellow among the many Little Yellows.

Last bug of the day was this bright White-patched Skipper.

Here's today's list of 57 species.

• Black Swallowtail 4
• Western Tiger Swallowtail 2
• Checkered White 10
• Southern Dogface 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 4
• Lyside Sulphur 20
• Little Yellow 6
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Dainty Sulphur 6
• Great Purple Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 8
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Cyna Blue 5
• Ceraunus Blue 2
• Reakirt's Blue 12
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• American Snout 1
• Theona Checkerspot 2
• Bordered Patch 8
• Banded Patch 1
• Crimson Patch 1
• Elada Crescent 4
• Texan Crescent 5
• Vesta Crescent 4
• Phaon Crescent 25
• Pearl Crescent 1
• American Lady 1
• Red Admiral 4
• White Peacock 1
• Mexican Bluewing 1
• Hackberry Emperor 1
• Tawny Emperor 15
• Monarch 5
• Queen 75
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 4
• Coyote Cloudywing 2
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 10
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper25
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 2
• Common Sootywing 2
• Julia's Skipper 5
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 2
• Clouded Skipper 15
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 6
• Fiery Skipper 6
• Whirlabout 2
• Southern Broken-Dash 10
• Sachem 1
• Common Mellana 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 25
• Eufala Skipper 5

National Butterfly Center, 10/15/15

This morning I ran over to the National Butterfly Center to see what the recent rains had brung.  Mike Rickard and Ginny Musgrave showed up as I had half expected and Mike proceeded to find this beat up Hackberry Emperor.  We only see a few each year at the NBC.

Chris Tenney was in the gardens in back of the visitor's center.  He's been all over the country working on his big year in which he attempting to see 600 species of butterflies.  Chris told us he's at 501 which is pretty amazing.  He found this Violet-Banded Skipper shortly before I arrived.

There was nothing really rare today but lots of stuff I had not seen for a while like my first Purple-washed Skipper for the year.

Long-tailed Skippers have been hard to come by this year.

An extremely worn Zilpa Longtail.

And a Dorantes Longtail.

Turk's-cap White-Skipper was right in the mallows where I usually get one but it's been a while.

A really pretty Large Orange Sulphur.

  And a smokin' White Peacock.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 6
• Giant Swallowtail 3
• Southern Dogface 6
• Large Orange Sulphur 15
• Lyside Sulphur 8
• Mimosa Yellow 2
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Western Pygmy-Blue 3
• Cassius Blue 2
• Ceraunus Blue 1
• American Snout 5
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 4
• Phaon Crescent 4
• Painted Lady 1
• Red Admiral 1
• Common Buckeye 4
• White Peacock 2
• Hackberry Emperor 1
• Tawny Emperor 60
• Monarch 4
• Queen 2
• Soldier 200
• Zilpa Longtail 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 5
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 4
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 3
• Whirlabout 5
• Southern Broken-Dash 6
• Sachem 2
• Common Mellana 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 3
• Eufala Skipper 1
• Ocola Skipper 3
• Purple-washed Skipper 1
• Violet-banded Skipper 1

Evan's Skipper at NBC, 10/28/14

It was a great day to look for butterflies at the National Butterfly Center south of Mission.  Best in show goes to this sharp Evan's Skipper.  It looks like a whole different bug in flight.

Most popular butterfly goes to this stunning Two-barred Flasher that spent the day by the bathroom. Hmmm....I've done that before.

Judging by wear on the wings, the two Glazed Pellicias seem to be the same ones that have been present the past two weeks.

Olive-clouded Skipper is not reported very often.  I saw one last week in Roma.

It's been quite a while since I've seen a White-patched Skipper.

For some reason we are getting Hackberry Emperors at the NBC this fall.  Usually you have to leave the Valley to see them.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 3
• Clouded Sulphur 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 3
• Lyside Sulphur 5
• Tailed Orange 2
• Little Yellow 15
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Dainty Sulphur 1
• Gray Hairstreak 10
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 8
• Western Pygmy-Blue 25
• Cassius Blue 1
• Ceraunus Blue 10
• Fatal Metalmark 5
• Rounded Metalmark 1
• Red-bordered Pixie 1
• American Snout 10
• Gulf Fritillary 8
• Zebra Heliconian 2
• Variegated Fritillary 3
• Vesta Crescent 5
• Phaon Crescent 30
• Pearl Crescent 10
• American Lady 1
• Painted Lady 5
• Red Admiral 1
• White Peacock 10
• Tropical Leafwing 1
• Hackberry Emperor 1
• Empress Leilia 2
• Tawny Emperor 70
• Monarch 5
• Queen 800
• Soldier 3
• Guava Skipper 6
• Brown Longtail 6
• Two-barred Flasher 1
• Glazed Pellicia 2
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 3
• White-patched Skipper 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 20
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Julia's Skipper 3
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 8
• Southern Skipperling 6
• Fiery Skipper 50
• Whirlabout 5
• Southern Broken-Dash 5
• Sachem 8
• Common Mellana 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 3
• Eufala Skipper 15
• Olive-clouded Skipper 1
• Evans' Skipper 1