Henry's Elfin in San Antonio, 3/2/24

Every early spring I see photos on Facebook of Henry's Elfin from east Texas and I think someday I will go up and see one.  Well yesterday I got up early and was deciding where to go for the day.  Brownsville Landfill for gulls?  Salineno to refind the Crane hawk?  Resaca de la Palma for that darn Cassin's Vireo?  I also had been thinking about running over to east Texas to look for Henry's Elfin.  They had been seen at Brazos Bend.  Recently I've been entering butterflies into iNaturalist and learning how to use it and I though maybe I could find a closer Henry's Elfin.  Well I put it into the search engine and darned if Henry's Elfin wasn't being seen in San Antonio at Hardberger Park.  Weather look great for the day so I packed up the jeep and headed north.

When I arrived at Phil Hardberger Park I realized I had no idea where to look.  I haven't put iNaturalist on my phone yet so I tried to remember where where the Henry's Elfin was being see.  I remembered something about a native palnt garden.  I new they liked redbuds but I wasn't seeing any.  So I wandered around seeing only Red Admirals and a gray Hairstreak on the blooming Agaritas and Mountain Laurels.  Then I found a lone scraggly redbud near the fenced in demonstration garden.  And sure enough it held my lifer Henry's Elfins.

I had never seen any of the Elfins and they turned out to be larger than I thought, about the size of the many nearby Juniper Hairstreaks.  I never get tired of these guys.

Gray Hairstreak seem to be about everywhere I go.

I also found a couple of Henry's Elfins on a nearby wild plum.

Red Admirals were abundant as they have been in the Valley this spring.

Well that was nice!  I celebrated at Bill Miller's BBQ and headed home.  There are still many butterfly species I have not seen in the state.  Maybe I will get a few of them this year.

Poling's Hairstreaks in Davis Mountains, 7/18/22

They've been reporting a lot of great butterflies lately in southeastern Arizona but I'm holding off going out there till the Chiricahua Whites are out.  So I decided to just make a run out to west Texas instead and it paid off with three lifers.  All of the following were seen along TX 188 just below the McDonald Observatory or along its entrance road.  

Recent summer rain was evident as there was a little green along TX 118 as I left Fort Davis and as I climber toward the McDonald Observatory I started to see a few flowers.  I stopped at one patch and almost ran over a Northern Cloudywing.  There were a half dozen in the area.

Then a tiny skipper landed just in front of me and I could see a yellowish head.  I first thought of Golden-headed Scallopwing but it flew and landed again and I could see it was one of my most wanted butterflies, Orange-headed Roadside-Skipper.  I later found a second.

Wow that was nice!  As I watched Northern Cloudywings in a white blooming bush, I noticed a couple of small skippers.  One was a Common Sootywing.  I took lots of photos hoping it ws a Mexican Sootywing but it wasn't.

The other was a Cassus Skipper, a butterfly I've only seen a couple of times.

A paler more grizzled skipper landed on the rockface and I guess it was a Bronze Roadside-Skipper.  I've seen that one before also.

Then I saw one more tiny skipper and I fired away and was lucky to get this poor image of my lifer Dotted Roadside-Skipper.

I scrambled around on the rocky hillside and saw little.  So I made my way along the highway back to my car and saw a hairstreak on a tiny milkweed that was growing on the edge of the pavement.  It was odd colored, more greenish than the common Gray Hairstreaks I had seen earlier.  This was a new one for me.  I was hoping it was a rare Poling's Hairstreak.  It was more brightly colored than the dingy specimen in Glassberg's book but the markings were right.

A bit later I found a second on another milkweed.

And then there was a Juniper Hairstreak on the same plant.  It seems to be pretty much like the Siva subspecies though the subterminal band on the hind wing is a little wavy.

Driving up the park road toward the telescopes I saw a few flowers near the water tanks.  One held four Poling's Hairstreaks.  According to Glassber's book they should be gone by now.

And a Tiny Checlerspot.

Walking around the area I found a Marine Blue.

And a couple more Poling's Hairstreaks.

I then ran up the the Lawrence E Wood picnic area but didn't see anything different.  It was getting late to I decided to overnight in Alpine.  My plan ws to go to Big Bend but with the daytime high predicted to be 110, I just headed for home with three lifers including an amazing ten Poling's Hairstreaks.  Good enough.

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• Two-tailed Swallowtail 1
• Southern Dogface 2
• Lyside Sulphur 1
• Poling's Hairstreak 10
• Juniper Hairstreak 2
• Gray Hairstreak 2
• Marine Blue 1
• Reakirt's Blue 12
• Variegated Fritillary 2
• Tiny Checkerspot 1
• California Sister 1
• Red Satyr 1
• Northern Cloudywing 8
• Common Checkered-Skipper 3
• Common Sootywing 2
• Cassus Roadside-Skipper 1
• Bronze Roadside-Skipper 1
• Dotted Roadside-Skipper 2
• Orange-headed Roadside-Skipper 2

Big Bend National Park, 6/24-5/13

Earlier this week I ran up to Big Bend to look for the Flame-colored Tanager that has been present for several weeks in Boot Canyon.  While birding I made it a point to keep my eyes open for butterflies.  In the couple of days I was up there I saw about twenty five species.  A treat for me was finding thirteen Juniper Hairstreaks, all in Boot Canyon and all but two were nectaring on bear grass blooms.

The only other hairstreak I was able to find was this great Purple Hairstreak.  The blooming bear grass below the high country was devoid of butterflies.

Also in upper Boot Canyon was this busy Mounring Cloak.

And several Mexican Yellows.

The next morning, sore from the previous day's hike up to Boot Canyon, I hobbled down the Window trail and was pleased to see several Golden-headed Scallopwings.

Al least three Streaky Skippers flushed along the trail.

As I left the park after noon there were many small blooming forbs along the road but very few butterflies.