More Clench's Greenstreaks at NBC, 5/5/26

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  It was a warm, windy humid morning so I ran over to the National Butterfly Center to look for spring strays from the south.  It didn't take long before I found another Clench's Greenstreak.  This time it was on Low Croton in the front garden.  I figured it was Woody's from two days ago but examination of wear marks prove it to be a second.

The recent hot dry weather has really knocked down the blooms.  I found only one Clytie Ministreak.

Lots of Large Orange Sulphurs around with a bewildering array of females.  No two are alike,

Copulating Reakirt's Blues.

In the south gardn I was happy to find a couple of Pale-banded Crescents.  I thought they were done for the season.

Only one Mexican Crescent today.

I thought I would check out the balloon vine trellis for Silver-banded Hairstreaks.  The vine was blooming nicely but the only hairstreak was this surprise Red-lined Scrub-Hairstreak.  Actually it's not a surprise because they also use balloon vine as a host plant.

I wandered aroud the south garden some more after lunch.  I checked the Mexican Orchid and nothing but Large Orange Sulphurs.  Then a cursory check of the nearby Fiddlewoods.  And another Clench's Greenstreak!  Three in three days.

Huron Sachem and Marine Blue pushed the Big Board up to 53 species for still early May.  Pretty good.

By 2 PM it was getting too hot for humans.

National Butterfly Center, 11/6/24

Yesterday someone photographed a beat up Starred Skipper at the National Butterfly Center south of Mission, Texas.  This is a Mexican butterfly species I have never seen so I raced over this morning hoping for a lifer.  Lots of visiting butterfly watchers are in the Valley now as it is vagrant season and so far it's been pretty good.  So old butterfly friends and I spent a lot of time periodically checking the crucita patch in front of the restrooms.  It was good to see them though we never refound the Starred Skipper.

But all the eyes were sure able to find other good stuff, like this Blomfild's Beauty.  It's been a few years since I have seen this large showy Mexican species.  Sometimes they get friendly.

Nearby a Gray Cracker posed on a pale patch of fungus.  I'm not sure abouts its camouflage strategy.

The shady patches of white plumbago were popular.  This worn Two-bared Flasher spent the morning there.  It's going to take me a while to start calling it Qian's Flasher.

Other butterflies enjoying the plumbago included Coyote Cloudywing, Large Orange Sulphur and a White-striped Longtail.

Here's the obligatory Mexican Bluewing.

Up front a Marius Hairstreak was in the crucita.  It's been a good fall for them.

I have a lot more photos but you get the idea.  I saw 69 species of butterflies today but I felt like I left a few on the table.  I later found out Linda Cooper saw 76 species.  Things are flying!

• Pipevine Swallowtail 12
• Giant Swallowtail 8
• Checkered White 5
• Orange Sulphur 3
• Southern Dogface 10
• Cloudless Sulphur 5
• Large Orange Sulphur 25
• Lyside Sulphur 5
• Tailed Orange 3
• Little Yellow 5
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Dainty Sulphur 3
• Marius Hairstreak 1
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 4
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 10
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Ceraunus Blue 8
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• Red-bordered Pixie 1
• American Snout 20
• Gulf Fritillary 3
• Zebra Heliconian 6
• Variegated Fritillary 2
• Mexican Fritillary 3
• Bordered Patch 2
• Elada Checkerspot 5
• Texan Crescent 2
• Phaon Crescent 8
• Pearl Crescent 2
• Question Mark 2
• Red Admiral 1
• Common Buckeye 2
• White Peacock 5
• Common Mestra 5
• Gray Cracker 1
• Blomfild's Beauty 1
• Tropical Leafwing 10
• Hackberry Emperor 2
• Empress Leilia 2
• Tawny Emperor 100
• Carolina Satyr 2
• Queen 40
• Soldier 1
• White-striped Longtail 3
• Zilpa Longtail 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 4
• Dorantes Longtail 3
• Brown Longtail 3
• Two-barred Flasher 1
• Coyote Cloudywing 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 4
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 12
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 3
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 1
• Laviana White-Skipper 8
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 10
• Double-dotted Skipper 15
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 50
• Whirlabout 3
• Sachem 20
• Common Mellana 5
• Eufala Skipper 8
• Brazilian Skipper 1
• Purple-washed Skipper 1

Happy New Year from Progreso Lakes, 1/2/23

 After some really cold weather over Christmas, things seem to be coming back.  Some of my exotic plants got hit by a couple of days in the low 30s but the native plants seem none the worse.  Butterfly numbers got clobbered by the cold but after highs reached the mid 80s today, I was able to find 24 species.  It took a while before this Boisduval's Yellow slowed down enough for a photo.

There were also a few Lyside, Cloudless and Large ornge Sulphurs.

Turk's-Cap White-Skipper was a nice surprise.

This Common Mellana had a bit of a purplish iridescence.  I don't think I've ever noticed that before.

Nothing else really exciting.  Here's the list.

Checkered White 4

• Cloudless Sulphur 3
• Large Orange Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 3
• Boisduval's Yellow 1
• Little Yellow 2
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 5
• American Snout 2
• Gulf Fritillary 4
• Vesta Crescent 2
• Phaon Crescent 1
• Red Admiral 1
• Carolina Satyr 8
• Monarch 1
• Queen 1
• Brown Longtail 2
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
• Laviana White-Skipper 2
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 4
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 2

Progreso Lakes, 5/5/22

It's been hot, windy and dry at Progreso Lakes with few butterflies.  But there was an influx of humidity today and with it came mosquitos and some lepidoptera.  A real surprise was our third ever Marine Blue.

Our Frogfruits are blooming like crazy and attracting little things like blues, cresents and this tiny Julia Skipper.

Nice to see a Common Mellana.

Several Vesta Crescents popped up.

I like this boldly marked Large Orange Sulphur.

Unusual shot of a Little Yellow.

Twenty eight species are the most I've seen in quite a while.

• Black Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Little Yellow 6
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 5
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Marine Blue 1
• Ceraunus Blue 3
• Reakirt's Blue 5
• Texan Crescent 3
• Vesta Crescent 3
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Carolina Satyr 1
• Queen 5
• Brown Longtail 2
• Mournful Duskywing 2
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 3
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 4
• Southern Skipperling 4
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Whirlabout 2
• Common Mellana 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 3
• Eufala Skipper 1

Variegated Skipper at Progreso Lakes, 1/13/22

Butterflies have been absent at Progreso Lakes the past two cold cloudy days but today the sun popped out and warmed temps to the 70's and the butterflies were back.  A real surprise was this rare Variegated Skipper.  These tiny jewels rarely wander up from Mexico.  It was only my second for the United States and first for our yard, butterfly #139.

After being a rare visitor to our yard for the first five years, Zebra Heliconians have been present daily for the past couple of weeks.  We had four today.

We've also had multiple Giant Whites daily.  Here's three in one shot.  They really like the blooming Dicliptera.

I thought this was an Orange-barred Sulphur when I photographed it.  Then I noticed it lacked any dark orange above so I started hoping it was a first record Apricot Sulphur.  But alas, it was just a big rambunctious Large Oange Sulphur.

Second best butterfly today was our third ever Band-celled Sister.

Last week we got our second ever Marine Blue.  These are much more common farther west.

We also had another Mazans Scallopwing last week.

Here's today's list.

Giant Swallowtail 1

• Giant White 3
• Orange Sulphur 1
• Southern Dogface 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 5
• Large Orange Sulphur 5
• Mexican Yellow 1
• Little Yellow 3
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Ceraunus Blue 1
• Reakirt's Blue 2
• Gulf Fritillary 8
• Zebra Heliconian 4
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Texan Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Red Admiral 2
• White Peacock 2
• Band-celled Sister 1
• Monarch 1
• Queen 3
• Soldier 1
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 5
• Variegated Skipper 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 6
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 20
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 10
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Sachem 1
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 5