Zapata Museum of History, 10/22/25

After my good day in Zapata last week I thought it was worth another effort.  Also I noticed I was second on iNaturalist on the list of butterflies for not often visited Zapata County.  Can't have that.  So I got a pretty early start and arrived at the butterfly garden  at the Zapata Museum of History at 9:30.  Queens were already out in force.

Got a photo of the Pipevine Swallowtail I missed last week.

Time to start digging through the skippers.  Lots of Huron Sachems.

I discovered the garden also goes behind the Museum.  Ocola Skippers have really invaded the Valley during the past few weeks.

And then an Ocola with the forewing extending back too far.  Purple-washed Skipper!  There were several, some even showing the extra spot.

And then another new one for my Zapata County list....  Turk's-Cap White-Skipper, a nice female which I don't see very often.

Back in the front was a fresh Skinner's (formerly Coyote) Cloudywing.

And a fresh Julia's Skipper.

And an Olive-clouded Skipper.  Very few records for these last two in Zapata County.

And then another trip to the back netted an Erichson's White-Skipper.  These are probably not rare up here.

38 species seems pretty good for that garden, almost half of them from the familiy Hesperiidae.  As Jeff Bryant said it was a skipperlicious day!

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Southern Dogface 6
• Cloudless Sulphur 5
• Orange-barred Sulphur 20
• Lyside Sulphur 20
• Little Yellow 2
• Sleepy Orange 2
• Gray Hairstreak 10
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 5
• Ceraunus Blue 10
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• American Snout 5
• Gulf Fritillary 15
• Theona Checkerspot 1
• Bordered Patch 3
• Elada Checkerspot 1
• Phaon Crescent 1
• Common Buckeye 1
• White Peacock 8
• Queen 80
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Coyote Cloudywing 2
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• White-patched Skipper 2
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 2
• Erichson's White-Skipper 1
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 25
• Fiery Skipper 40
• Whirlabout 1
• Sachem 25
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 3
• Eufala Skipper 40
• Olive-clouded Skipper 1
• Ocola Skipper 8
• Purple-washed Skipper 5

National Butterfly Center, 10/16/25

Over five hours spent at the National Butterfly Center turned up 48 species.  Despite hot dry conditions, crucita is starting to bloom and butterfly numbers have really increased compared to five days ago.  This Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreak is the first I've seen this year.

It's been a good fall for Brown-banded Skippers.

It's always a good sign when the Giant Whites are blowing up from Mexico.

My first Ocola Skipper for the fall.

Saw a couple of Lantana Scrub-Hairstreaks.

There were hundreds of Queens on the crucita.

.

And even a few Soldiers.

I liked this Red-bordered Metalmark.

I can't tell who she is eating.

Here's today's list of 48 species.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Giant White 1
• Southern Dogface 25
• Cloudless Sulphur 4
• Large Orange Sulphur 50
• Lyside Sulphur 10
• Little Yellow 5
• Gray Hairstreak 10
• Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Ceraunus Blue 30
• American Snout 80
• Gulf Fritillary 15
• Mexican Fritillary 3
• Bordered Patch 25
• Elada Checkerspot 1
• Phaon Crescent 25
• Red Admiral 1
• Common Buckeye 1
• White Peacock 3
• Mexican Bluewing 2
• Tropical Leafwing 3
• Empress Leilia 2
• Tawny Emperor 60
• Queen 300
• Soldier 5
• White-striped Longtail 2
• Sickle-winged Skipper 5
• Brown-banded Skipper 1
• White-patched Skipper 8
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 10
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
• Laviana White-Skipper 20
• Clouded Skipper 60
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 5
• Fiery Skipper 30
• Whirlabout 6
• Southern Broken-Dash 3
• Sachem 5
• Common Mellana 5
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 15
• Eufala Skipper 20
• Ocola Skipper 2
• Mexican Crescent 1

Progreso Lakes, 6/27/20

We finally got a couple of inches of rain yesterday and the ground was soft so I spent the morning digging grass and pulling up seedlings in my brush patch.  After lunch I did rounds of the yard looking for butterflies and danged if I didn't find another Falcate Skipper. 

Here's the one from two days ago and it clearly has a chunk missing from the right wing tip.

The other big news is I found copulating Boisduval's Yellows.  I doubt this has been photographed very often and certainly not in Hidalgo County.

And then there was this one.  It seemed the size of an Ocola Skipper but the fore wing seems narrow and juts out quite a bit like a Purple-washed.  I tried to flash it to get an open winged shot but it didn't cooperate.  Best to probably call it Panoquina sp.

Great Southern White

Copulating Soldiers.  Don't ask.  Don't tell.

Mimosa Yellow.

Hot with strong southerly winds is the forecast for next week.  Hope something good blows in.

Dark Kite-Swallowtail at Old Hidalgo Pumphouse, 6/5/16

It was another trip to Santa Ana NWR this morning to look for the Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher.  I gave up after four hours and went home for lunch.  After eating I was thinking about a nap when I got the call from Bill Supulski that Tripp Davenport had just found a Dark Kite-Swallowtail at the Old Hidalgo Pumphouse. Someone sees one of these every few years down here but they only hang round a couple of minutes and then they're gone.   From our house it's 22 miles to the Pumphouse so I thought it was worth a shot.  I raced over and Tripp, Bill, Dot, Robin and Troy were still there and so was the swallowtail.  It only hung around a few minutes more but I was happy to get some shots as it nectared in a blooming fiddlewood.  I was excited and forgot to move my lense down to 300 mm from 400 so these photos are not the best.

Earlier in the morning after a couple of hours at the Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher vigil my birding discipline weakened and I wandered over to the butterfly garden on the other side of the visitors center.  One of the first butterflies I saw was a Hoary Skipper ovipositing on turk's-cap.  Joined by some of the other birders we soon found a couple more of them.

A blooming fiddlewood was really attracting the butterflies.  Over the next two hours I saw 35 species make a nectar stop.  Most made only a brief appearance this Ornythion Swallowtail

and two Giant Whites

and a Theona Checkerspot

and this Two-barred Flasher.

Mexican Bluewings don't show much interest in flower nectar.  They seem to prefer sap and ground salts.

A Guava Skipper checked out the blooming plumbago.

A couple of battling Great Southern Whites flew up over the roof of the visitors center.

Back at the fiddlewood were a couple more Hoary Skippers.

and my first Ocola Skipper for the year.

Here's my list from the butterfly gardens at Santa Ana NWR.

• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Ornythion Swallowtail 1
• Great Southern White 3
• Giant White 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 2
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Dainty Sulphur 1
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 5
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Reakirt's Blue 1
• Red-bordered Metalmark 3
• American Snout 50
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Zebra Heliconian 2
• Theona Checkerspot 1
• Bordered Patch 2
• Crimson Patch 1
• Texan Crescent 4
• Pale-banded Crescent 4
• Vesta Crescent 1
• White Peacock 1
• Mexican Bluewing 3
• Tawny Emperor 2
• Carolina Satyr `
• Guava Skipper 1
• Zilpa Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 4
• Two-barred Flasher 1
• Coyote Cloudywing 1
• Hoary Skipper 3
• White-patched Skipper 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 4
• Laviana White-Skipper 2
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 2
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 4
• Clouded Skipper 2
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Whirlabout 1
• Southern Broken-Dash 8
• Nysa Roadside-Skipper 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 5
• Ocola Skipper 1

Cameron County, 10-14-15

Yesterday I ran over to Cameron County to scout for a field trip for the Texas Butterfly Festival.  Cameron County has a half dozen species that are really difficult to find in Hidalgo County where the National Butterfly Center is located.  My first stop was Palo Alto National Battlefield which is home to a population of Definite Patch.  I didn't find any so I had to settle for this magnificent Blue Metalmark.

Saw an Ocola Skipper and a nice Sachem.

And an inquisitive Long-tailed Weasel.

Next stop was Sabal Palm Sanctuary where I could not find Double-dotted Skipper which is not a surprise as it is more of a spring bug.  Infact there were only a few skippers and not much in bloom.  This female Rufous Hummingbird was the highlight.

Finally I ran out to the TX 4 Smiley Face to look the "big four".  First was an Obscure Skipper.

Pale-rayed Skipper was not too difficult either.

But I could not dig out Xami Hairstreak or Saltbush Sootywing, so I only scored 50% on the Cameron County Specialties (not counting the Resaca de la Palma specialties).  Guess I need to scout some more.