Just a normal December day at the NBC, 12/14/24

Warm breezy days in December and visiting butterfly watchers always make a good recipe for rare butterflies in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas.  So I ran over to the National Butterfly Center hoping for something good; maybe the Barred Yellow seen yesterday.  There was nothing earth shattering but some pretty uncommon butterflies posed nicely for photos like this Blomfild's Beauty.

At the same bait log was this striking Question Mark.

Uusally Malachites are found at the bait logs so it was nice to find one nectaring of the purple Duranta.

Still a few Mexican Bluewings around.

Tailed Orange feeding on a flame acanthus.

The normally common Dusly-blue Groundstreaks have been hard to find this year.

We have still not had a strong cold front yet this winter.  Lowest temperature has been about forty so butterfly so butterflies are still on the wing and no real cold is in the forcast for the next ten days.  It is prime time for more rarites to show.

Progreso Lakes yard, 7/9/20

Hot, dry and windy at Progreso Lakes and it's going to get hotter and dryer.  Butterfly numbers seem to be on the decline but there were still three Yellow Angled-Sulphurs in the yard.

I put out some melon rinds which attracted a Questionmark.

And a couple of Tawny Emperors.

First thing this morning I went out of the back porch and found one of my Polydamas Swallowtails had eclosed.  I turned it loose and it spent the afternoon bopping about the yard.

Our first Common Sootywing of the year.

I had to work to get a poor shot of this Common Mestra.

Hot wind will dry stuff out but can also bring in butterflies from the south.  Stay tuned.

Mexican Silverspot at Progreso Lakes, 11/27/19

Today was forecast to be warm and windy so I thought it would be a good opportunity to get some work done in our yard at Progreso Lakes.  After a couple of hours visiting butterfly watchers showed up and I used that as an excuse to stop working and have some fun.  We quickly discovered the stiff breeze was blowing in some good stuff.  First was this uncooperative Florida White.

A few minutes later a Mexican Yellow fluttered by.  We later found a second but I failed to get a great shot.

While I was trying to get them on the Florida White I caught a glimpse of a pale green sulphur with purple wing tips....Statira Sulphur!

At this point we had to get word out to other visiting lepidophiles who soon arrived only to find the Mexican Yellow but nothing else.  But they went to work and soon turned up this magnificent Mexican Silverspot, yard butterfly #115.  It's a been a few years since I have seen one.

Everyone loved the Guava Skipper as usual.

I don't get many Questionmarks.  Here's an unusual shot.

Then Linda Cooper's sharp eyes found us a Silver-banded Hairstreak.

Though I had not seen a Double-dotted Skipper in weeks, the group wanted one and so they found a couple.

I like Dorantes Longtails.  This one stayed for only a few seconds.

Not a butterfly but a cool day flying moth, this Saucy Beauty was a first for our yard.

So we found 48 species in the yard including some good quality bugs.  Meanwhile Blomfild's Beauties have been found at the National Butterfly Center and at nearby Estero Llano Grande State Park and Estero also had a Chestnut Crescent so things are looking up.

Pipevine Swallowtail 1

• Florida White 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 5
• Large Orange Sulphur 3
• Statira Sulphur 1
• Mexican Yellow 2
• Little Yellow 1
• Mimosa Yellow 2
• Dainty Sulphur 2
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 5
• Ceraunus Blue 2
• Reakirt's Blue 3
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• American Snout 1
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Mexican Silverspot 1
• Texan Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 3
• Phaon Crescent 3
• Question Mark 1
• Painted Lady 1
• Red Admiral 1
• White Peacock 2
• Tawny Emperor 1
• Carolina Satyr 2
• Monarch 4
• Queen 10
• Soldier 2
• Guava Skipper 2
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 4
• Sickle-winged Skipper 3
• White Checkered-Skipper 4
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 2
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 2
• Double-dotted Skipper 2
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 8
• Whirlabout 4
• Southern Broken-Dash 3
• Sachem 2
• Eufala Skipper 2
• Ocola Skipper 2

Progreso Lakes, 6/15/19

Well, it's been a long dry, boring spring but we got a little rain last week and a butterflies are starting to pick up at Progreso Lakes.  The big news is the giant Dutchman's pipe I planted last summer has finally attracted a Polydamas Swallowtail and she's been laying eggs.

I've been putting out banana brew the past week and have had a few Questionmarks show up.

And there's been more Tawny Emperors than I've seen in our two and a half years here.

We don't get many Varigated Fritillaries.

We get lots more Gulf Fritllaries.

First Soldier we've had in a while.

Plenty of Queens lately.

Not many yards can boast of Double-dotted Skippers but they are not rare here at Progreso Lakes.

This Red-bordered Pixie was ovipositing on our guamuchil before it landed in the bottlebrush.

Anyway things are looking up and I will try to post more often.  Still lots of butterflies out there to add to our yard list.

National Butterfly Center, 1/5/17

Temperature was forecast to hit 80 today followed by 40s tomorrow so I figured it would be a good day to check out the National Butterfly Center.  Definitely the bug of the day was this Pearly-gray Hairstreak.  I've seen three before but this was the first I've ever found and recognized on my own.  It was smaller than the ones I've seen before but still the same bright blue above.

There are still plenty of great uncommon butterflies around despite our earlier cold weather.  Can say "no" to Malachites.

A ragged Florida White was popular with the visiting butterfliers from up north.

As were the two Curve-winged Metalmarks.

And the Julia Heliconians.

But I enjoy the common up north bugs that we don't see all the time like American Lady and Questionmark.

This Common Buckeye has a lot of orange on it like a Mangrove Buckeye.

56 species on the 5th of January aint bad!

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Black Swallowtail 1
• Florida White 1
• Checkered White 3
• Great Southern White 2
• Southern Dogface 4
• Large Orange Sulphur 8
• Lyside Sulphur 8
• Little Yellow 15
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Dainty Sulphur 1
• Gray Hairstreak 6
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 10
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Pearly-gray Hairstreak 1
• Cassius Blue 5
• Cyna Blue 1
• Ceraunus Blue 1
• Reakirt's Blue 10
• Red-bordered Pixie 7
• Curve-winged Metalmark 2
• Falcate Metalmark 5
• American Snout 50
• Gulf Fritillary 5
• Julia Heliconian 3
• Zebra Heliconian 6
• Mexican Fritillary 8
• Crimson Patch 3
• Pale-banded Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 10
• Question Mark 1
• American Lady 1
• Red Admiral 12
• Common Buckeye 6
• White Peacock 10
• Banded Peacock 1
• Malachite 1
• Common Mestra 5
• Tropical Leafwing 2
• Tawny Emperor 5
• Monarch 2
• Queen 50
• Soldier 1
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 6
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 10
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 3
• Laviana White-Skipper 12
• Julia's Skipper 2
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 2
• Clouded Skipper 30
• Southern Skipperling 8
• Fiery Skipper 20
• Whirlabout 1
• Eufala Skipper 6