National Butterfly Center, 2/24/24

Things at the National Butterfly Center are trying to recover form the hard freeze this winter.  Some good rain last week and warm temperatures have got trees leafing out and flowers blooming.  39 species for the day is a pretty good February total.  The Mexican Bluewings were putting on a show,

My first Texas Powdered-Skippers for the year.  They like to hang out int he ditch.

Three Turk's-Cap White-Skippers were on the big Azureum patch by the trail that crosses the ditch.  Probably over half my day's butterflies were from that patch.

I think it's been a few years since my last Nysa Roadside-Skipper.

One Celia Roadside-Skipper looked kind of normal and the other was pretty freaky.

First Sachem of the year.

What a fantastic Southern Broken-Dash!

Five of the butterflies I saw today were new for the month at the National Butterfly Center bringing the February total to 70.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Black Swallowtail 1
• Checkered White 5
• Orange Sulphur 3
• Southern Dogface 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 5
• Little Yellow 6
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Fatal Metalmark 2
• American Snout 8
• Gulf Fritillary 5
• Bordered Patch 2
• Phaon Crescent 30
• Pearl Crescent 1
• American Lady 3
• Red Admiral 25
• Mexican Bluewing 8
• Empress Leilia 2
• Queen 10
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 2
• Funereal Duskywing 2
• White Checkered-Skipper 10
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 30
• Laviana White-Skipper 15
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 3
• Common Sootywing 1
• Clouded Skipper 20
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 15
• Whirlabout 25
• Southern Broken-Dash 1
• Sachem 2
• Common Mellana 3
• Nysa Roadside-Skipper 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 20

Progreso Lakes, 2/28/20

Despite the past two mornings dipping into the 30's there have been butterflies about and Mike Rickard recorded 65 species at the National Butterfly Center yesterday.  So I put a little effort into our Progreso Lakes yard today and was rewarded with 36 species.  Star of the day was our first Coyote Cloudywing, butterfly #120.  Coyote Cloudywing is pretty common out west at Falcon State Park but hard to get in eastern Hidalgo County.  So I wasn't sure how long it would take to record the species in our yard.  This was a really fresh one that only hung around for about a minute.

I was photographing this White-striped Longtail when the coudywing popped in.

There were both Mournful and Funerial Duskywings.

It's been a while since I've seen any Sachems.  We had two today.

We don't get Orange Sulphur very often.

This Gray Hairstreak was fresh and nicely marked.

Otherwise it was just a lot of common stuff today.  So here's a photo of a Red-bordered Pixie from a few day ago.

Here's today's list.

• Checkered White 2
• Orange Sulphur 1
• Southern Dogface 2
• Cloudless Sulphur 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Little Yellow 3
• Sleepy Orange 2
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 2
• Texan Crescent 3
• Vesta Crescent 4
• Phaon Crescent 3
• Red Admiral 1
• White Peacock 1
• Carolina Satyr 4
• Monarch 2
• Queen 4
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 4
• Coyote Cloudywing 1
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 8
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 6
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 3
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 5
• Whirlabout 1
• Southern Broken-Dash 2
• Sachem 2
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 3

Progreso Lakes, 3/12/18

This afternoon I was working in the butterfly garden in our yard at Progreso Lakes when a sharp Julia's Heliconian came cruising by.  It told me to put down the shovel and pick up the camera.

Then I saw a little brown spreadwing skipper....Mazan's Scallopwing!  This is a butterfly that likes shady brushy areas and I thought it might be a while before we add this one to our yard list.  But there it was, butterfly #106.

Then there was this guy.  I thought it was just a Celia's Roadside-Skipper in a nice pose.  But looking at Glassberg, it has a lot of the field marks of Bell's Roadside-Skipper from NE Texas.  We will see what people think.

Here's a Turk's-cap White-Skipper.

When we bought this place fifteen months ago I never dreamed that Double-dotted Skipper would be a regular in our yard.  I love 'em.

Here's a very bright female Sachem.

And a Southern Broken-Dash.

This White-striped Longtail was all over our acre yard.

A couple of hours later the day's list stood at 34 species.  Pretty good.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Checkered White 1
• Orange Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 1
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 6
• Reakirt's Blue 1
• American Snout 1
• Julia Heliconian 1
• Bordered Patch 2
• Texan Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Pearl Crescent 1
• Red Admiral 1
• Carolina Satyr 15
• Monarch 1
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 4
• Mazans Scallopwing 1
• Funereal Duskywing 3
• White Checkered-Skipper 3
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper20
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Julia's Skipper 3
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 4
• Double-dotted Skipper 2
• Whirlabout 1
• Southern Broken-Dash 2
• Sachem 2
• Bell's Roadside-Skipper 1
• Eufala Skipper 2

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.

National Butterfly Center, 3/12/15

After several days of cool rainy weather I ventured out to the National Butterfly Center south of Mission this afternoon.  With all the winter's rain, things are very lush and butterflies were starting to be more active. Chris Tenney found this very sharp Brown-banded Skipper, my first of the year.

I really liked this dark female Sachem.  I don't think I've ever seen one like this before.

Here's another Texas Powdered Skipper.  They seem to be everywhere this spring.

Not many Pierids today with the north wind.  My only Checkered White on the day.

My first Julia's Skipper for the year.

This Phaon Crescent lacks the black spot on the last orange spot on the front wing subterminal row of orange spots.  But it's still a Phaon. 

Since today's post has degenerated to a photo of a Phaon Crescent, it's time to stop.

Overnight arrival!, 10/14/14

Lately we've had plenty of butterflies in our little garden but diversity was low and it was hard to see ten species in a day.  The recent cool front has changed all that and today our yard was invaded by 38 species of butterflies.  Best bug today was probably this Sickle-winged Skipper.

This is the first Pearl Crescent I've photographed in our yard.

I wondered why this Whirlabout was so big till I figured out it was a Sachem.

A big juicy Monarch stopped by for a rest.

A very colorful Gray Hairsteak.

There was sure plenty of romantic action on display.  Here's a Cassius Blue with a Ceraunus Blue, two Vesta Crescents and two Fiery Skippers.

Here's the list for today.

• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Checkered White 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 4
• Large Orange Sulphur 3
• Lyside Sulphur 12
• Little Yellow 4
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Dainty Sulphur 1
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Western Pygmy-Blue 2
• Cassius Blue 2
• Ceraunus Blue 10
• American Snout 5
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Elada Crescent 2
• Vesta Crescent 5
• Phaon Crescent 3
• Pearl Crescent 1
• White Peacock 1
• Monarch 1
• Queen 120
• Soldier 1
• Guava Skipper 1
• Brown Longtail 2
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 3
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 15
• Laviana White-Skipper 2
• Clouded Skipper 4
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 20
• Whirlabout 3
• Southern Broken-Dash 3
• Sachem 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 1
• Eufala Skipper 3