Ruddy Hairstreak at NBC, 2-12-25

I had stuff to do today but Mary Beth Stowe found a Mourning Cloak at the National Butterfly Center so I changed plans.  I never found it but as it turned out it was a good day to be there ahead of the approaching cold front.  The elbo bushes had quit blooming but white brush and baby bonnets took up the slack.  Pride of place (I like this old British term) goes to this sharp little Ruddy Hairstreak.  Males are easy to ID if you can see the orange upper wing surfce.  Females are dull above and identical to Muted Hairstreak.  The little guy was flashing orange!

Common Streaky Skippers have appeared out of nowhere.  I saw three today.

Mazan's Scallopwing is not common at the NBC.  Resaca de la Palma is a better place to find it.

My first Goatweed Leafwing for 2025.

This is most likely a female Orange Sulphur but I'm not sure how you could rule out Clouded Sulphur.  I like the pink overtones.

Texan Crescents were out.

The other note worthy event today was the return of the native bees.  Identification is a challenge but iNaturalist helps.  I think this is the Texas Nomad Bee, a kleptoparasite of some of the little Andrena mining bees.

Female Texas Agopostemn is hairy compared to the other green sweat bees.

And I haven't figured out this dark little sweat bee.  Not finding anything like it online.

Here's today's list of 35 species.

• Black Swallowtail 1
• Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 6
• Little Yellow 3
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 5
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Ruddy Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 2
• Western Pygmy-Blue 1
• Reakirt's Blue 4
• Fatal Metalmark 3
• American Snout 10
• Bordered Patch 1
• Texan Crescent 3
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Pearl Crescent 1
• Red Admiral 6
• White Peacock 1
• Mexican Bluewing 2
• Tropical Leafwing 5
• Goatweed Leafwing 1
• Mazans Scallopwing 1
• Funereal Duskywing 2
• White Checkered-Skipper 8
• Laviana White-Skipper 2
• Common Streaky-Skipper 3
• Clouded Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper 2
• Sachem 2
• Common Mellana 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 1

Santa Ana NWR, 5/30/23

With all the recent rain I thought a trip to Santa Ana NWR was in order.  Trails were muddy so I walked the tour road to the cemetery.  Things are pretty lush but not a lot was blooming except at the cemetery where I found this Potrillo Skipper.  I had seen them there in the past but a check of my records found my last one was 5/31/15.  Almost the same date eight years ago.

Nearby was this Texas Powdered Skipper.  I found my lifer at Santa ana years ago.

A group of 25 Laviana White-Skippers were sucking at the moist soil.

Along with a Mimosa Yellow.

Checking the piles of animal scat can always be productive.  Here's a Sickle-winged Skipper and a Texan Crescent.

Here's today's list of 31 species.  Gotta get back over there in a couple of weeks.

• Giant Swallowtail 6
• Great Southern White 1
• Southern Dogface 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 40
• Little Yellow 3
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Reakirt's Blue 2
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• American Snout 3
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 2
• Texan Crescent 12
• Vesta Crescent 15
• White Peacock 3
• Common Mestra 25
• Queen 1
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 2
• Potrillo Skipper 1
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 6
• White Checkered-Skipper 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 1
• Laviana White-Skipper 30
• Clouded Skipper 2
• Whirlabout 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 3

Two More New Butterflies at Progreso Lakes, 10/29/21

With the Texas Butterfly Festival coming up, today I was joined at Progreso Lakes by Linda Cooper, Barbara Volkle, Steve Moore, Sarab Seth and Jon McIntyre.  The extra eyes helped run today's tally to 56 species.  New for the yard was this sharp Desert Checkered-Skipper.  Butterfly #134!

Later Barbara, Steve and I saw this Violet-banded Skipper for just a couple of seconds.  I was able to fire off one shot as it took off.  The dark band and wing spot are visible on our yard butterfly #135.  We could not relocate it.

We found another Mexican Yellow.

Jon found the first Texan Cresent I've seen in our yard in a long time.

We had three Purple-washed Skippers.

Several more Double-dotted Skippers.

Here's a Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak.

And the male Mexican Bluewing showed off the best ever.

Wind was still coming from the north today.  Hoping for more exotic stuff when it switches back around to the south.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Checkered White 1
• Great Southern White 2
• Cloudless Sulphur 5
• Large Orange Sulphur 8
• Lyside Sulphur 3
• Mexican Yellow 1
• Little Yellow 8
• Sleepy Orange 3
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 4
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Western Pygmy-Blue 6
• Ceraunus Blue 4
• Reakirt's Blue 2
• American Snout 2
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Texan Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Question Mark 2
• Red Admiral 1
• Common Buckeye 1
• White Peacock 6
• Mexican Bluewing 1
• Common Mestra 1
• Tawny Emperor 10
• Carolina Satyr 2
• Monarch 3
• Queen 50
• Soldier 10
• White-striped Longtail 4
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Dorantes Longtail 2
• Brown Longtail 25
• Mimosa Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 8
• Mournful Duskywing 2
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 8
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 6
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 1
• Laviana White-Skipper 8
• Clouded Skipper 25
• Double-dotted Skipper 3
• Southern Skipperling 6
• Fiery Skipper 25
• Whirlabout 10
• Southern Broken-Dash 2
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 8
• Ocola Skipper 1
• Purple-washed Skipper 2
• Violet-banded Skipper 1

Chestnut Crescent at National Butterfly Center, 2/10/17

Martin Reid has been down in the Valley the past couple of days and I got a call from him about a weird groundstreak that he and Mike Rickard had found the evening before.  Well that was enough to get me out of my planned yard work and over to the National Butterfly Center.  We looked but could not refind the groundstreak however John Rosford showed up and minutes later he had found a male Chestnut Crescent.  I had seen a few females but this was my first male.

  Later Martin and I walked the ditch and found this beat up female Chestnut Crescent.  So I've seen three individuals of this rare species over the past three days.

Texan Crescents have been common lately.

I had no problem finding the reported Double-dotted Skippers.  This used to be a Brownsville specialty but they are often seen at the NBC these days.

This has been the winter of the Mexican Silverspot.

My first Common Sootywing of the year.

Black Swallowtails show up when the mustards and dills start blooming.

I was going to enter a list but NABA Sightings would not let me copy it.  I'll try again later.

Chestnut Crescent at National Butterfly Center, 4/24/15

With a warm, humid, windy day I decided to take a day off from spring bird migration and check out the butterflies at the National Butterfly Center south of Mission.  There were plenty of Texan Crescents out and I almost passed this bug off as another till I noticed the gray underside of the forewing.  Chestnut Cresent!  I had seen Phyciodes argentea only once before so this was a treat.

Here's the common Texan Crescent for comparison, Phyciodes texana.

With the southerly winds, Pierids were on the move, including my first Florida Whites for the year.  

Is this another?  Nope.  the blue antenna knobs say it's a Great Southern White.

Here's my list of 44 species for the day.

• Black Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Florida White 4
• Checkered White 15
• Great Southern White 5
• Cloudless Sulphur 3
• Large Orange Sulphur 6
• Lyside Sulphur 6
• Little Yellow 4
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Dainty Sulphur 3
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 4
• Western Pygmy-Blue 1
• Reakirt's Blue 3
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• American Snout 2
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Zebra Heliconian 1
• Texan Crescent 10
• Chestnut Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 80
• Pearl Crescent 8
• American Lady 1
• Red Admiral 6
• Tawny Emperor 25
• Monarch 3
• Queen 6
• Guava Skipper 1
• Brown Longtail 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 15
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 8
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Common Sootywing 5
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 4
• Southern Skipperling 4
• Fiery Skipper 3
• Common Mellana 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 3
• Eufala Skipper 6