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

National Butterfly Center, 7/19/15

Today I joined Mike and Ginny for the NABA butterfly count at the National Butterfly Center.  The heat, lack of rain and an influx of dragonflies have really knocked down the number of butterflies.  But compared to last year at this time, there's still quite a bit of interesting stuff around.  This male Silver Emperor is a real knockout.

Luciano found this Mournful Duskywing which was our only one for the day.

I found this crescent which I showed to Mike and he IDed it as a Vesta Crescent.  I thought it was a female Pearl but after checking it out once I got home, I can see that Mike was right.

There's still a Two-barred Flasher hanging on in the ditch.

Mike interrupted my lunch with this Malachite and another Silver Emperor.

My last addition for the day was this Brown-banded Skipper.

I finished with 41 species for the day and I know Mike and Ginny had another half dozen or more that I missed.

• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Great Southern White 5
• Cloudless Sulphur 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 8
• Little Yellow 1
• Mimosa Yellow 6
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 4
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 3
• Ceraunus Blue 1
• American Snout 1
• Gulf Fritillary 7
• Julia Heliconian 1
• Zebra Heliconian 2
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 15
• Crimson Patch 8
• Texan Crescent 2
• Pale-banded Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 8
• White Peacock 1
• Banded Peacock 2
• Malachite 1
• Tropical Leafwing 8
• Tawny Emperor 150
• Silver Emperor 2
• Queen 35
• Soldier 1
• White-striped Longtail 2
• Brown Longtail 8
• Two-barred Flasher 1
• Brown-banded Skipper 1
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 8
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Common Sootywing 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 4
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Whirlabout 1
• Eufala Skipper 2

Tailed Aguna at Estero and Yturria Brush, 11/8/14

This past week I led field trips for the Texas Butterfly Festival and the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival. The butterfly festival had some good stuff like the Blue-studded Skipper at Yturria Brush and the Starred Skipper at the McAllen Botanical Gardens but I didn't get to see either one.  And other than Erichson's White Skipper and East-Mexican White-Skipper at Las Sombrillas Ranch near Rio Grande City I didn't see anything interesting.  But after leading a birding field trip with Jon Dunn at Estero Llano Grande State Park, I found my first Tailed Aguna in the parking lot so all was not lost.

Today after a couple of cool rainy days I spent the afternoon at Yturria Brush west of La Joya and saw quite a bit of stuff, nothing fantastic.  Here's another of the many Two-barred Flashers that have showed up this fall.

Another butterfly that's showing up most places after being absent for years is Erichson's White-Skipper.

The chomonque is blooming but the best things I could find on them were three Great Purple Hairstreaks.

I like White-patched Skippers.  I think I've said that before.

The Vesta Crescents enjoyed these animal droppings.

And so this this happy Tumblebug.

Just as I was finishing this afternoon, I got word of a Common Bluevent at Estero Llano Grande State Park. I raced over but it was not to be.  I'll try again tomorrow.  Here's today's list.

• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Southern Dogface 20
• Cloudless Sulphur 10
• Large Orange Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 3
• Little Yellow 6
• Sleepy Orange 3
• Dainty Sulphur 4
• Great Purple Hairstreak 3
• Gray Hairstreak 4
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 15
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Western Pygmy-Blue 10
• Ceraunus Blue 4
• Reakirt's Blue 3
• Red-bordered Pixie 2
• American Snout 100
• Gulf Fritillary 8
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Elada Crescent 1
• Texan Crescent 2
• Vesta Crescent 75
• American Lady 1
• Common Mestra 3
• Tropical Leafwing 3
• Empress Leilia 50
• Monarch 3
• Queen 25
• Two-barred Flasher 1
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 6
• White-patched Skipper 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 2
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 2
• Erichson's White-Skipper 1
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 2
• Clouded Skipper 3
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Sachem 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 1

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