Violet-banded Skipper at Progreso Lakes, 11/9/21

Eleven days ago Barbara Volkle, Steve Moore and I got to see a Violet-banded Skipper in our Progreso Lakes yard for a total of about two seconds.  There it was and there it went.  Well I saw another one today and it stayed for a total of 34 seconds.  That was the elapsed time between my first photo and my last.  And then it was gone.  This Mexican grass skipper is so distinctly marked that it doesn't take long to identify it.

The Tailed Orange didn't stay much longer.

We've had very few Julia's Skippers since the February freeze.

Still several Double-dotted Skippers around.

My bait station hosted a few Tawny Emperors, a couple of South Texas Satyrs and a Red Admiral.

A very fresh Cloudless Sulphur chrysalis. 

44 species on the day was not too bad.  I'm leading butterfly trips for the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival over the next few days so maybe we can come up with something interesting.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 3
• Great Southern White 3
• Orange Sulphur 1
• Southern Dogface 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 6
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Tailed Orange 1
• Little Yellow 2
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Ceraunus Blue 1
• American Snout 1
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 2
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Painted Lady 1
• Red Admiral 1
• White Peacock 6
• Tawny Emperor 6
• Carolina Satyr 3
• Monarch 3
• Queen 25
• Soldier 6
• White-striped Longtail 3
• Dorantes Longtail 6
• Brown Longtail 12
• Sickle-winged Skipper 8
• White Checkered-Skipper 6
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 6
• Laviana White-Skipper 4
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 15
• Double-dotted Skipper 3
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 8
• Whirlabout 5
• Sachem 3
• Common Mellana 3
• Eufala Skipper 4
• Ocola Skipper 1
• Violet-banded Skipper 1

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

Resaca de la Palma State Park, 10/28/15

This morning I ran over to Resaca de la Palma State Park north of Brownsville to do some more scouting for a trip I'm leading for the Texas Butterfly Festival.  I didn't get all the specialties for the site but it was a good day.  Everyone seems to be seeing Evan's Skippers this fall and I finally got one that Jim Snyder found.

A real surprise was at least four Violet-banded Skippers, My first for Cameron County.

Butterfly watchers go to Resaca hoping for Blue Metalmarks and they were out in force today.  A Walker's Metalmark was also seen but I missed it.

Another specialty for the park is Boisduval's Yellow.  I only saw one but it was very cooperative.

Two Orange-barred Sulphurs were nice.

Mexican Bluewings were common on the Ebony Trail but I failed to find the other park specialty, Band-celled Sister.

Silver-banded Hairstreak is always a treat.

A faded female Julia Heliconian was also on the Ebony Trail.

And one last area specialty, Mimosa Skipper.

• Giant Swallowtail 3
• Southern Dogface 3
• Cloudless Sulphur 25
• Orange-barred Sulphur 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 5
• Lyside Sulphur 10
• Boisduval's Yellow 1
• Tailed Orange 1
• Little Yellow 1
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 3
• Western Pygmy-Blue 1
• Rounded Metalmark 5
• Blue Metalmark 15
• Walker's Metalmark 1
• American Snout 3
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Julia Heliconian 1
• Bordered Patch 1
• Red Admiral 2
• Common Buckeye 1
• White Peacock 3
• Mexican Bluewing 12
• Tawny Emperor 5
• Carolina Satyr 1
• Queen 5
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 4
• Mimosa Skipper 4
• Mazans Scallopwing 3
• Sickle-winged Skipper 20
• Brown-banded Skipper 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 4
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 1
• Fiery Skipper 20
• Whirlabout 6
• Southern Broken-Dash 10
• Sachem 3
• Common Mellana 2
• Eufala Skipper 4
• Obscure Skipper 1
• Ocola Skipper 6
• Purple-washed Skipper 1
• Evans' Skipper 1
• Violet-banded Skipper 4

National Butterfly Center, 10/15/15

This morning I ran over to the National Butterfly Center to see what the recent rains had brung.  Mike Rickard and Ginny Musgrave showed up as I had half expected and Mike proceeded to find this beat up Hackberry Emperor.  We only see a few each year at the NBC.

Chris Tenney was in the gardens in back of the visitor's center.  He's been all over the country working on his big year in which he attempting to see 600 species of butterflies.  Chris told us he's at 501 which is pretty amazing.  He found this Violet-Banded Skipper shortly before I arrived.

There was nothing really rare today but lots of stuff I had not seen for a while like my first Purple-washed Skipper for the year.

Long-tailed Skippers have been hard to come by this year.

An extremely worn Zilpa Longtail.

And a Dorantes Longtail.

Turk's-cap White-Skipper was right in the mallows where I usually get one but it's been a while.

A really pretty Large Orange Sulphur.

  And a smokin' White Peacock.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 6
• Giant Swallowtail 3
• Southern Dogface 6
• Large Orange Sulphur 15
• Lyside Sulphur 8
• Mimosa Yellow 2
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Western Pygmy-Blue 3
• Cassius Blue 2
• Ceraunus Blue 1
• American Snout 5
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 4
• Phaon Crescent 4
• Painted Lady 1
• Red Admiral 1
• Common Buckeye 4
• White Peacock 2
• Hackberry Emperor 1
• Tawny Emperor 60
• Monarch 4
• Queen 2
• Soldier 200
• Zilpa Longtail 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 5
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 4
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 3
• Whirlabout 5
• Southern Broken-Dash 6
• Sachem 2
• Common Mellana 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 3
• Eufala Skipper 1
• Ocola Skipper 3
• Purple-washed Skipper 1
• Violet-banded Skipper 1