Telea Hairstreak at Falcon, 9-16-25

I had not been to Falcon State Park in a few weeks so I thought I would run up and check the bird and bug situation.  The lake levels were still very low, about the same as my last visit.  There were just a few Least Sandpipers and Spotted Sandpipers and tiger beetles were just the regular Ocellated and S-banded.  Here's a Western Giant Swallowtail sucking out minerals from the mud.

So I checked out the butterfly garden.  The park staff has done a pretty good job of keeping a little water on the garden and they have had a bit of rain so the garden was actually looking good.  As has been the case, there wee not a lot of butterflies present.  But I did find a good one as I was watching bees in the blooming kidneywood.  A small hairstreak over my head, back lit agaist a bright sky, turned out to be a rare Telea Hairstreak.  This is the fifth I've ever seen and my first for Starr County.  And she seems to be oviposting.

Bee-wise there were a couple of good ones.  One clump of blooming kidneywood was hosting both of our Valley large Oxaeine Andrenid bee species.  This is the fourth time this summer I have found Mesoxaea texana.  Maybe it's not as rare as they say.

And there were at least a half dozen Protoxaea gloriosa,  It was a great opportunity to compare the two species.

It's shaping up to be a good fall butterfly season in the RGV.

Ornythion Swallowtail at La Puerta, 6/20/25

The east and west ends of the Rio Grande Valley have been getting quite a bit of rain lately but it's been spotty in the mid Valley.  Butterfly numbers are still low after the dry hot spring but maybe things are starting to pick up.  I ran out to the La Puerta tract of the Lower Rio GrandeValley NWR yesterday to look for native bees and encountered a few good butterflies.  This ragged female Ornythion Swallowtail was my first of the year.  They use plants of the family Rutaceae like Colima and Barreta as a host as does the more common Western Giant Swallowtail so hopefull she will find some to her liking.

Here is the similar Western Giant Swallowtail.  The easiest field mark is the spot on the "tail" which is lacking on Ornythinon.  The first thing I usually notice is the more pale coloration of Ornythion.  The wing patterns are different also.

A Pipevine Swallowtail passed through.

While I was photographing the Ornythion a young fellow with a camera approached.  It was the first time I've ever encountered anyone at La Puerta.  He said he lived just a few minutes away and then he described a blueish butterfly in a bush with white flowers. Wow it sounded like a great Purple Hairstreak in a White Brush.  He led me down the trail a short distance and there it was.  A bit scruffy but my first of the summer.

This Coyote Cloudywing looks like it's fresh out of the chrysalis.  Like so many its hind wing is folded a bit giving it the "stub tailed" appearance of a Jalapus Cloudywing.  I wish there ws a better field mark.

Beewise there were plenty of Protoxaea gloriosa out.  This one was guarding its territory.

They've also been getting rainin the butterfly producing country to the south.  Maybe it will be a good summer.

Vicroy's Ministreak at La Puerta Tract, 5/7/25

Monday I was driving out to Salineno and Falcon to look for birds but I got a late start so as I approached Rio Grande City I thought why not check out the La Puerta Tract of the Lower Rio Grande NWR.  Turns out it was lush and birdy.  So yesterday I ran there again but it was less birdy and the sun was out and stuff was flying.  So I switched over to butterflies and bees and had a good morning.  Butterfly of the day was this pebbly little Vicroy's Ministreak, only my third and first self found.

Otherwise butterflies were numerous but with low diversity as has been the case since the freeze and flood.  There was lots of cenizo out there so a Theona Checkerspot was expected.

Best I can tell this is a Theona Checkerspot catepillar.

Lots of Western Giant Swallowtails.

And lots of sulphurs like this Southern Dogface.

This fresh Funereal Duskywing almost looks like a Mournful but not mottled enough on the interior forewing.

Otherwise it was an amazing display of native bees like giant Glorious Protoxea.

And tiny Vireck's Nomad Cuckoo Bee.

Here are both of these rare bees together for a size comparison.

Hoping we can get some more rain to keep this stuff going or they're going to fry in the summer heat.

Progreso Lakes, 10/23/21

The Texas Butterfly Festival is coming up in a week and that means it's time for visiting butterfly watchers.  After few visitors last year because of the pandemic, it was great to see Barbara and Steve today.  They showed up while I was doing some yard work.  We made a few rounds of the yard and didn't see anything great.  But here's a few pics anyway.

This Mexican Bluewing showed up very fresh a few days ago.  I think it may have hatched in our brush patch.  She seems to be looking for a husband.

We got four of the five expected long-tailed skippers, Dorantes Longtail, White-striped Longtail, Brown Longtail and Long-tailed Skipper.  but getting Zilpa Longtail is always tough.

First Double-dotted Skipper I've seen in weeks.  It's got a few extra dots.

Cloudless Sulphur on a Heliconia latispatha.

A striking Gulf Fritillary.

Western Giant Swallowtail caterpillar.

Less than thirty species today so there's still stuff that 's missing.  Warm breezy weather should bring in a few more.

Broad-banded Swallowtail at Progreso Lakes, 8/8/21

 Butterflies are still trying to recover from this Spring's record freeze.  However we received a lot of rain in June and July and things are looking good.  Now we're finally back to the hot breezy weather we expect this time of year that can blow in some good butterflies.  This morning I stepped out onto the back porch ready to do some yard work when I glimpsed a brightly patterned butterfly in our brush patch.  It was nectaring on our red Salvia but staying fairly low.  All I could think of was maybe some king of a Nymphallid.  I grabbed the camera and ran over and discovered it was a smallish swallowtail with black wings with a broad yellow band.  I instantly recognized it a a male Broad-banded Swallowtail, the first male I've ever seen.  I got a few photos over the next couple of minutes and then it was gone.  We had a female last summer that paled in comparison to this much better looking butterfly.

Notice how much more narrow the bands are on our common Western Giant Swallowtail.

Three days ago I caught an orange flash in our brush patch that seemed a little off for our regular Gulf Fritillaries.  A minutes later I was not surprised to find this scruffy Ruddy Daggerwing on the blooming Tenaza, the third ever for our yard.

Hot, windy and dry is the forecast for the coming week so maybe some more good butterflies will blow in.

Hermit Skipper and Caterpillars at Progreso Lakes, 9/28/20

South wind ahead of our second cold front of the fall brought our second ever Hermit Skipper to our Progreso Lkaes yard today.  This has been a good summer for Hermit Skippers with several in the Valley and some as far way as Uvalde County.

Yesterday the butterflies weren't doing too much so I switched to looking for caterpillars.  The one that got me started was this cool Forbe's Silkmoth caterpillar.

In the same Colima I found a Western Giant Swallowtail Caterpillar with more nearby on a smaller Colima.

The Gulf Fritillaries have been busy on our Corky-stemmed Passionvine.

I found this Orange-barred Sulphur ovipositing on a Senna pendula.

But the only caterpillars I could find were Cloudless Sulphurs.

There were even two Cloudless Sulphur Chrysalises.

And the Polydamas Swallowtails ae still at it.

It's rewarding to see my plants being put to good use.