Trans-Pecos, River Loop, 4/10/26

I woke up to a sunny cool morning and had to decide where to go.  I wanted something different and I thought I needed Painted Crescent so I decided on a loop through Marfa down through Shafter and back along the Rio Grande to Terlingua might be fun.  In restrospect I had forgotten I had already seen Painted Crescent in Arizona.  Oh well, it would still be a new Texas butterfly for me.

The drive to Marfa and south through the high grasslands proved uneventful.  It was still a little cool for the few flowers to produce anything.  It was starting to warm by the time I reached the old mining town of Shafter and the always fun Cibolo Creek crossing.  I pulled off before the stream crossing and was greeted by a soaring Zone-tailed hawk.  Bet there's a nest in the nearby cottonwoods.

Got my only Nysa Roadside-Skipper for the trip.

Marine Blues were by the stream but it was still a little early for odes to be out.

I bid adieu to the javelina and headed on down to Presidio.

It was nice to pass through Presidio on a pleasant cool morning.  This remote border town on the Rio Grande often boasts the daily high temperature the Nation.  There are a half dozen or so iNat records of Painted Crescent along the river.  I figured the nearby BJ Bishop Wetlands might be a good place to look.  At least I might see a few migrant birds.

The little set of  ponds for the city of Presidio's treated wastewater is an oasis in this part of the Chihuahuan Desert.  I didn't see much at the little butterfly garden at the entrance.  Driving along the ponds I saw a couple of impossible to photograph Orange Sulphurs.  I parked at the covered picnic table and walked to the south border of the pond.  Lincoln's and Swamp Sparrows called but there were few birds.

Then I spied a couple of blues flitting in the clover at the water's edge.  I fired a few shots.  These blues have tails!  Eastern Tailed-Blue!  This was not a butterfly I was expecting.  Later I found it would be a first Presido County record on iNat.  They are common in moist east Texas.

Well that was cool.  As I returned to the picnic table and sat down to eat lunch, a small pale butterfly sailed past me.  The shallow dainty wing beats made it look like a Nymphalid.  Small pale Nymphalid?  I chased after it and managed a few shots.  My recent experiences with Mexican Crescent in the RGV made this one easy to ID.  It was like a Mexican Crescent with pale submarginal spots on the fore wing.  I had found my Painted Crescent.

After lunch I walked the south border of the pond and found my only Western Pygmy Blue for the trip.

And then a surprise grass skipper.  The default small orange skipper out here is Orange Skipperling.  But this one has a wite band on the under hind wing.  It's our old friend the Southern Skipperling.  Only the third Presidio County record on iNaturalist.  There are no records for next door Brewster County.

 

I saw several more Painted Crescents.  They seem variable like our Mexican and Phaon Crescents.

This dead Poorwill was a sad find.  Hope it wasn't the result of a local jackass with a gun but I bet it was.

With Painted Crescent in the bag, I thought why not go up to Ojito Adrentro in Big Bend Ranch State park.  I've not heard of any ode reports from there in years.  The beautiful isolated riparian canyon used to hold a population of Mayan Setwings.  After all the dry years I don't know if there's even any water up there.  My only visit was fifteen years ago so what the heck.

It's a long bumpy ride though the dusty desert to the trail head.  It was just as I remembered it though maybe with a few more dead cottonwoods.

The half mile hike through the desert was easy but the portion through the cottonwoods was rough.  Trees had fallen and the trail had been poorly maintained.  I did manage to find my only Erichson's White-Skipper for the trip.

And a Texan Crescent.

I scrambled around fallen dead trees and boulders hoping to find some water.  It looked grim.  But a Springwater Dancer gave me hope there was some water somewhere.

Then I found a few pools guarded by Flame Skimmers.

Here's a fun photogenic net-winged beetle.  iNat calls it the Bloody Net-winged Beetle.  Mike Quinn concurred.

The end of the box canyon was lush and had a nice pool.  No sign of the Mayan Setwings.  It may be early in the year for them. 

Lots of Lavender Dancers.

Well the Ojito Aldentro side trip took a lot longer than I had planned.  Also the rugged hike about wore me out and by the time I had driven the long dirt road back out to US 90, I was running out of time.  I would have like to have spent some time along the river, but I barely had time to race though the beautiful scenery to get to a restaurant in Study Butte for dinner.  I was exhausted by the time I got back to Alpine.

The next day I drove an uneventful 530 miles back to Mission.  I picked up a few sparrows but clouds kept the butterflies away.  Not a bad trip.  I'd give it a B.

National Butterfly Center, 2/12/26

I haven't posted in a few weeks.  We had a freeze here in the Lower Rion Grande Valley of south Texas with a couple of nights with 5-6 hours below 32F.  It wasn't a big freeze but it was enough to give a pretty good burn to some of the plants.  I would say maybe 10% of plants at the National Butterfly Center suffered some damage.  But we warmed right back up to the 80's and butterflies are starting to recover some.  Halfway through the month the NBC species total is 85 which is actually pretty good.  The main problem now is it is extremely dry with no rain in sight.

There were no major rarities on the day but two Brown-banded Skippers were unusual.

It was nice to see a Mexican Bluewing.  A pair were cavorting near their Vassey's Adelia host plant.

Little flowers attract little butterflies like this Western Pygmy Blue on Tridax.

The booming Elbow Bush also attracted tiny guys like Reakirt's blue and  Dusky-blue Groundstreak.

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I assumed the few smallish orange butterflies I was seeing were Sleepy Oranges, but the only one I photographed was a Tailed Orange.

There was another Caballo (AKA Potrillo) Skipper in the ditch below the blooming Azureum.  They tend to like shady places.

Common Sootywings have not been very common.

Terry Mortier from Wisconsin, who has been down in the Valley finding butterflies for the past four months, is off to Arizona.  We will miss his eyes in the field.  I may join him in a few weeks as I still need to see a number of the spring southwestern butterflies.

Red-lined Scrub-Hairstreak at the NBC, 12/18/24

It's been a good fall for Red-lined Scrub-Hairstreaks in the lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas with half a dozen or more being reported at the National Butterfly Center.  Somehow I've manged to miss them all but yesterdaay I learned one had been present for a couple of days in the blooming Coma by the Conservatory.  So I spent quite a bit of time scrutinizing the tiny butterflies attracted to tiny but fragrant flowers.  Eventually I managed to pull out this scruffy specimen.  It might be the fourth I've ever seen.

Even scruffier was this poor Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak.

But this Dusky-blue Groundstreak was looking pretty sharp.

Mallow Scrub-Hairstreaks are everywhere.

Who doesn't like a Clytie Ministreak?  There were several in the Comma.

A Red-bordered Pixie hid on a nearby hackberry.

Walking the Hackberry Trail I found the long staying Gray Cracker on the same tree at the same spot posing at the same anlgle as a few days ago.

Here's a sharp Zebra Heliconian.

Nothing exciting in the the sunken gardens.  Best I could get was a Western Pygmy Blue.

The Discord "bonged".  A Pale-spotted Leafwing was on a bait log.  I hurried but just missed it by seconds.  Luckily it didn't go far.  What a striking specimen!

A cool front has dropped the temps into the sixties.  Not too bad.  Sometimes good stuff shows up after a front.  I've got my Christmas wish list!

Variegated Skipper at Estero, 3/1/17

Yesterday Michael Delasantro found a Variegated Skipper at Estero Llano Grande State Park.  I've seen this beautiful skipper in Panama but I've missed the few that we've had in the Rio Grande Valley so I really wanted to find this butterfly.  I arrived at Estero at 10 AM and ran into Rick and May Snider at their bait log. The Variegated Skipper had not been seen yesterday after the initial sighting and Rick was happy to accompany me to the rear of the Tropical Zone where it had been found.

We looked around for over an hour and saw some pretty good stuff but no Variegated Skipper.  It was getting cloudy and the butterflies were getting scarce when a Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet called.  Well we wandered off in search of that and then we wandered over to the hummingbird feeder were Rick had seen four species of hummers earlier in the morning.  And near there he wanted to check out a patch of azureum and he commented about how it was nice that Ruben had mowed around the patch to make it more accessible.  And then what should magically appear before our eyes?  None other than the Variegated Skipper.  After getting home I checked on Google Earth and found it was 257 yards from the azureum bush where it was originally found.    Amazing!

Well it flew while we were trying to get the word out on our phones.  In the process of searching we came across this female Chestnut Crescent.  No one gets excited anymore this spring when they come across one of these rare butterflies.  They are all over the place.

Nearby May pointed out a Band-celled Sister.

Earlier in the morning Rick and I saw this Brown-banded Skipper in the rear of the Tropical Zone.

Celia's Roadside-Skippers are common in the shady Tropical Zone.

Near Rick and May's bair log we had a pair of copulating Southern Broken-Dashes.  The golden females give me problems.  They can look a lot like a Common Mellana.

Red-bordered Metalmarks must be on of the easiest butterflies to photograph and they move in slow motion while meticulously searching for every little bit of nectar on a flower.

This Western Pygmy-Blue out in the parking lot was about the largest I've ever seen.

Somedays it takes skill and some days you just get lucky.  We were sure lucky today.