Good day at the NBC, 12/28/24

Took a day off to rest and get caught up on photos and work on the blog and stuff.  Yesterday was quite a day at the National Butterfly Center south of Mission, Texas.  I didn't find a lot of great stuff on my own but I manged to survive on the spoils of Mak and Holly Salvato's expertise and efforts.  Their best find was this Spot-celled Sister of which there are not many recordgs for the RGV.  I think it's my fourth.

There were also two of the similar but more common Band-celled sister.

Earlier in the day Mark found a Yellow Angled-Sulphur.  It was distant but that allowed my to fire away multiple exposures to get flight shots.

A short while later Mark called "White Angled-Sulphur!"  I thought it was a female and asked him how he made the ID.  But it was a male.

It took me a while but I eventually found Mark's Glazed Pellicia.

The Gray Cracker continued on its usual trunk.  It did fly into the bait log and allowed a closer shot.

Mark and Holly also found this cool Pale-spotted Leafwing.  Been quite a few this fall.  I crawled down under it and got some interesting shots before it returned to the bait.  I like that hooked fore wing.

More interesting flight shots included Florida White, Tailed Orange and a White-striped Longtail.

Here's the obligatory Mexican Bluewing and REd-bordered Pixie.

That's enough.  Here's the list of 64 species.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 2
• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Florida White 4
• Great Southern White 3
• Southern Dogface 3
• White Angled-Sulphur 1
• Yellow Angled-Sulphur 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 4
• Large Orange Sulphur 15
• Statira Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 10
• Mexican Yellow 1
• Tailed Orange 5
• Little Yellow 5
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Marius Hairstreak 4
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 2
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 12
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 4
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Cassius Blue 2
• Ceraunus Blue 20
• Reakirt's Blue 2
• Red-bordered Pixie 5
• American Snout 12
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Julia Heliconian 1
• Zebra Heliconian 8
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Texan Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Question Mark 1
• Red Admiral 8
• White Peacock 2
• Band-celled Sister 2
• Spot-celled Sister 1
• Mexican Bluewing 4
• Common Mestra 8
• Gray Cracker 1
• Pale-spotted Leafwing 1
• Tawny Emperor 1
• Monarch 6
• Queen 25
• Soldier 2
• White-striped Longtail 3
• Long-tailed Skipper 2
• Dorantes Longtail 3
• Brown Longtail 2
• Glazed Pellicia 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 3
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
• Laviana White-Skipper 10
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 5
• Whirlabout 2
• Sachem 8
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 4

Progreso Lakes, 10/29/19

We've returned to hot and breezy after the last cold front.  And butterflies have increased a bit.  Linda Cooper, Barbara Volkle and Steve Moore are in the Valley for the upcoming Texas Butterfly Festival and dropped by for a visit yesterday at our Progreso Lakes yard.  It didn't take long for sharp eyed Linda to find this White Angled-Sulphur.  It was a long overdue butterfly #114 for our yard.

 

A Giant White dropped in for a few seconds today.

Two days ago some nice nymphallids dropped in.  It's been a while since we've hosted a Mexican  Fritillary.

Gulf Fritillaries are more common.  Hope they find my Corky-stemmed passion vine.

We don't get many Common Buckey's and I have a tough time getting a photo when they're on the ground.  This nectaring individual was more cooperative.

We've had a few American Ladies lately.

Large Orange Sulphurs have been common lately.

The last cold front finally pushed a few Monarchs down.

We have a hot, muggy breezy day on tap for tomorrow followed by a strong blast of cold air and then a warm up.  Let's hope this bodes well for the Festival.

National Butterfly Center, 8/3/14

During the past two weeks triple digit temperatures have really knocked down the butterflies at the National Butterfly Center and across the RGV.  Best bug today goes to this sharp White Angled Sulphur.

There wasn't too much worth mentioning except there were tons of Queens on the Gregg's mistflower and on the butterfly milkweed..

So here's today's list.

 Pipevine Swallowtail 1

• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Southern Dogface 1
• White Angled-Sulphur 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 10
• Little Yellow 2
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Ceraunus Blue 1
• Zebra Heliconian 2
• Texan Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 8
• White Peacock 2
• Tawny Emperor 12
• Queen 250
• Soldier 4
• Brown Longtail 8
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Clouded Skipper 3
• Fiery Skipper 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 1

I did pick up the 84th butterfly for our yard a few days ago; this cute little Common Mellana.

National Butterfly Center, 8/9/13

This morning Honey and I ran over to the National Butterfly Center hoping to get lucky and find a Rosita Patch.  Several have been reported in the Valley lately.  Well, we missed that but I did manage to find a Crimson Patch.  This beauty has been hard to find in recent years.

This Bordered Patch had me going for a bit.

In the woods it was cracker city.  I found 15 Gray Crackers and two Guatemalan Crackers.  The concentric blue rings on the ocelli make this a Guatemalan.

I tried to turn this into a Glaucous but it's just a worn Gray Cracker.

The Mexican Bluewings are not easy to get close to with their wings open.  This was a distant shot.

Another distant photo was this White Angled-Sulphur.  If you get one in focus and just keep shooting you can usually get an open winged shot.

And just for the heck of it, here's a White Peacock.

Tailed Cecropian at NBC, 8/3/13

What a day for flashy Nymphalids at the National Butterfly Center south of Mission.  I parked in my usual spot and walked over to the bird feeding station and there's a Gray Cracker on a bait log.  So I walked north, checking the bait logs, and I found more Gray Crackers.  My final count was seven.  I kept walking north and a I saw a tall, well armed photographer ahead of me and he was photographing something good.  John Rosford had just found a Tailed Ceropian Historis acheronta.  I'm sure his photos are fantastic but here we'll have to settle for mine.

The Gray Crackers may have been outclassed but they're still pretty hot.

This one really blends in with the other butterflies.

This is certainly the summer of the Dingy Purplewings.  They are common across the upper Valley.  I even got some purple on this one.

Normally a Ruddy Daggerwing is the bug of the day.  But not today and this summer they've been pretty common.

White Angled-Sulphurs often nectar in the tops of the Mexican Olives where they are tough to photograph.

A beautiful Soldier.

Gee, I almost forgot about the Band-celled Sister.

And one more rockin' Nymphalid, a Questionmark.

This Texas Spiny Lizard was positioned by one of the bait logs.  It seems to know what it's doing.

And of course Martin Reid had to contribute something great.  But not a butterfly this time.  His sharp eyes spied a young Short-tailed Hawk.  Common in Mexico, this raptor is pretty rare in Texas.