More Good Stuff at the NBC, 9-21-24

It's been nine days since the Glaucous Crackers were found at the National Butterfly Center and lep enthusiasts have been finding other good stuff in the mean time while searching for the crackers.  I ran over there today hoping for a male Glaucous Cracker.  I thought this one was a male when I first found it but now I'm not so sure.  The wing tips are pale like a male.

It's bee a few years since I've seen a Tailed Cecropian.  This one really showed nicely.

Third rare species to be seen today was this Pale-spotted Leafwing.

I've never seen so many Tropical Leafwings, at least forty of them.  Here are five with a Tawny Emperor.

This Nysa Roadside-Skipper is the 94th species to be seen at the National Butterfly Center this September.  There can be lots of butterflies in September but this diversity is unusual.

It nice to be getting a few Zebra Heliconias.  They were absent all summer.

Lots of Mexican Bluewings too.

Looks like the rains in Mexico have produced lots of good butterflies so more good stuff may be on the way.

First Florida Purplewing at Progreso Lakes, 2/24/23

I was watching birds in the yard this morning (butterflies have been kinda scant lately) with plans to do yard work afterwards when I noticed a Julia Heliconian.  I took some photos and then saw something on my crawdad trap bait station that was bigger than a South Texas Satyr but smaller than a Red Admiral.  And I though I saw a flash of white spots.  I had a pretty good idea it might be a Florida Purplewing.  So I fired a couple of shots and I was right!  The purplewing then flew into the Mexican olive tree.  I watched for a few minutes and it didn't come back so I ran into the house for some more bait (a couple of oranges and melon rinds) and it came back in for a few shots.  Most years a Florida Purplewing will show up at the National Butterfly Center but it's always a big deal.  They are common as dirt in the Florida Keys.  Florida Purplewing is butterfly species #149 for our Progreso Lakes yard.

Here's the sharp Julia Heliconian.

At this point I thought to hell with the yard work.  Time to look for butterflies.  I had irrigated the back yard the night before so maybe that might attract some stuff.  Stuf like this Zebra Heliconian.

A big white flew by but no photo.  But later it was on the purple Duranta.  Warm south wind often brings a Giant White into the yard.

Here's a lazy Westerm Giant Swallowtail.

Double-dotted Skippers were showing a variety of dots.

First Celia's Roadside-Skipper for the year.

This Funereal Duskywing is all dressed up.

Here's today's list of 40 species which is pretty amazing for February.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Checkered White 4
• Giant White 1
• Orange Sulphur 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 1
• Boisduval's Yellow 1
• Little Yellow 5
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 2
• American Snout 5
• Gulf Fritillary 5
• Julia Heliconian 1
• Zebra Heliconian 1
• Texan Crescent 10
• Vesta Crescent 10
• Phaon Crescent 3
• Red Admiral 1
• Florida Purplewing 1
• Common Mestra 1
• Tawny Emperor 1
• Carolina Satyr 12
• Monarch 1
• Queen 2
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 2
• White-patched Skipper 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 3
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 12
• Laviana White-Skipper 1
• Julia's Skipper 2
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Double-dotted Skipper 2
• Southern Broken-Dash 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 1
• Eufala Skipper 3

• 
  

Variegated Skipper at Progreso Lakes, 1/13/22

Butterflies have been absent at Progreso Lakes the past two cold cloudy days but today the sun popped out and warmed temps to the 70's and the butterflies were back.  A real surprise was this rare Variegated Skipper.  These tiny jewels rarely wander up from Mexico.  It was only my second for the United States and first for our yard, butterfly #139.

After being a rare visitor to our yard for the first five years, Zebra Heliconians have been present daily for the past couple of weeks.  We had four today.

We've also had multiple Giant Whites daily.  Here's three in one shot.  They really like the blooming Dicliptera.

I thought this was an Orange-barred Sulphur when I photographed it.  Then I noticed it lacked any dark orange above so I started hoping it was a first record Apricot Sulphur.  But alas, it was just a big rambunctious Large Oange Sulphur.

Second best butterfly today was our third ever Band-celled Sister.

Last week we got our second ever Marine Blue.  These are much more common farther west.

We also had another Mazans Scallopwing last week.

Here's today's list.

Giant Swallowtail 1

• Giant White 3
• Orange Sulphur 1
• Southern Dogface 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 5
• Large Orange Sulphur 5
• Mexican Yellow 1
• Little Yellow 3
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Ceraunus Blue 1
• Reakirt's Blue 2
• Gulf Fritillary 8
• Zebra Heliconian 4
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Texan Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Red Admiral 2
• White Peacock 2
• Band-celled Sister 1
• Monarch 1
• Queen 3
• Soldier 1
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 5
• Variegated Skipper 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 6
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 20
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 10
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Sachem 1
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 5

Potrillo Skipper at Progreso Lakes, 11/19/20

Lately they've had some really good butterflies at the National Butterfly Center near Mission and I was very temped to go over there today.  But if they can get good butterflies over there, shouldn't I be able to find some here?  We also have a Selasphorus Hummingbird I wanted to photograph so staying here seemed to be a good choice.  Well the hummer didn't cooperate and there wasn't much butterfly wise till I found this skipper.  My first impression was it was a well marked Brown Longtail lacking its tails.  But I was going to shoot it anyway and what a surprise when through the camera I discovered it was a Potrillo Skipper.  I saw her several more times during the day and she seemed to be trying to oviposit on Ruellia.  These have been hard to find in recent years.  This Potrillo Skipper was Progreso Lakes yard butterfly #127.

Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreak continues to not be a surprise this year.

We don't get many Zebra Heliconians and this one ovipositing on on the Corky-stemmed Passionvine was especially welcome.

It was one year ago when visiting butterfly watchers found our first Boisduval's Yellows.  Now they are a regular resident in our yard.

I put out some butterfly bait and attracted Tawny Emperors and this Tropical Leafwing.

Red-bordered Pixies are back.

A few days ago the Malachite returned and I was able to get much better photos.

Warm dry weather is forcast for the foreseeable future so the good butterflies should just keep coming.

An Invasion of Gold-spotted Agunas, 8/3/20

On August 2 Ernest Herrera found a Gold-spotted Aguna at his home near Mission.  We usually get one or two every year in the Rio Grande Valley but they're still pretty rare and always a nice surprise.  So I was shocked the next day to find three of them in our yard!  We had one previously a couple of years ago.  What's even more amazing is that on the 4th, Ernest found two more at Quinta Mazatlan in McAllen.  And then Juan Chavez found two more at his home in Edinberg.  Obviously Gold-spotted Agunas are breeding somewhere not very far away.  I bet more of them show up.  Here's some photos from our yard.

The first two were in our blooming Tenaza.  But then I found another large skipper in the Duranta that didn't seem to have a white band.  I was hoping for Broken Silverdrop.  But after looking at the photos, the white band was just worn and it was a third Gold-spotted Aguna.

Well that made for a pretty good day but that's not all.  There was a Brown-banded Skipper laying eggs on a Barbados cherry; first one for the year.

And then this beat up Ruddy Daggerwing dropped in.  I wonder if it was the same one from last week.

The day started with this female Yellow Angled Sulphur.

These two Tropical Leafwings were getting chummy.

The day before on 8/2/20 we had this nice fat female Orang-barred Sulphfur laying eggs on the Senna.

And to get all caught up, yesterday 8/5 our brush patch was briefly visited by this fresh Zebra Heliconian.  They are pretty common but it was only our second.  I think they probably just blow through and I miss them.