November 2013 Sightings

A list of butterflies seen here by myself and others on this hot and humid day. Numbers were in the tens of thousands. Butterfly festival starts this weekend. c’mon down. Aberrant Gray Hairstreak was a thriller.

This covers the week from Oct. 27 thru Nov. 2. Hidalgo and Starr Counties. Weather: 63°-93° and strong winds most of the week. Buck and Linda Cooper

Warm day, ~60 degrees. First Common Checkered-Skipper I’ve seen this year! It was in good shape and very active. Sulphurs and Pearl Crescents were rather worn. It’s important to note that I saw 4-5 butterflies that I assume to be emperors, maybe Tawny Emperors, flying about the fields, but did not count them here as I never got a close look to verify I.D.

Surprising find of a fresh colony (?) of Checkered Whites

The first Zebra Cross-streak, a female, (2nd U.S. record) was found by Linda Francis at her home in Green-Gate Grove in Mission, TX, Hidalgo Co. It stayed for over 3 hours on Croton. The second was subsequently discovered at the National Butterfly Center an hour later. It was a male. Dozens of butterfliers who had stayed on after the Texas Butterfly Festival were able to see and photograph both. Also at another home in Green-Gate Grove this strikingly beautiful Gaudy Sphinx moth was found.

Week of Nov. 3 - 9; covered areas in Hidalgo, Cameron and Starr Counties. Some trips part of Texas Butterfly Festival. One cold rainy day but rest of week warm and mostly sunny. 99 species for the week. 2nd & 3rd US records for Zebra Cross-streak. Linda and Buck Cooper

Windy (10-20 mph)

This pristine Marius Hairstreak (Photo by David Bratley) was seen by many today.

Unseasonably dry weather. The butterfly came to a flowering Tithonia yesterday and today. The butterfly was still in good shape, only moderately worn.

This covers the week of 10-16 November. Weather varied from 91° high to 53° low with strong winds several days. Linda and Buck Cooper

Very fresh Eastern Comma, Winter form, which landed on the deck in the late morning. The temperature was 54 degrees with full sunshine. Nice temperature warm up is expected this weekend, expected into the 60’s.

We are having unseasonably dry weather. I have a flower Tithonia that still hasn’t frozen attracting bees and skippers today.

Seen in the garden at the parking lot. Is it new to the Big Island.

It was butterfly heaven at Warbler Woods yesterday! Thousands of Dainty Sulphurs, lots of American Snouts were present. We also had a Desert Checkered-Skipper (see photo).

This list covers the week on Nov.17 thru Nov.23. We covered as many areas as possible due to the arrival of a blast of arctic air on the 22nd. Prior to that the weather was warm with several days in the upper 90s and high humidity. That all changed the afternoon of the 22nd with a drop of 40 degrees in a short period of time. Strophius Hairstreak was seen at NBC gardens. Zebra Cross-streak, 4th US record, was seen at Salineno for the 3rd consecutive day but not found afterwards. The week’s list totaled 100 species. Linda and Buck Cooper

Clear skies and warm.

Very luciously warm day. Unseasonably dry fall. One of the buckeye’s was fairly fresh, the other quite worn. We found a couple of Hop Trees that had leafed out and were flowering in the same area.