December 2019 Sightings

77 degrees and sunny. Always enjoyable.

Sunny and 80 degrees. 23 species.

Sunny and 62 degrees.

Sunny and 7 degrees. 9 species in about 45 minutes.

With Leigh Williams. 11:00am to 3:00pm. Clear, upper 70’s. Beautiful day to be at the gardens! Principal nectar plants: Wild Sage, Spanish Needles, Black Torch, Blue Porterweed, Trailing Indigo, Havana Skullcap, Morning Glory.

Raining, off & on the past 3 days. Today’s temp was in the low 60s with heavy cloud cover. The sun appeared in mid-afternoon. Three Monarch caterpillars were seen.

78 to 84 degrees. 39 species. Overcast for about 2 hours. Then partly sunny. Somewhat windy. Dorothy took photo of White and Gray Hairstreak. The latter has white spots instead of orange at rear of hindwing and the post median line! This is pictured in Glassberg’s Swift Guide.

The chrysalis went dark on Dec. 8 and the morning of Dec. 9, this Monarch was drying its wings on my fence, a favorite spot to make the Monarch chrysalis.

South garden and walking Hackberry Trail

Stopped by for a short visit while birding The Valley. Noticed a skipper in the front garden.

Temp. Mid to upper 70s
Partly to mostly cloudy
Wind , south to southwest 10-15mph
The sightings were made in a mixed patch of Spanish Needles and Lantana.

79 degrees and sunny. Estero Llano Grande State Park Butterfly Walk with leader Rick Snider. 11 people. 2 1/2 hours. 34 species. Photos by anonymous.

Sunny, windy, with a high of 62. Found an Cloudless Sulphur in the shade around 10 AM. Not sure if it emerged this morning or late yesterday. It finally flew around 2 PM. At the same time, on the other side of my yard, I saw another fresh Sulphur on a fence. It stayed on the fence for about an hour before flying. 2 Monarch cats.

A westerly component to the wind the past couple of days seemed to blow in some unusual stuff. A brown skipper seemed to lack the costal dashes of Clouded Skipper and is currently unidentified.

(22-121) Sunny skies. Temp reached 74.

Emerged from a chrysalis on a senna ligustrina shrub

Nectaring after heavy rains. 1st time I have seen this butterfly.

Sunny, upper 50’s, 11:00-2:45. Walked in from upper end of Road #5 off FR#2 about 2 miles. This sighting ties for latest butterfly sighting for me.

(19-112). w/ John & Ivy Gibbons. Four Statira’s in late December was not expected. Images credits - JGibbons: Horace’s & Metalmark. Smith: all others.

12noon-2pm, 68 degrees

Partly sunny, low 60s. This site had previously been an over-wintering location for Monarchs. On January 10, 2012, according to park staff there were an estimated 4200 Monarchs there that day. They said on a normal year only 200-300 Monarchs stayed over-winter but a wet winter the previous year helped boost the numbers. Last year (2018) an estimated 10 Monarchs over-wintered there and this year only 5 have been observed. The pictures were taken 01/10/12.

While cleaning the windows on my car, I was very surprised to see a mint-fresh Cloudless Sulphur fly by. The temps have been in the upper 60s low 70s for the past few days, so that may have prompted it to eclose.

Sun finally came out, had to go see what was utilizing the blooming Jack-In-The-Bush

After 3 days of rain it was sunny & 75 degrees today!

Very surprised to see this as with many long walks in woods and not seeing any of expected butterflies in milder days recently.

Sunny and warm. 1:40pm - 2:00pm. With Leigh Williams.

(22-87) First visit. Lots of acreage. Quite a few leps along Road 5, but didn’t have much time to spend.

Partly cloudy, mid 60s, breezy at times.

A Red Admiral was enjoying the sunshine, of which there hasn’t been much the past month and a half. Nice way to end the year.