Posts in Category: National Butterfly Center

Curved Billed Thrasher

So yesterday I confused the Rio Grande Valley speciality Long-billed Thrasher with the more common Brown Thrasher, because of the rufous on the wings. This is, I am pretty sure, a Curved-billed Thrasher, based on the overall grey look :). National Butterfly Center, Mission Texas. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Scissor-tail Flycatcher

I was leaving the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas when I spotted my first Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (of this trip) on the wires over the road. The light was good, and there happened to be a wide enough margin between the road and the fence of the Butterfly Center for me to pull off, so I did and walked back for a few shots. The Scissor-tailed is certainly one of the more beautiful of North American flycatchers. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. And, of course, I saw a dozen more Scissor-tailed Flycatchers on the wires in the first few miles of my way back to Harlingen.

Variegated Meadowhawk


We are Albuquerque New Mexico on a somewhat lieserly trip to the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache NWR this morning, but this is from our last festival in South Texas.

The Veriegated Meadowhawk is one of the showier dragonflies. This specimen, from the National Butterfly Center​ in Mission, Texas is a particularly bright one.

Nikon P610 at 2300mm equivalent field of view (using some digital Perfect Image Zoom) from about 7 feet. 1/250 @ ISO 220 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.

Malachite Green

Green Malachite, National Butterfly Center, Mission TX

Green Malachite, National Butterfly Center, Mission TX

For some reason, many of the butterflies at the National Butterfly Garden this year when I visited a week ago were relatively worn specimens. I don’t remember that from previous visits, but I only get there once a year, always in November. The National Butterfly Center gardens are open gardens, not enclosed in any way, so the butterflies you see there are not captive breed…they are wild butterflies and have to make a living in the wild. It shows, by November. The Green Malachite is one of my favorite butterflies. I have only seen it 4 or 5 times, always at the National Butterfly Center, so you can believe that when someone called out from the trail along the top of the berm that one was showing, I hustled right up there. The light was terrible…an overcast day and the butterfly was deep under cover among the plants on the far side of the ditch on the other side of the berm.

These shots were at 2000mm equivalent field of view with the Nikon P900. Hand-held at 1/30th @ ISO 1100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.

Back-side view.

Back-side view.

Two-barred Flasher

Two-barred Flasher, National Butterfly Center, Mission TX

Two-barred Flasher, National Butterfly Center, Mission TX

Another panel (three shots this time) of another Rio Grande Valley specialty…The Two-barred Flasher butterfly, from the National Butterfly Center gardens in Mission Texas. The blue on this butterfly is often so intense that it “burns out” in a normally exposed photograph…losing all detail. I always feel that this one got shortchanged in the name department. Something more exotic is certainly called for!

All shots with the Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.

Silver Emperor Butterfly

Silver Emperor Butterfly, National Butterfly Center, Mission TX

Silver Emperor Butterfly, National Butterfly Center, Mission TX

This is a collage of 5 shots of the Silver Emperor Butterfly, taken yesterday at the National Butterfly Center in Mission Texas. As though the butterfly were not spectacular enough with its rich brown body, yellow wing tips, and bold while band, in the right light the male shows a bright blue iridescence along both edges of the white. You can see a bit of it flashing in several of these shots. The name comes from the back-side view, and the silver color of the body and wing band. Again, if the angle of the light is right, it looks as metallic as the spots on a Fritillary. Note the green tongue showing in the two head on shots. All together one fine looking butterfly…and just rare enough to cause a stir whenever one is found on this side of the Rio Grande.

Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.

Heliconians: National Butterfly Center

Haliconians. Zebra and Julia

Haliconians. Zebra and Julia

Longwings (Haliconians) are among my favorite Rio Grande Valley butterflies. They are, to me, the very definition of exotic. Graceful, slow fliers, they often nectar with wings fully spread so they are ideal photographic subjects, and there is nowhere better to photograph them than the National Butterfly Center in Mission TX. I always attempt to spend at least a morning at the NBC on every trip to the Rio Grande Valley. Here we have the Zebra, one of the first butterflies to great me at the NBC gardens proper, and Julia, which another visiting couple pointed me to later in the morning.

Sony HX400V at various focal lengths. Processed and cropped in Lightroom on my Windows tablet. Assembled in Phototastic.