Butterflies Juniper (3 on right) and Gray Hairstreaks

If you like butterfly pictures, be sure to see
our new Butterfly Photos pages, where they are
sorted to family groups.



Longtailed Skipper

There is a tremendous diversity of butterflies locally.
Who, in their youth, didn't look at butterflies
with marvel?  Fortunately, in recent years,
many have let the "child within" out,
and now butterflies are enjoying popularity
heretofore unknown. There are very good books,
websites, and even local festivals (in Concan -
Nature Quest in April), focusing on butterflies.

Also, many native plant nurseries and societies
exist which are very aware of which native
plants attract dozens and dozens of butterflies.
Serious study of butterflies in almost any
county will add new records to our pool of
knowledge about them.


Zebra Longwing

There have been many great men who collected
butterflies. Most were looked at in pith helmet
and net, with raised eyebrows, as eccentrics,
but are now considered icons by lepidopterists.
Now it is even almost "cool" to be into them!
Butterflies are a pursuit endlessley
fascinating and beautiful.

There are already official lists of all the
butterflies known from Uvalde and Bandera
counties easily available on the Web.
But, they don't cite what exactly might be
in the Sabinal River Valley, or in the
Utopia area for instance. Just a "county"
breakdown (as well as every county in every
state in the U.S.!). These lists tell us what
we should be seeing however, and are most
useful. Note that they are incomplete and anyone
with a modern butterfly field guide could come
here and add new species to the county list.
I wouldn't be surprised if over 150 species
could be found just in the Sabinal River Valley!



Great Purple Hairstreak


If you want to have just one book on the shelf
about butterflies, probably the best single
book to get for ID purposes for OUR AREA here
is the "Kaufman Focus Guide" to Butterflies
of North America, by Jim Brock & Kenn Kaufman.
It has thousands of great photographs of live
ones, taken in the field, the way we see them
with range maps, much like a good bird guide.



Blue-eyed Sailor, 1st Bandera co. record
at Cypress Hollow Sept. 23, 2007

References and Links For further study, there are many excellent butterfly websites from which you can identify virtually anything you find. Here are a few links to get you started ... from here, you can find anything in the whole wide world web. You may wish to bookmark these to visit later, as these links will take you off of this site. Butterflies and Moths The site above includes the official county lists for Uvalde and Bandera counties. N.A.B.A. - South Texas N.A.B.A. (North America Butterfly Assc. Xerces Society Kerr County Natural History - Invertebrates This is the best locally built website which covers all the fauna (fish, birds, bugs,butterflies, you name it, etc.) of Kerr County, our neighbor to the north. It is well worth visiting for a wealth of info on any of the animals found in this neck of the woods. It is a GREAT website! For all fauna - birds, fish, you name it ... Fauna of Kerr County Native Plant Society of Texas (Kerrville Chapter) Wildflower Checklist and Photos Red Rim

Birds Bird News Utopia Birds Birding Sites Bird Photos Lost Maples Reports Has not been updated recently ... please see Bird News Christmas Bird Count

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