From May 16-22, our group of six butterfliers met up at the Super 8 in Kountze, TX for a week of looking for some special butterflies around East Texas with a quick visit one day across the line into Louisiana. Organized and led by our good friend and extraordinary butterfly expert, Jim Brock, we spent much of our time at several locations within the Big Thicket National Preserve, one day near Sabine Pass, and our last day in College Station where we got to enjoy dinner with our friend and butterfly expert, Ro Wauer. We'd get in a few hours of butterflying each day interrupted by cloudy stretches, but overall the weather turned out better than expected.

Jim had done his research and knew exactly when and where to go for our target species, making it possible for us to see most of them. Despite looking pretty hard for them, we were unsuccessful in tracking down the Bay Skipper, Creole Pearly-eye, and Intricate Satyr. However, we would end up with close to 50 species overall including six new lifers for me - King's Hairstreak, Northern Oak Hairstreak, Little Metalmark, Meske's Skipper, Northern Broken-Dash, and Dukes' Skipper.

Click on any of the thumbnails for the full sized image.