Bensten State Park, Mission, TX | Winged Beauty Butterflies

Pavon Emperor Butterfly on the left and Queen Butterfly on the right photographed by Jeff Zablow at Bensten State Park, Mission, TX

It was lunchtime at Bensten-Rio Grande State Park in the LRGV (Lower Rio Grande Valley) of Texas, a handful of miles from the Mexican border. John beckoned me over to see a butterfly I’d never seen before. Those 5 days, Christmas Week, were . . . amazing. In New York, in Pittsburgh and in Georgia, the last week of December? Zero butterflies. Here in the LRGV, many, many butterflies, with many rare and not often seen, or nearly never seen.

Looked up into that tree, and Bingo!! John had been there before, and he’d seen the butterfly on the left/center, a female Pavon Emperor. And lookee there, on the upper right, a feasting female Queen butterfly.

I’ve now met 4 Emperor butterflies: the Hackberry Emperor, the Tawny Emperor, the Empress Leila and now the Pavon Emperor.

Christmas week in the LRGV? Oh My Goodness! Sunny and in the high 80’s Fahrenheit, and what, thousands of butterflies?

Jeff

Pavon Emperor Butterfly on the left and Queen Butterfly on the right photographed by Jeff Zablow at Bensten State Park, Mission, TX

December 2017, and I am finally at Bensten State Park in Mission Texas. Just some two miles or less from the infamous Mexican border. We’d been seeing rare, exquisite butterflies every day now. I am so thankful for this exciting tour of G-d’s Special WingedBeauty Collection.

A busy State Park, perhaps 300 or more people visit on any sunny day. It’s 80F plus in December!.

John has eagle eyes, and motioned for me to look up into a tree off the path. What? What’s that John? A Pavon Emperor Butterfly, seen here in the left margin of this image. She was lazily nectaring on those tree flowers.

Maybe, just maybe one Pavon Emperor is seen there, a month. Some 8 or fewer folks might note it, and stop to stare and gawk.

Jeff, flew some 1,500 miles to see butterflies, and saw one that only 8 of 6,000 might see in a month! Yippee!

Jeff