Greetings All:
The second day of my four-day BBS marathon broke early and favorably with
regards to weather.
I completed the Plains II BBS - entirely (despite some county:county
conflict) within Yoakum County - on 15 June 2017. The Plains II routes
starts at a point north of Plains, runs east to the Yoakum/Terry County
line, turns south to run along a disputed (in terms of neither county wants
to maintain this dune-threatened stretch of road) County Line Road, ending
well to the southeast of Plains.
The route showed much evidence of early and deep rains (surprisingly good
crops - leading to rarely-noted-on-this-route American Crows: they do fancy
corn, I think) followed be much dryness (relatively few butterflies and
herps) but, given that this is generally, my worst route - in terms of
diversity and abundance - I was fairly happy with the day's list.
All in all, I tallied:
1 Common Checkered Skipper
1 Common Sootywings
1 Black Swallowtail
51 Checkered Whites
2 Orange Sulphurs
1 Southern Dogface
1 Sleepy Orange
2 Reakirt's Blues
1 Gulf Fritillary
1 Variegated Fritillary
1 Common Buckeye
14 Northern Bobwhites
3 Scaled Quails
1 Ring-necked Pheasant
38 Rock Pigeons
4 Eurasian Collared Doves
68 Mourning Doves
1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo
3 Common Nighthawks
2 Black-crowned Night Herons
12 Swainson's Hawks
5 Burrowing Owls
3 American Kestrels
1 Ash-throated Flycatcher
108 Western Kingbirds
6 Scissor-tailed Flycatchers
1 Loggerhead Shrike
3 American Crows
11 Chihuahuan Ravens
66 Horned Larks
6 Cliff Swallows
2 Cave Swallows
11 Barn Swallows
5 Northern Mockingbirds
4 House Sparrows
1 House Finch
12 Cassin's Sparrows
11 Lark Sparrows
1 Blue Grosbeak
1 Dickcissel
8 Red-winged Blackbirds
2 Eastern Meadowlarks
27 Western Meadowlarks
55 Great-tailed Grackles
3 Bullock's Orioles
1 Black-tailed Jackrabbit
2 Desert Cottontails
1 Coyote
2 Pronghorns
Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubbock
