Greetings All:
In compliance with Drew Harvey's request that I focus on a county lacking
herp records, I am going to be working Lynn County (the county just to the
south of Lubbock County) for critters and photographs of critters in 2017.
Lynn County is somewhat similar to Hockley County - lots of cropland,
almost no public land - but is different in one critical regard: there is
no publicly accessible permanent water. This doesn't mean that Lynn County
is dry, necessarily, but it does mean that my success with water-loving
species, from spadefoots to sandpipers, is going to be very dependent on
seasonal rainfall.
Stated numerical goals are, because of this, borderline hallucinatory.
That said, I will stick with goals of 50 species of butterfly, 5 species of
amphibian, 10 species of reptile, 200 species of bird, and 10 species of
mammal seen in Lynn County during 2017. As in 2016, I will also have the
goal of photographing at least 90% of the species seen.
Due to a harsh Breeding Bird Survey schedule I was only able to put in two
serious visits to the county during June but, given that, I did pretty
well, noting 31 species of butterfly, 7 species of amphibian, 4 species of
reptile, 86 species of bird, and 5 species of mammal, bringing me up to 38
species of butterfly, 9 species of amphibian, 8 species of reptile, 168
species of bird, and 9 species of mammal - moving the respective
percentages up to 76%, 180%, 80%, 84%, and 90%. Of the 232 species seen so
far, I acquired identifiable photographs of 211 - making for a 91% success
rate ... with most of the species missed either nocturnals or skittish
migrant songbirds (many of which will be easier to photograph during fall
migration).
And on with the list (* = new to the list, y = photographed)
Funereal Duskywings
Common Checkered Skipper
Common Sootywings
Sachem
Nysa Roadside Skipper
Pipevine Swallowtail
Black Swallowtail
Checkered White
Orange Sulphur
Southern Dogface
Lyside Sulphur
Mexican Yellow*(y)
Sleepy Orange
Dainty Sulphur
Gray Hairstreak
Marine Blue
Western Pygmy Blue
Reakirt's Blue
Queen
Variegated Fritillary
Vesta Crescent
Phaon Crescent
Painted Crescent
Pearl Crescent*(y)
Gorgone Checkerspot
Fulvia Checkerspot
Common Buckeye*(y)
Red Admiral
Painted Lady
American Lady*(y)
Goatweed Leafwing
Plains Spadefoot
New Mexico Spadefoot*(y)
Great Plains Toad
Texas Toad
Spotted Chorus Frog*
Great Plains Narrow-mouthed Toad*
Plains Leopard Frog
Ornate Box Turtle*(y)
Texas Horned Lizard
Six-lined Racerunner
Coachwhip*(y)
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Redhead
Ruddy Duck
Northern Bobwhite
Scaled Quail
Wild Turkey
Pied-billed Grebe
Eared Grebe
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Greater Roadrunner
Common Nighthawk
Common Poorwill*
Black-chinned Hummingbird*
American Coot
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Snowy Plover
Killdeer
Least Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret
Snowy Egret*(y)
Cattle Egret
Black-crowned Night Heron
White-faced Ibis
Turkey Vulture
Mississippi Kite*(y)
Harris's Hawk
Swainson's Hawk
Barn Owl
Great Horned Owl
Burrowing Owl
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
American Kestrel
Western Wood Pewee
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Western Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike
Bell's Vireo(y)
Blue Jay
Chihuahuan Raven
Horned Lark
Purple Martin(y)
Cliff Swallow
Cave Swallow
Barn Swallow
Bewick's Wren
American Robin
Curve-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
House Sparrow
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinch
Common Yellowthroat(y)
Canyon Towhee
Cassin's Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Grasshopper Sparrow*
Northern Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
Blue Grosbeak
Painted Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Western Meadowlark
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Common Grackle
Great-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Bullock's Oriole
Pallid Bat
Black-tailed Jackrabbit
Desert Cottontail
Black-tailed Prairie Dog
Mule Deer
Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubbock
