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.
I visited the county several times during the month and, thankfully, some
warm rains finally showed up towards the end of the month, easing my
worries about amphibians and reptiles. All in all I picked up 24 species of
butterfly, 6 species of amphibian, 5 species of reptile, 88 species of
bird, and 7 species of mammal, bringing me up to 34 species of butterfly, 6
species of amphibian, 6 species of reptile, 163 species of bird, and 9
species of mammal - moving the respective percentages up to 68%, 120%, 60%,
82%, and 90%. Of the 218 species seen so far, I acquired identifiable
photographs of 199 - 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)
Common Checkered Skipper
Common Sootywings
Orange Skipperling
Dotted Roadside Skipper
Pipevine Swallowtail
Checkered White
Orange Sulphur
Southern Dogface
Lyside Sulphur
Sleepy Orange
Dainty Sulphur
Gray Hairstreak
Marine Blue
Western Pygmy Blue
Reakirt's Blue
Monarch
Queen*(y)
Variegated Fritillary
Vesta Crescent
Gorgone Checkerspot
Fulvia Checkerspot*(y)
Red Admiral
Painted Lady
Plains Spadefoot*(y)
Couch's Spadefoot*(y)
Great Plains Toad*(y)
Texas Toad*(y)
Northern Cricket Frog
Plains Leopard Frog
Northern Earless Lizard*(y)
Texas Horned Lizard*(y)
Six-lined Racerunner*(y)
Eastern Glossy Snake*(y)
Prairie Rattlesnake*(y)
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Canvasback
Redhead
Bufflehead
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*(y)
Greater Roadrunner
Common Nighthawk*(y)
Virginia Rail
American Coot
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Snowy Plover
Killdeer
Stilt Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
Wilson's Phalarope
Black Tern*(y)
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret
Cattle Egret
Black-crowned Night Heron
White-faced Ibis
Turkey Vulture
Harris's Hawk*(y)
Swainson's Hawk
Barn Owl(y)
Great Horned Owl
Burrowing Owl
Golden-fronted Woodpecker(y)
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
American Kestrel
Western Wood Pewee*(y)
Willow Flycatcher*(y)
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Western Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike
Bell's Vireo
Chihuahuan Raven
Horned Lark
Cliff Swallow
Cave Swallow
Barn Swallow
Bewick's Wren
American Robin
Curve-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
House Sparrow
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinch
American Goldfinch
Black-and-white Warbler*
Nashville Warbler*
Common Yellowthroat
American Redstart*(y)
Yellow Warbler(y)
Wilson's Warbler*(y)
Canyon Towhee
Cassin's Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
Blue Grosbeak
Painted Bunting*(y)
Dickcissel*
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Common Grackle
Great-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole*(y)
Bullock's Oriole
Pallid Bat*
Black-tailed Jackrabbit(y)
Eastern Cottontail
Desert Cottontail
Coyote
Striped Skunk*(y)
White-tailed Deer
Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubboc
