Greetings All:
In hopes that we couldn't possibly have two miserably dry, birdless,
and butterflyless years in a row and in hopes of a) getting that
danged painting done and b) getting more of my historical data entered
into eBird I decided to repeat my attempt to document 40 butterfly, 0
amphibian, 2 reptile, 80 bird, and 4 mammal species - with 90% of the
species seen/heard photographed as well.
August was absolutely brutal in my yard: Lubbock had close to 2.00
inches of rain during the month but the official measurement is taken
at the airport but my part of town only scored 0.10 inches of rain
during the entire month. In addition to being very dry, conditions
were very hot and by the end of the month my yard was down to yucca
and a few sunflowers - crittering was horrible!
During August I managed to spot 15 species of butterfly, 0 species of
amphibian, 0 species of reptile, 18 species of bird, and 2 species of
mammal, getting up to 35 species of butterfly, 0 species of amphibian,
2 species of reptile, 39 species of bird, and 2 species of mammal for
the year, hitting 87.5%,100%, 100%, 50%, and 100% of my taxonomic
goals - starting to get there but way behind on birds. Of the 81
species recorded so far this year, I have photographed 72, putting me
at 89.89% in terms of my photographic goal,
Unless conditions dramatically improve, September is going to be grim.
My sunflowers aren't tall enough to bring in migrant songbirds and
with almost nothing in bloom I don't seem to be able to pull in
hummingbirds this fall. I still think that I will get over the top on
butterflies but I have pretty much given up on birds at this pont.
The list follows coded as *=new, (y) = photographed
Common Checkered Skipper
Common Sootywings
Orange Skipperling
Sachem
Nysa Roadside Skipper
Cabbage White
Orange Sulphur*(y)
Sleepy Orange
Marine Blue
Reakirt's Blue
Gray Hairstreak
Queen
Gorgone Checkerspot
Red Admiral
Painted Lady
Rock Pigeon(y)
Eurasian Collared Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret
Cattle Egret
Mississippi Kite
Western Kingbird
Blue Jay
Barn Swallow*
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
House Sparrow
House Finch
Great-tailed Grackle
Northern Cardinal
Eastern Gray Squirrel
House Mouse
Anthony Hewetson; Lubbock