Greetings All:
I'm going to give it one more try: while polishing off the historical
data for eBird I'm going to take it easy and try, once more, to have a
good year in the yard, shooting for 40 species of butterfly, 0 species
of amphibian (should be able to achieve that goal:)), 2 species of
reptile, 80 species of bird, and 4 species of mammal - with at least
90% of the critters seen photographed.
Next year, by gosh and by golly, I will do something different:)
March did not work out the way I thought it would - though I have
plenty of blossoms and conditions generally seemed warm enough
butterflies were in short supply and, for a change, birds were more
cooperative in terms of photography (two of the three new butterflies
for the year drifted through without getting photographed but I got
seven of the eight new birds).
One stunner: the complete absence of flyover geese! I generally have
flocks of Cackling and Canada Geese over the yard daily well into
March but I did not see or hear a single goose while in the yard, and
I spent a lot of time in the yard, during the month!
During March I spotted 4 species of butterfly, 0 species of amphibian,
0 species of reptile, 22 species of bird, and 2 species of mammal,
bringing me up to 4 species of butterfly, 0 species of amphibian, 0
species of reptile, 25 species of bird, and 2 species of mammal - 10%,
100%, 0%, 31.25%, and 50% of my taxonomic goals for the year. Of the
thirty-one species seen thus far this year, I have photographs of
twenty-eight (90.32%).
I am not going to make any predictions about April - that way I can't
get anything wrong:)
The March list follows, coded as *= new, (y) = photographed:
Cabbage White*
Orange Sulphur(y)
Clouded Sulphur*(y)
Red Admiral*
Eurasian Collared Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Black-chinned Hummingbird*
Sandhill Crane*(y)
Double-crested Cormorant
Turkey Vulture*(y)
Osprey*(y)
Red-tailed Hawk
Blue Jay
American Robin
Curve-billed Thrasher*(y)
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
House Sparrow
House Finch
Dark-eyed Junco
White-crowned Sparrow*(y)
Lincoln's Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird*(y)
Great-tailed Grackle
Northern Cardinal*(y)
Eastern Gray Squirrel
Feral Cat*(y)
Anthony Hewetson; Lubbock