Greetings All:
On 19 June 2016 I - barely - completed the Floydada BBS. This route is
entirely in Floyd County and runs from a point north of Floydada, eastward
to a point north of Dougherty, jogs southward for a bit, and then doubles
back westward towards, but not to, Floydada. The route was dry when I
started but two light downbursts during the course of the survey made
things difficult in two ways: first, they stalled the survey out for two,
ten minute periods; second, they dampened the dirt roads sufficiently
enough that the region's famously sticky mud filled my wheel wells several
times, bringing things to a grinding halt and making me ever so happy that
I carry a fire shovel with me - just the tool to clear mud from around the
tires:)
In general, there seems to be some good, solid drought recovery going on
and this count displayed some rebound in numbers of ducks, Northern
Bobwhite, herons/egrets/ibises of various sorts, Swainson's Hawk, Horned
Lark, Lark Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, Dickcissel, and Western Meadowlark.
Critters seen were:
2 Common Checkered Skippers
2 Black Swallowtails
157 Checkered Whites
42 Orange Sulphurs
2 Sleepy Oranges
4 Dainty Sulphurs
1 Gray Hairstreak
2 Reakirt's Blues
2 Phaon Crescents
1 Common Buckeye
1 Red Admiral
1 Barred Tiger Salamander
2 Great Plains Toads
2 Woodhouse's Toads
1 Yellow Mud Turtle
1 Gopher Snake
1 Common Kingsnake
1 Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake
2 Gadwalls
26 Mallards
22 Blue-winged Teals
2 Cinnamon Teals
4 Northern Shovelers
1 Northern Pintail
7 Green-winged Teals
2 Redheads
38 Northern Bobwhites
2 Ring-necked Pheasants
1 Eared Grebe
1 Great Blue Heron
17 Cattle Egrets
20 Black-crowned Night Herons
8 White-faced Ibises
23 Swainson's Hawks
7 American Coots
8 Black-necked Stilts
8 American Avocets
14 Killdeers
2 Wilson's Phalaropes
2 Eurasian Collared Doves
90 Mourning Doves
1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo
1 Greater Roadrunner
1 Barn Owl
7 Burrowing Owls
10 Common Nighthawks
1 American Kestrel
2 Say's Phoebes
57 Western Kingbirds
9 Scissor-tailed Flycatchers
1 Chihuahuan Raven
2 Common Ravens
118 Horned Larks
12 Cliff Swallows
4 Cave Swallows
35 Barn Swallows
2 Northern Mockingbirds
2 Common Yellowthroats
12 Cassin's Sparrows
24 Lark Sparrows
58 Grasshopper Sparrows
6 Blue Grosbeaks
88 Dickcissels
123 Red-winged Blackbirds
3 Eastern Meadowlarks
76 Western Meadowlarks
2 Common Grackles
6 Great-tailed Grackles
2 Brown-headed Cowbirds
10 Bullock's Orioles
8 House Sparrows
1 Black-tailed Jackrabbit
9 Desert Cottontails
1 Gray Fox
Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubbock
