How did we do last year?

Last year, 138 observers made 2,811 observations of 822 species. The breakdown of species was:
 406 plants (49.7%)
 227 insects (27.8%)
 92 birds (11.3%)
 23 reptiles (2.8%)
 22 arachnids (2.7%)
 17 fungi and lichens (2.1%)
 12 mammals (1.5%)
 8 amphibians (1.0%)
 5 fishes (0.6%)
 5 other animals (0.6%)
 4 mollusks (0.5%)

Of our 334 observations of 92 species of bird, painted bunting had the most observations, with 23, followed by northern cardinal, with 17. We had a really good selection of warblers, with 17 species, including a nicely photographed Swainson’s (thanks to Greg Page for permission to use said photo for the banner of this year’s project page). Other good birds included 2 late dark-eyed juncos, 2 Philadelphia vireos, a clay-colored sparrow, a well-documented hairy woodpecker, a Wilson’s phalarope, and a sound recording of a chuck-will’s-widow (one of which is calling outside my house as I write this).

Of our 161 observations of 62 species of Lepidoptera, fir tussock moth came in first with 11 observations, all of the caterpillars. Pearl crescent was second and the top butterfly with 10 observations. One that puzzled me until well after the competition closed was “the butterfly from Mars” by Cameron Johnson at https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/113929378. I finally tracked it to oak hairstreak. Clare Palmer got a painted schinia moth (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/113928715), which I have been wanting to, but still haven’t seen.

Among “other animals,” Amanda Chau documented a New Guinea flatworm, a very unwelcome invader and a big reason we do this.

Of our 1,629 observations of 407 species of plant, the most commonly observed was old plainsman, with 29 observations, mostly because I ran into a large patch of it with a wonderful diversity of pollinators and “double-dipped” with pollinator and pollinatee for each observation. Secondmost observed was pink ladies, with 28 observations. I don’t know enough about plants to know what observations were exceptional. I found an interesting small blue flower at Lake Madison that turned out to be “only” a blue scarlet pimpernel. We had 2 observations of spring ladies’-tresses, but none of Navasota ladies’-tresses, perhaps because they are a fall-blooming species. We also got one observation of dwarf sundew. Please add any comments on other unusual plant observations below.

Bruce Neville
Brazos Valley CNC Coordinator

Posted on April 20, 2023 01:14 AM by bruceneville