Photo © Mark Lockwood  |
| Long-eared Owl (Asio otus) |
The LEOW finds you. It is up to the bird.
Recently, in the Davis Mountains (no more specific than that for a few valid reasons), TWO nests belonging to LEOW were discovered. Two nests and nestlings. Quite the discovery!
Have LEOW had prior, even annual, nesting in these mountains, only revealed post-fires?
It would seem the last nesting record of this species in Texas was in 1996 from Amarillo.
Excellence number two:
Photo © Cathryn Hoyt
 |
| Spotless Comma/Anglewing (Polygonia haroldii) |
This individual was recently discovered in the Davis Mountains by Dr. Cathy Hoyt.
This is THE FIRST U.S. RECORD for this species.
Is this butterfly a lone ranger, perhaps blown to this location by south winds?
Is there actually an isolated population of the species, uncovered only now post-fires?
Amazing, intriguing, stuff.
Greatness.
Congrats, Dr. Hoyt. Great find. Are the Lepsoc, NABA, etc. aware of this record?
ReplyDeleteDr. Hoyt is the Research Director for CDRI; http://cdri.org/ - it may not have been widely publicized due to being in a sensitive location as well as being a sensitive species until further notice.
DeleteNABA is aware as I think Dr. Hoyt posted to one of their forums to get help on confirming the ID of the butterfly. There has been a little chatter about it on the TX-butterfly listserv, but not much. TNC did get some publicity for the sighting and the nesting Long-eared Owls through AP stories in various newspapers (mostly in Texas). Anyway, Dr. Hoyt will be working on a paper/note on the record.
ReplyDelete