agua caliente

record-breaking monsoon and a unusually cool august day (low nineties high) so why not go up to the swale below the agua caliente hill/forest road junction when it's not too hot to try. worth it - from the trailhead along the ridge and down to the tank, hundreds of snouts and yellows. sootywings and duskywings (more than one of each). red-spotted toads down in the swale. little tortoise trundling around. think that was the biggest congregation of butterflies puddling i have ever seen.

and it's weird, with shoulder-high amaranth and mallow vines twining though the ocotillo and the yucca. not birdy and still not a lot of native bee.

lot of gnats, the tank is over the trail, the trail is overgrown, wear long trousers. the water is still pretty grotty.

Posted on Αύγουστος 21, 2021 1229 ΠΜ by