Amphibian chorus

There was a huge number of amphibians calling from all over. There were bullfrogs in the scuzzy ditch, woodhouse were calling from all over the fields, and what sounded like two species of spadefoots calling from inside the Corrales pool. THAT is going to call for more investigation... Liam Knight's pond has all sorts of tadpoles and critters in it.
Rabbits all over the yard this morning as the rains encourage new grass shoots to grow in new areas.

The amazing owl picture from last night is getting a lot of interest on Inaturalist and Nextdoor social apps. Its wonderful to see people getting into wildlife, and also makes me so sad. Biologists call the problem "charismatic species." Large mammals and birds are WAY more popular than reptiles, insects, and parasites. For example condors gets protection and conservation dollars, while the California condor bird louse (it was a thing) was made extinct. The snowy owl gets its own refuge from logging, but the Dusky Gopher frog with the same problem gets nothing.
Conservation can't happen without people caring and willing to be part of the solution, but as biologist learn, the problem becomes more nuanced.

Here is a crab spider eating a carpenter ant. I didn't know ants were predated on many but any animal. There are many drone ants flying around mating right now and being very obvious. Its a pity they get sprayed by pest control companies though, the food chain is affected right up to the great horned owls. Most people working in pest control are amazing in tune with the natural world, but if the demand is there...

This harvester ant was walking along carrying this boulder in its jaws. Carpenter ants often remove large rocks from burrow entrances, but I have no idea why, or how this one was moving debris so far.

This "velvet ant" is actually a wasp. The previous link does way more justice to the subject than I could. They are pretty amazing. The red species is more common later in the year, when there are more insect eggs around.