meadows

The official start if summer can be a bit odd as everyone packs up their things and head out on a house with wheels to a new landscape.

This young muskrat is busy moving into new digs in the Scuzzy ditch

The heat has brought out many dragonfly species.

The spring has clearly been good for the wildflower season. The flowers here are from the meadows in northern new mexico

Many plants can grow all over the state, but many are local. This unknown flower seems pretty specialist.

while this sunflower is common.

As Heron lake drains, the boggy mud dries into meadows and lush early succession plants grow up from the delicate soil. This dry soil very easily turns to dust under the assault of tires and feet. But the water is close to the surface and accessible to the plant roots.

The flowers are beautiful, but short-lived. Sometimes only for one night.

the fields are big further north, as the populations of people are not as severe.

This osprey is often found near lakes, but there is also a nest at the northern diversion channel in Corrales. They look fierce, but are strictly fish eaters.

Near heron lake there is an emergence of clapping wing cicadas. Nothing like brood X on the east coast, but definitely noticable.

They emerge from holes in the ground and climb into the branches to let their wings dry. Unlike the bigger cicadas, they clap their wings instead of using a "timbal"

There are many chipmunks is the drier parts of the state. I never see any in the bosque, however. Probably explains why there are no rattlesnakes...

The meadow flowers are blooming in profusion. I have only the vaguest notion of what they all are. But they are delicate.

Purple and yellow predominate as the preferred colors of day pollinators like bees, flies and beetles.

But the moths are out there too, and their time should be coming as the nights become warm.

There are many flowers out in the desert, but they often need a lot more work to find them in the heat...