Käyttäjän arrowheadspiketail58 päiväkirja

After a driving through torrential downpours in western Oklahoma Thursday night, getting chased out of Albuquerque by a monsoon storm Friday afternoon, and another day of mostly driving (but no rain) on Saturday, I'm taking a break at Casitas de Gila in Grant county NM for a few days. Mostly looking for monsoon odes, but as usual, everything is fair game. Also planning a brief foray into Arizona in pursuit of a couple of avian rarities (and more odonates) before heading home. I managed to stop driving long enough today to pick up a couple of new odes, Painted Damsel and Serpent Ringtail, and maybe a new butterfly or two (along with a few roadside rest area moths on Friday). It's too late to start tonight, but I hope to begin posting some observations tomorrow, and maybe letting the car just sit where it is for at least one day.

Bill Carrell
08/12/17

Greetings from Black Mesa State Park, Cimarron County OK.

It's certainly been an interesting week, ready for the last leg of the journey tomorrow. Despite the fact that I carried a box of references on the trip, I've hardly had time to attempt ID'ing half of the observations. Thanks to everyone in the iNaturalist world who chipped in, especially @wild-about-texas , @tigerbb and @nlblock. I have many more to submit, but that will have to wait for a couple of days. Some of the highlights for me include two avian lifers, Five-Striped Sparrow and Rufous-Capped Warbler, an as yet undetermined number (still have some Argia species to sort out) of new odonates, two from my "most wanted" list, Filigree Skimmer and Malachite Darner, and a Gila Monster at Muleshoe Ranch in AZ.

A question for all of the iNat people: When you are traveling, do any of you do things like walking around the motel, rest area or whatever, checking around the lights to see what kinds of interesting creatures are being drawn in, or am I the only weirdo that does that?

Bill Carrell
Tulsa, OK