Before and After Monsoons

 I took the top picture when we first got to Clay Springs.  It was June and the temps were in the 90's.  It was hot and very dry.  We thought we would be up in the cool mountains riding trails in a national forest.  We thought we would at least see some green in the forest but they had had a very dry year.  So everything was very brown and dead looking and crunchy.  There had been no new spring growth because there had been no snow or rain to give plants some moisture.

After it started raining after fourth of July it was amazing to see the change.  I took the bottom picture in August and everything was so green and lush it was hard to believe the difference.  Water can do amazing things and it is wonderful how nature can bounce back.

We got to Yuma a week ago and found large weeds growing in the lot we rent.  Usually the owners beat us down here and have the lot cleaned up but we got here first.  They had had enough rain in Yuma that the weeds grew.  There are leaves on the ocotillo bushes so it must have rained enough for them to sprout.  The hummingbirds were buzzing around our windows soon after we got settled so Jim put up the post I hang my feeders on and I got to work making sugar water for them.  I have hummingbirds, finches and a verdin (a small yellow headed bird) all trying to get at the feeders.  

Its nice to be back in Yuma for the winter and the weather is very nice now with only one or two 90 degree days to put up with and then its 80's for awhile.

Ant Lions

 I am fascinated by these insects called ant lions.  They make these tiny funnel shaped traps in sandy, shady spots.  We had these traps by one of the trees on our RV site.   The ant lion waits at the bottom of the trap for ant to fall in and become its prey.  I've watched an ant fall in and they cannot get back out.  They try to climb up the side of the funnel but they just slide back down on the loose sand.  These funnels are only an inch or so wide and only an inch or so deep but they work well for trapping ants.  I couldn't feel sorry for the ants because they were invading my hummingbird feeder so I was rooting for the ant lion.

We are now in Quartzsite and its still in the mid 90's during the day but it cools off into the low 70's high 60's at night.  We have been going out gold prospecting at 5:30 in the morning while its still dark so we can get set up and ready to run dirt before the sun rises and it gets hot.  Now that its October some snow birds are starting to come in to the park.  We are also seeing a lot more RV's on the highway heading to Yuma or Phoenix or Tuscon for the winter.