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.
