is occurring right now with pockets of the sickly sweet aroma encountered on the trail.
Cliffrose (Purshia mexicana).
Sleeping bees in flower blossoms...
emerge as the petals open later in the morning when warmed by the Sun. Shelter, warmth and pollen, what more could a bee desire?
Globe mallow bee (Diadasia diminuta).
Not all launches are successful...
when one fails to pay attention to the details of prepping a model rocket for flight! Despite this initial failure, it was another busy and fun day at the state line hurling projectiles into the sky.
Failure to properly retain the rocket engine in the motor mount allowed it to launch out the top of the rocket while sitting on the pad at ignition, displacing the nose cone and parachute and recovery wadding as it moved through the body tube. Oops.
No fires were started as the rocket engine departed the airframe leaving the rocket undamaged after the mishap on the pad. Exciting!
Second attempt: Nike Smoke Pro successfully lifting off the rail and piercing the La Sal Mountains in the distance.
Cherokee Pro heading up on a F engine.
Cherokee Mini seconds from touchdown after flying to 1,856 feet (566 meters) on a G engine.
Flashes of blue with splashes of orange...
makes the return of this colorful bird a welcome sight around the feeding stations every spring.
Adult male Lazuli Bunting (Passerina amoena).
April showers make a rainbow...
in the light mist late in the day. Nearly a half an inch of rain fell today.
Hummingbird season arrives...
with steadily increasing visits to the feeders.
Black-chinned Hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri).
Finally nearing completion...
with the road grade reestablished atop the new arch culvert on Castle Creek. Road paving and placement of rip-rap still remain as tasks to be completed before the main entrance to our community reopens to traffic.
It will be interesting to observe the backwater effects of the new structure and the rough, bouldery channel created by use of oversized rip-rap during future flood events. Upstream pooling of water, slower, less efficient passage of flood flow, increased deposition of fine sediments in the channel and increased bank erosion upstream are likely going to occur.
The sharp shadow of Castleton Tower...
commences its seasonal rightward march across the face of Adobe Mesa at sunset, achieving its furthest rightmost position on the summer solstice in June.
Sunning serpents...
stretched out across the singletrack today, miles apart from one another. Admittedly it was a pretty lovely day to catch some rays.
Bullsnake (Pituophis catenifer sayi).
Bright cactus blossoms...
are beginning to appear in the high desert.
Whipple’s fishhook cactus (Sclerocactus whipplei).
Claret cup cactus (Echinocereus triglochidiatus).
The stuff of nightmares...
found crawling on the trunk of a cottonwood tree at Lions Park.
Western tent caterpillar (Malacosoma californicum).
It didn't take long...
for this greedy varmint to enter the trap, having set it only 15 minutes earlier. The lure of the peanut butter was too great for the first deportee of 2026.
Rock squirrel (Otospermophilus variegatus).
UPDATE the following day! Two more volunteers for deportation.
A muted spring bloom is underway...
in the high desert, the result of a very dry winter and spring (so far).
Claret cup cactus (Echinocereus triglochidiatus) below Adobe Mesa.
Well behind schedule...
and over-engineered as well, the community is still patiently waiting for the new arch culvert over Castle Creek to be completed. The size of the rip-rap being used here is absolutely absurd for the size and energy and sediment load the stream possesses in this reach, even in flood.
Viewing pictographs under different wavelengths...
of light reveals hidden details not seen by the naked eye when observing rock art under the visible part of the spectrum. Here are three pairs of comparative images of several sections of the wonderful pictograph panel in Buckhorn Wash in the San Rafael Swell, a small portion of which is seen below.
The following pairs of images first show an unretouched raw image followed by an enhancement filter applied by DStretch software.
The software is available at DStretch.com.
Sunrise at The Wedge Overlook...
as witnessed from a vantage point that is high above the San Rafael River.
Muted morning light in Buckhorn Canyon and a view of Bottleneck Peak.
A walkabout at Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge...
yields some bird sightings in the wetlands this afternoon.
Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator) on Kepple Lake.
Various waterfowl on maneuvers on Middle Pine Lake.
Wetlands and vernal pools...
in eastern Washington are filled to the brim with water on the first week of spring.
It's buttercup season...
in eastern Washington with the bright and tiny flowers pushing up through the pine duff in the ponderosa forest.
Buttercup flowers (genus Allamanda).
An erupting ponytail of green leaves...
signals the arrival of spring and the first appearance of a toxic plant in the greening landscape on the vernal equinox.
Panicled death-camas (Toxicoscordion paniculatum).
UPDATE 5 April: Now in full blossom.