June is busting out all over...

June arrived and with it the missing heat. After a fairly mild spring, we are suddenly amid afternoon temperatures in the mid to high 90's with a few days of the mercury topping 100 degrees.

The dragonflies have emerged

like this Flame Skimmer

Barn Swallow babies are ready to fly, some have already fledged. 

Western Meadowlark delivering an aria

Roadrunners taking advantage of the shade. 

Seedpods have matured and when I brushed against it while feeding the birds, my heart did a total flipflop. 

June 3, Alvin and I were enlisted to assist Jeff and Cisco on the biweekly bird survey. 

We recorded while they spotted the water fowl and shorebirds. It was very hard to ignore the blue Grosbeak and Lark Sparrows, but this survey only focuses on birds that utilize the wetlands along with raptors and owls. 

An added bonus was the Pecos River muskrat inhabiting one of the canals. 

On the way to "The Farm" the refuge area south of Hwy 380 we detoured for Jeff to remove a rattlesnake from a neighbor's garage. 

After placing the unusually docile reptile on the ground, Jeff proceeded to instruct us all in the differences between a Prairie Rattler and a Western Diamondback. 

The Prairie Rattler was relocated to an uninhabited area

but he wasn't in a hurry to explore his new home. 

We proceeded to link up with the ACE (American Conservation Experience) crew from Flagstaff Arizona that was conducting a month long invasive plant removal project by spraying Phragmites along the banks of the Rio Hondo. 

We took them a portable water tank for mixing the chemicals. 

And the Polaris with the sprayer as the time was running short on their project. 

Cisco had a cool hard hat 

as he unloaded the Polaris. 

After all that, we continued with the bird survey.

We flushed  a total of eight Barn Owls plus 2 Great Horned Owls. 

Finally back at the VC

A Cliff Swallow struck the window but recovered after allowing me some close-up photos. 

The view from the deck

overlooking the wetlands. 

On June 9, we said goodbye to the ACE crew

with pizza

during lunch conversation we discovered that the crew had been to Laguna Atascosa in February spraying invasive plants at Bahia Grande. 

I found some odd birds around the wetlands

This very pale female Northern Shoveler

and this strange looking Pintail.

Some critter had a feast on the deck one night and left a few piles of innards for me to clean up. 

The chore just about caused me to toss my cheerios.  

And that's about all of that.