Pecos River day

As we were leaving for the Pecos to find Desha a Marl Pennant my sister called that we got another half inch of rain at the oasis in the night. Then, this evening she said we got 8 tenths more. So I absolutely have to go early in the morning and redo the feeders. Since tomorrow starts the festival and photography workshop week I'll just have to stay down there for the whole week. I'm wondering how much standing water the soapberry trees in the arroyo can tolerate. It would be really ironic for them to survive the horrible droughts and record heat, just to drown.

Desha, Rita, and I went to the Pecos River where I had previously seen the Seaside Dragonlet and Marl Pennant. Almost nothing was flying; the sun barely came out for a few minutes, so after a couple of fruitless hours spent searching, we decided to go to where Highway 18 crosses the river farther downstream. Same story there. For one final attempt, we decided to go to where the water comes under the highway (1450, I think) below Imperial Reservoir. Success at last! A very cooperative male Marl Pennant perched for us for a long time until we got tired of taking photos of it.

While waiting for a Marl sighting at the first site, I entertained myself photographing the multitude of American Rubyspots there. We did see a couple of Seaside Dragonlets, but not for long enough to photograph them. (Desha had seen that species previously in East Texas.)

And now the party's over.