Finally went up the mountain

It was difficult, and I'm on the verge of collapsing into bed now, but wanted to blog while things are fresh in my mind. My sister and I went up with Patricia Manning and a couple of her colleagues. Knowing I would be real slow, and knowing I have my best energy early morning, I went up ahead of them. Timing was off a bit because Patty's group was running late. I sat up there and waited for them for about an hour, then spent about half an hour with them, came back down, and to town. I think I'll be OK after a nap. But it was fun and I'm glad I did it.

It wasn't as windy as I expected. I think the worst of the wind was in the afternoon. (There's a wildfire in Presidio County this evening.) The best flower of the day was a Fringed Puccoon. I probably had seen it before but never knew what it was.

 Most interesting insect of the day was this unknown grasshopper. Wish I had gotten a better photo of it, but I wasn't up to carrying my big Canon. Maybe some kind of dactylotum.

Here's another little flower, probably a nama or something common. Too tired to ID it today.

The Ocotillo are budding out so that means they'll bloom soon, and be done by the time all the Lucifer Hummingbird seeking birders and photographers will be arriving. That means hummers will be plentiful at feeders.