Return of the pondweed

I discovered a small patch of pondweed coming up in the big tank. YAY! And just yesterday I had decided it wasn't going to come back. Can't believe I didn't see it yesterday. I only saw it today because I was following a dragonfly.

It's right along the shallow edge of the tank where there's a thin layer of mud. Some of the mud was drying, along with the pondweed, as the water level in the tank receded (I water trees with the water), so I took a shovel and scooted it down into the water more. I thought the pondweed hadn't come back since we cleaned the tank 2 years ago, but I was searching through my blog and see I posted a photo of a dragonfly on pondweed last June. I'm thinking it must have started to come back and then that red algae bloom killed it. Good thing I blog or I wouldn't have a clue half the time what's going on. Here's what the tank looked like in August of 2018. Sure hope that doesn't happen again this year. It won't if the pondweed grows fast enough. Pondweed will shade and cool the water. That deters algae.

The parking area can still hold a couple more vehicles, so it's doing good.

And so far the barricades haven't been knocked over. Fingers crossed.

My beloved soapberry patch looks good considering the summer rains haven't started yet. I would love to get that grass in the arroyo mowed so I could enjoy walking there more.

Found a pretty ragged Mourning Cloak (in Catclaw Acacia). Some years I don't see any at all, so glad for whatever I get.

The Midland Camera Club set up canopies for their photography and didn't seem to be fazed that their target, Lucifer Hummingbird, didn't visit their setups.

Missed me again tonight!

Here's that same cloud photographed, and processed, by Gary Mayo. Taken somewhere farther south, maybe in Terlingua.