The Wetlands....

...aren't so wet these days.  [insert blog title before the "..."]

We have had a drier air mass move in, which brought the soaring temps to a screeching halt.  At least for a couple of days.  And I took advantage of the mornings in the low 70s to walk-about.  This post is in and around the Wetlands Reserve [altho, no rain for weeks, so everything looks brown and dry!]

The Morning Sky shots:

The trails in this area are a conglomerate of flagstone, caliche [gravel so heavy in mineral deposits, weeds aren't even a nuisance], wood boardwalks, and areas where it's likely to wash out with heavy downpours....cement. But most is the caliche; blending in with the natural enviornment.

On this particular day, every turn I made on the winding, numerous, trails, cottontails were out and about:

I stopped at the newest addition to the park....the fountain/waterfall:

At the time, sparrows, cardinals, and hummingbirds were exploring for tasty treats of insects and nectar from the flowers:

[this is the only place in town I've found PINK Turk's Cap [last photo is the above series] ---it's almost always red. I'm sure it's a nursery grown hybrid!]   - the Trumpet vine and white daisies were a great, attractive accent and hummingbird attraction to boot.

Trees and Grasses are becoming parched in the summer heat and going to seed:

At the halfway point, I made it to the Osprey Overlook, situated high above the basin [the bay was quite dry also] and only a lone nighthawk sung out its high-pitched cry as it flew overhead. It was time to turn around and cover the other half side of the trail system.