The big thing this week was abundant rain. Almost four inches in rain event Sunday through Monday morning--and this is what Main Ford looked like by Monday afternoon, already down a couple of feet (to judge by flotsam in the trees.) It's bank-full here; it was over the bank earlier. Note the tree that's fallen across the creek (it's been down over a year, but is still alive.)
A red-eared pond slider has been exploring the creek since it started flowing again in late January, but I didn't get a picture of it until Monday, when it was riding out the flood in a quieter tributary channel off of the north end. By the next day, the water was down another foot and where this turtle is was back to being a pile of rocks.	The rain made the frogs and tadpoles in the backyard water garden very happy. Here two of them are basking in the sun amid lily pads
After the second rain event (just over an inch) had passed, we went out again on Thursday. The water at this middle point of the creek was less turbid, and Richard chose to cross on the same treetrunk shown in the first picture. It's in the perfect place for sitting, except that it's well inhabited by ants.
With warm weather and water, life is bursting out all over...including a very early vervain (verbena family) with tiny flowers
Monday afternoon, this Henry's Elfin female was busily laying eggs on a redbud...one of the larval foods for this species. It's a charmer of a butterfly, and pretty easy to identify with those white "dash marks" on the hind wing.	Not so this one, which I found on one of the junipers in the front yard. I thought at first it was a Henry's Elfin, but it does not have the white dash marks. At least, I couldn't see them on the live animal, or in the image later. Also the Henry's has that truncated "tail", like its hairstreak relatives, but this one has instead a little tuft of scales.
Here's another unknown, nectaring on redbud (which is right at peak now). It was perched higher than my head, with the light coming down through it, so I'm not sure of the colors, but am sure of the patches of lighter and darker areas.	Finally, a more domestic shot--I planted flowers in a couple of pots out front, and Friday afternoon, waiting for company to arrive, spotted this bee working one of the pink flowers (cosmos, I think.) It's not native, but the bee doesn't care.

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