Yellow Toadflax, an invasive here at Arapaho. Better known to me as Butter and Eggs. This one by far stood out because it was in full bloom. We walked all day searching and marking these plants.
There were 6 of us, Kurt, Virginia, Wallace and Charles shown in the photo...one of our YCC gals, and me. We started out forming a line with about three feet between each of us, walking and looking for this plant as we kept our line straight. I was knowledgeable about this plant because it is so abundant in Maine. Some of these plants were only a couple of inches tall making them harder to find.
By the time we got to the other location where they had been spotted, we all had gotten very good at finding them. Here we are just doing a random double check after Charles found more scattered around. After flagging the plants, Virginia went around GPSing them all.
It was great fun, kinda like looking for Easter eggs with me finding the golden egg, the one in the first photo. That was an easy find!!!
After finishing up our search for toadflax, we had some time left to help with the counters where we found this little Barred Tiger Salamander enjoying this little puddle. Be sure before you pick up anything like this, that you do NOT have bug repellent on your hands!!! It will kill them!!!
This is a Richardson's Ground Squirrel. Kurt had cleaned out the Tree Swallows nest after they had fledged and found a dead one in the nest which he pitched out on the ground. This little squirrel found the bird and had steak for lunch. We had never seen this behavior before.
We finally got our hummingbird feeder up. I had seen them buzzing around the red spots on our rig. We were pleasantly visited by this little male Rufous Hummingbird. This one migrates the farthest of any hummingbird.
Another great day on the refuge.
Until next time...
What a great hummingbird photo. They are hard to catch sitting still.
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