July 30, 2021
I have recorded 9.6″ of rain in July. This is more than all of last year. Many of the birding trails are muddy quagmires. Boots are pretty much required along the Santa Cruz River trails. It will be several months before the thick clayey mud is easily passible.
The WTP pond at Amado has been ruined. Those people poisoned all the grasses that grew along the margins of the pond, and the water color has become very murky, not from rain water, as nothing drains into the pond, but from whatever herbicide those people used. I suspect that this killed off the algae and water plants. I did not notice any floating fish. There are still a few quacks, Mexican squealers and the resident ring-necked lounging on the floats, but no birds in the water – the coots and ruddy’s have all left. Last year on the 27th we had multiple painted buntings and lazuli buntings foraging on the seeded grass head. Not this year. It seems churlish that the county would do this, The water is used for recharge, I believe, and not for other purposes. They did not do this last year or the year before.
