First true leaves have come shooting from out the oats cotyledons.  Mid-November, and the chartreuse and black grasshoppers, those Polka Dot Beetles of mine, and the Red-winged Grasshoppers are still abundant.

A Phainopepla, after the sun is gone, calls a soft, “Pert … Puurrt …” from the mesquites that mark the borders of his own querencia.