Earthwatch Day 3

We got to sleep in a little later today before we left for the desert. Dr. Dave Wagner (author of Caterpillars of Eastern North America) had arrived last night and would join us with his son for the week. I had purchased his book a few years ago, and never expected to meet him, much less share a research project with him! Later he would be known as "Wags". We stuffed all our baggage (13 of us) into the now 2 vans and headed for the Chiricahua mountains. The route through the Sonora desert was straight and flat for the most part. We would occasionally pass through some interesting rock outcroppings.

We stopped at a rest area for lunch. Drs. Dave and Lee couldn’t resist checking the surrounding vegetation for caterpillars. (See them out in the field?) It’s a passion you can’t just shut off!

A bit further on the ride, we stopped to do some collecting, but it was difficult to find many caterpillars. Apparently it has been a bad monsoon season. That means very little rain, and the vegetation won’t flourish until it responds to the rains. Sparse vegetation means fewer caterpillars! But we found many other insects, including a praying mantis.

After an hour of collecting in the heat, we piled back into the vans to go to our accommodation site, Cave Creek Ranch in Portal. We headed into the mountains and soon we were in a lush green valley amidst some incredible mountains of rock.

The cabins were nestled in the valley – rustic and comfortable. The evening was perfectly cool, as we sat out to view the stars.