It’s good to be back on the mountain and it rewarded me this morning with an unusual abundance of wildflowers. Although August was dry, it appears that the July rains and the most recent rains have brought out the flowers in mass.
I saw a splash of red very early on in my hike and I walked off the trail to investigate and found the Trans-Pecos Morning Glory. Although I already have an image, I figured I’d try for another one, especially since this is only the second time in eight years of hiking that I have see (or noticed) this amazing little flower.
While I was shooting a humming bird came and went into ten to twenty of the flowers, some only an inch from my face. Unfortunately my camera was set for macro shots and I didn’t have time to change over to try and catch an image. After a minute or so I decided to simply record the scene with my mind and enjoy the little green visitor.
Shortly after, I found another species of Morning Glory, the Crestrib-Morning Glory off to the right of the trail. Half the size of a dime or smaller, it was almost easy to overlook but I’ve trained my eye to look for color against the fairly monochromatic desert scene.
The pollen grains are undisturbed so I guess this one has not been discovered yet.
All in all a great day for a hike, even if several weeks at sea level took some of the wind out of me. It took about four an a half hours to summit, but I also took almost 100 images. An early morning breeze made for shooting macro shots very difficult, hence the need for so many attempts.
It was nice to be able to add this Morning Glory to the collection that can be seen in the Slideshow of Wildflowers of the Sandias.
by David Alan
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