Tiger swallowtail burning bright

Sunday Aug 9 late afternoon and evening I took a weedwacker and reduced the luxuriant grass in front of the gate. In the forest one bright yellow tiger swallowtail (big female?) floated in the understory shade. The cicadas were singing loudly. On a damp log a golden streaming slime mold plasmodium was crawling up. East of inundation line the widespread sparse grass stems were yellow and laying over, through for the season. The trail down the dry wash above the dune trail showed by piling of litter that water moved west along the wash instead of east, surprise! The polygonum smartweed is growing abundantly more than knee high in the wash east of the Dune Trail.