and now for desert!

It's my 5th day here in Prescott, AZ, so I thought it might be time to share some of what I've been up to/ noticing. Life in the West... it's different!
For starters... the HEAT! I was not prepared. I can't walk more than a few blocks without being completely exhausted, which is problematic when I'm in a class that goes on hikes in the desert.

We hiked in the Granite Mountain wilderness yesterday.

The cicadas out here are bigger and LOUDER! Deafening, when you are sitting under a tree with cicadas in it.

For some reason that can be diagnosed as a brain fart, I forgot that I'd be encountering different species in Arizona. I saw a big yellow butterfly and automatically assumed: Easter Tiger Swallowtail! Mark it on the butterfly list! But no, it was a Two-tailed Swallowtail. And the bird that flies like a goldfinch? Not the American Goldfinch, but the Lesser Goldfinch. And plants are another story. There are oaks that look like shrubs, and my professor only uses the latin names for plant species when you ask what something is. I have a lot of learning to do!