Summer Approaches

Hello CDNP friends, and congratulations on a productive two months! Since our April 1st update, 279 observations of 58 new species have been added to the project, bringing the Park’s grand total to 873 observations of 255 species.

Stats
Since we're halfway through the year, I thought I'd share some more numbers, celebrating all of you. For January through May,

the top identifiers were:
@permiandon (59 identifications)
@egordon88 (53)
@bobnieman (47)
@wolfgangb (33)
@martina_andreas_ohr (23)
@matt_becker (22)
@joshuacde (13)
@andrewtree (13)
Thank you for sharing your expertise!

the top observers were:
@bugsicles (136 observations)
@asombro_institute (74)
@permiandon (61)
@marissahlindstrom (43)
@christopherrustay (31)
@miguel1958 (15)
@mjandersen (15)
@matt_becker (14)
Thank you for visiting the Park and sharing what you saw, we love to see your photos come in!

Stay Connected
Speaking of which, did you know that you can get email notifications when new observations are posted within the Park? It’s a great way to stay connected to and inspired by what’s happening out there. Simply visit this url, then scroll down a bit and click “Subscribe to observations for this place”. You can even limit these alerts to the taxon(s) you’re most interested in. I also invite you to like the Park on Facebook, where we’ll be talking about our finds, and yours, over the coming months.

Butterflies
In other news, as mentioned in our last journal entry, Asombro has established a survey route in the Park as part of the New Mexico Butterfly Monitoring Network. To date we have completed 5 butterfly surveys, during which we have observed 44 individuals of 8 different species. Including other visits and @permiandon’s observations along the route, we’ve seen a total of 14 species of butterfly in the Park since March! To learn about the route and browse all of the species we’ve observed, with accompanying photos, check out our Butterfly Survey Journal, which we will continue to update after each Park visit. Thanks to BAMONA and the iNaturalist community for assisting us with identifications. Here are just a few highlights (Desert Marble pair, Sleepy Orange, and Black Swallowtail):

Park Updates
Finally, with the help of the wonderful folks at the Jornada Experimental Range, we've installed new fencing, a new gate, and a cattle guard, so that after many years of hosting "guest" cows, the Park will finally be cow, cow pie, and cow trail free! In addition, once our new signs arrive, the Park will be be transitioning to summer hours (7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tues - Sun) so keep an eye out for that. To support the maintenance of the Park and Asombro's work exposing K-12 students to the wonder of the desert, consider donating to our non-profit.

As always, don't hesitate to reach out to us here, on our website, or through social media with any questions, concerns, comments, or cool finds.