Just La Junta CO

[justlajuntaco]

Fly season has begun

[justlajuntaco]

an attempt was made, still blurred since the girls may be flightless but they’re really fast

[iridescent-wildlife]

Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos). Family Mimidae, order Passeriformes.

Chonk.

Oklahoma, USA. February 2021.

[geologicaltravels]

2025: Great exposure of a stromatolite bioherm in the Trezona Formation (upper Cryogenian, approx 640 Ma) in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia . Sunnies for scale!

Ref: Klaebe & Kennedy 2019

[justlajuntaco]

How do you tell a stromatolite from a concentration? There’s lots of different concentrations in the south west.

(I mean like the ocean/shoreline fossils, because yes there’s bacteria still making little concretions)

[geologicaltravels]

2025: Spectacular rippling in Ediacaran ABC Range Quartzite at Buneyroo Gorge, Flinders Ranges. As per usual, sunnies for scale.

[justlajuntaco]

looks so much like my neighbors place??

[desert-love]

[aydenburd-photography]

Eheheheh. Henlo

[aydenburd-photography]

It's been a good garter snake week

[mundanalyst]

Evening Silflay

Riverbend Ponds Natural Area, Colorado; 4/15/2026

[justlajuntaco]

very fast velvet ant

[justlajuntaco]

land snail shell gathered by ants

[snailspotter]

Snail spotted!

Diagnosis: Tectipleura sp. Common name: N/A Notes: Either a pond snail (Lymnaeidae) or ambersnail (Succineidae), I believe.

(source)

[justlajuntaco]

Kansas prairie snail actually I’ll have to fetch the proper name (I only remember the local).

Edit: yes to the amber snail ID, it’s one of those.

We’ve got snaggletooths, daggers, and minuscule jewel (aka minute gem) snails too. They’re land/semi amphibious (basically all terrain desert and plains snails). There probably are pond snails in the cattle ponds which get blown around by tornado force gales soooo, I’d have to double check every shell with a microscope (I’m not planning on that unless someone wants to send me a grant or snail themed patteon or something lol).

Here’s a link if y’all want to know about prairie and pond (all terrain) snails.

edit: also amber snails are called amber snails because before they die and bleach, they’re amber colored. But they don’t look like pupae like the other spiral terrestrial snails. They mature in about a year and live on to the next year before becoming another desert sea shell. In the desert they don’t behave at all like the populations in forests. They’re essentially a native mud snail and use burrows and roots for refuge.

[aydenburd-photography]

Boulder County, CO — April 2026

[iridescent-wildlife]

Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis). Family Passerellidae, order Passeriformes.

Oklahoma, USA. February 2021.

[justlajuntaco]

[justlajuntaco]

[justlajuntaco]

I got April fools-ed. Honestly though if it weren’t for the chili-centric version I’d figure that we’d actually be in for said nonsense. Honestly there isn’t anything that I wouldn’t expect at this point.

[iridescent-wildlife]

American Coot (Fulica americana). Family Rallidae, order Gruiformes.

Catching a fish, which I believe is an American Gizzard Shad.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. February 2021.

[justlajuntaco]