Ranchers used to build cattle ponds out here by mounding earthen dams across washes. This one is about 500 yards south of our lot and due to the monsoon rains now has standing water in it. After the first really heavy rains of the summer, we can hear loud croaking all night as the big toads come up out of the mud to breed. It's quite amazing that they survive the rest of the year deep down in what is by that time mostly dry cow poop.
Here is the result. I took this picture in the shallow fringes of the pond but it was like this all over. There are probably tens or even hundreds of thousands of these tadpoles in there right now. With a little luck the pond will stay wet long enough for most of them to grow into snake, lizard, roadrunner, and raven food. It will take a lot more luck for any of them to survive until next summer.
