Gordon Dietzman

I think you have photographed springtails. These are tiny insects, come in a number of different colors, are usually shaped like these, have short stubby antenna, etc. Take a look at this Bugguide.net page and see what you think: http://bugguide.net/node/view/97813. I see them up here in Minnesota at this time of year as the snow is melting back. They are often found on the snow around holes melted around trees and can occur in the thousands.

Robber Flies are always tough as there are so many species. However I wonder if it could be Efferia tricella. See http://bugguide.net/node/view/235545 and read the discussion on http://bugguide.net/node/view/59806/bgpa.... Hope this helps. This particular records comes from Arizona as well so it may be pertinent.

Interesting spotting. I suspect you have, not a shrimp, but a snow scorpionfly (Boreus brumalis). They are usually found on the surface of the snow on warm winter days, especially towards spring. Take a look at this page and see if you'd agree with me: http://bugguide.net/node/view/377528. If so, I think you may have the first spotting of this insect on Project Noah!

Cool spotting! This is one of the so-called velvet ants, which are not ants at all but wasps. I suspect this particular species is in the genus Dasymutilla. To narrow down the ID, start by checking out this page: http://bugguide.net/node/view/13118/bgpa... . I'll be curious as to what you decide this insect is. This is one insect that is best left alone as they can have a very severe sting. Again, very cool spotting.

Very nice photography. Thanks for sharing!

What an interesting find. I've just spent about an hour pondering this spotting. It's built very lightly and there are struts in various places so I'm guessing bird. Here is a bit of an idea. It may not be a skull, despite what appears to be eye sockets, nares holes and a bill. I'm wondering if it isn't a bird's pelvic girdle. I can't find anything quite like this though on image searches, but bird pelvic girdles are often mis-identified even by naturalists as skulls. Eye sockets are well-defined in birds and I don't see that definition here. At least if others are working on this it may provide a different direction to search for an ID. I suspect it is a pelvic girdle. Can you give us dimensions? I'm intrigued....

Now that is one gorgeous photo! Actually, they are both really nice....

This is a pronhorn antelope skull. Notice the teeth in the second photo; it's a herbivore. But the giveaway is in the final two photographs. Pronghorns are a curious animal. They have horns that resemble antlers in the sense that there is the "prong" that branches off the main beam. Also part of the horn, the outer sheath is shed each year, which somewhat resembles an antler. However, the core of the horn is really a bone and isn't shed, which is a characteristic of a horn. In short, what we are seeing in those last two photos are the cores of the horns; the sheaths are no where to be seen. Fascinating animal.....

Based on the size of the scat, it is a fairly large animal. Because of the hair in it, it is a predator. It looks weathered so probably has been there for some time. I suspect it is coyote scat. Take a look at this link: http://www.bear-tracker.com/coy1scat.htm.... Page down to the last photo and see what you think. I'll be curious what you decide...

Thanks everyone. I was going through older photographs and getting rid of inferior photos. This one caught my eye and had such an interesting story and memories associated with it -- plus I hadn't made it a spotting yet -- that I thought it would make a very nice 1,000 spotting.