Yellow Warbler

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Yellow-breasted Chat

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Blue-green Algae Common on Otero Mesa by Renée West The land was dry and the vegetation mostly dormant during the February field trip to Otero Mesa. And among the list of dormant ‘photosynthetic organisms’ was blue-green algae. We all noticed that the ground was littered with dry, crusty black things that looked maybe like leaves that had blown away from a tree. But upon closer inspection — and upon being wetted from our water bottles — we confirmed that they were indeed blue-green algae, also called cyanobacteria. They were in their desiccated (dried) state, waiting for...