Seasons in the Desert: A Naturalist's Notebook
Susan J. Tweit
Illustrations: Kirk Caldwell
Chronicle Books, 1998
Clothbound, OP
Susan Tweit's notebook is a wonderful addition to the library of all of us who love the desert. -- Tony Hillerman
Put your other concerns aside for a moment, for this book is an event you won't want to miss. Inhale it's frangrances, listen to its songs! -- Gary Paul Nabhan, Coming Home to Eat
A true naturalist's notebook: shimmering with wonder, bristling with inquiry, sweaty and stickery and sandy and stained from days spent in the field. ... In the hands of a real naturalist and fine writer like Susan Tweit, nature is ever fresh and never known too much. -- Robert Michael Pyle
In summer, after months of increasingly hot and parched weather, most air masses sweep over the southern deserts. Fluffy cumulus clouds build and coalesce into towering thunderheads. Cold gusts of wind sweep across the desert, cloud bellies burst open, and curtain of water pour down, accompanied by brilliant stabs of lightning and booming crashes of thunder. the storms dissipate as quickly as they form, leaving the land splattered with temporary puddles and ponds. The brief abundance of water triggers the emergence of many desert lives, including spadefoot toads.
Spadefoot toads, small creatures with big voices, appear as if by magic. Before the rains, the desert is toadless. After the thunderstorms, these sapitos--little toads--are everywhere. When the puddles and ponds created by the rain vanish, so do the toads. Their sudden appearance and equally sudden disappearance is one of the desert's miracles.
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