We had another 6AM morning today, and we headed quickly to Jason’s uncle’s farm. On our way out, I noticed the pervasive smell of oil from the drilling that is done all around (interestingly, Jason and his dad don’t notice it unless the smell is strong) and that there were clouds in the sky. Seeing clouds was a refreshing change, hopefully some rain will soon follow. Farming is a major source of income in Seminole (coupled with oil drilling on the farmlands), and vast, circular crop fields dominate the landscape. I was excited to discover that many of the roads through the crop fields are lined with live tumbleweed (not intentionally grown by the farmers, which demonstrates the success of their unique seed-dispersal mechanism – the dead, dried parent plant tumbles in the wind, carrying seeds to different suitable habitats). We, unfortunately, have yet to find any snakes today, but we spotted a Swainson’s Hawk, a Black-tailed Jackrabbit, a Texas Brown Tarantula crossing the road, caught a cottontail, and found another Ornate Box Turtle crossing the road. For as dry and hostile as it is here, I’m surprised that we’re finding so many box turtles. We also saw tons of mammal holes and tracks, but surprisingly few predators.