Mojave Springtime [guide to the poster]

 A spring Mojave sunset finds the hillsides in bloom and the desert's denizens active in the relative coolness. In the right foreground, a desert tortoise 12) emerges from the cover of a prickly pear cactus (14), whose yellow flower (13) presents a graceful contrast to the cactus's thorn-studded "skin." Above them a Mojave yucca (17) spreads stiff, bayonet-like leaves toward the sky, while a roadrunner (15) beyond it holds a snake (its meal) in its bill. The tortoise eyes a giant desert hairy scorpion (11), its raised tail stinger threatening a Jerusalem cricket (10), a potential meal. Two mice (9) in the left foreground huddle beside the skeleton of a dead cactus (7), while a western banded gecko (6) clings to a rock near a flowering creosote branch (8). Above the rock, a whitish Joshua tree bloom (2) graces a spiny branch tip, while a taller tree (1) stands sentinel. Further in the background a black-tailed jackrabbit (5) appears ready to bound away through landscape studded with more creosote bush (4) and Joshua trees (3, 16).