The silence was nearly deafening, other than the calls of White-winged Dove (a newcomer to this region) and Mourning Dove. Completely absent were the normally ubiquitous Spotted Towhee, Bewick’s Wren, and Downy Woodpecker. Bosque vegetation, normally filled with young emergent grasses and shrubs in the early summer, looked and felt like winter with dried cottonwood leaves and dried-everything-else that crunched under my feet