We are living in stressful times and getting out of the house, if only to your back yard, is always a good idea. Native flora and fauna can cure the blues. I, of course, wanted to ramble on about a few other plants we saw during the excursion described, but luckily for you I ran out of time. The Berberis wilcoxii under the lichen covered rock outcropping used to be 4 to 5 feet tall in thickets, so it was fun to find the small thicket starting up under some Emory oaks (Quercus emoryi). And we are certainly going to go back and visit those Salix irrorata in that old filled lake…. those and a dozen other plants….next time. 
The photos are mine and taken on the day described. Those are male (staminate) flowers on the willow stem. And I love the little barberry thicket up against the oak trunk.
Petey thinks pocket gophers are very cute. A huh. Pocket gophers are amazing rodents, spending almost all of their life underground in the tunnels...
I have grown New Mexico locust (Robinia neomexicana) in the past for some contract grows and I quickly learned that the spines don’t get...
There are a couple other species of Eysenhardtia found over in Texas and more species as you head into Mexico and as far south...