Archive for the ‘animals’ Category

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Bandelier National Monument

Friday, April 1st, 2011

Enjoyed visiting Bandelier National Monument near Los Alamos, New Mexico. There are an amazing number of holes in the rock cliffs all over the area. The area peaked in the 1400′s. The ancestral Pueblo people then moved close to the Rio Grande River, which is nearby.

Enjoyed staying in the campground at Bandelier. There were only a few people there, although the Visitor Center parking lot was full of visitors every day. The ponderosa pines in the campground made me of think of Idaho and Montana campgrounds. It is closed from November to February because of snow.

Bandelier is composed of 33,750 acres, but has only 3 miles of public roads. There are 70 miles of trails. The ones by the Visitor Center follow a stream and are easy to walk. You can follow one trail along the creek down to where it meets the Rio Grande River.

Two days in a row I walked along a trail along the creek that goes to the last official dwelling exhibit. Beyond this point, the trail takes you into the National Wilderness Preservation System. There were quite a few backpackers hiking into the area.

Both days on my walks along the creek saw a female black bear with two cubs. The first day, a ranger had chased them up a tree. He said the female has been coming to the area for 3 years because of the water and plant food sources. The second day, the ranger didn’t even bother to come. He had said they don’t pose a danger and would rather climb a tree than confront humans.

Above, an Abert‘s or tassel-eared squirrel. Have wanted to see one of these guys for a number of years.

Above, a vewpoint in the town of White Rock, a suburb of Los Alamos a little northeast of Bandelier. It is looking towards Sante Fe and the town of Española. The Rio Grande River runs down the center of the picture, but is hidden behind a hill. Saw both kayakers on the river and backpackers hiking into the area.

The city of Santa Fe is so beautiful. They don’t allow advertising billboards. You just see the official highway system signs along the highway. There must also be an ordinance on what colors can be used to paint homes and businesses. They are all an adobe color with just differences in the amount of yellow, red, and white paint added. So they don’t all look alike, yet blend really well together.

Below, Valles Caldera National Preserve that is just west of Bandlier. It was a private ranch until the year 2000. The owner’s sold the entire surface estate of 95,000 acres and seven-eighths of the geothermal mineral estate to the federal government.

Posted in bear, Los Alamos, National, squirrel, White Rock | Comments Off

In and Around Tucson, Arizona

Friday, March 18th, 2011

Stayed in the Tucson area for a couple of weeks. Nice to see that grass front yards are 98% gone. Many people have used creative ways to continue the desert landscape around homes and business’. Saw a lot of dead palm trees and eucalyptus trees in the area.

Above is the eastern unit of the Saguaro National Park looking towards the Catalina Mountains.

Drove the Catalina Highway to the top of Mt. Lemmon. It rises 4,000 feet in around 25 miles—it’s all uphill. Lots of bicyclists were making the grueling ride to the top. It would be a beautiful place to see a sunset or escape the summer heat at 7,000 feet elevation.

Curved billed thrashers seen in an urban area.

Birds, and critter, seen at Catalina State Park in the campground: a canyon towhee with a malformed bill, a gila woodpecker, a Cooper’s hawk, and a ground squirrel. The Cooper’s hawk flew to the ground, perhaps to catch one of the many ground squirrels. Later saw it hiding in a bush stalking birds and squirrels.

Posted in hawk, squirrel, State, thrasher, towhee, Tucson, woodpecker | No Comments »

Davis Mountains State Park

Monday, February 28th, 2011

Finally made it to Davis Mountains State Park in Texas. A lot of people I’d seen in Big Bend also stopped here. At a mile above sea level, the landscape is made up of a oak trees, junipers, and grasses. They are in the midst of a drought and many oak trees have died in the Davis Mountains. Water is a precious commodity. Also, the two recent cold fronts that brought freezing temps to west Texas killed a lot of plants. While in a hardware store in the nearby town of Alpine, heard people say they lost most of their plants, including cactus and palm trees. During my visit, a red-flag condition was in place, with temps in the 70′s-90′s and the humidity around 4%.

The picture above was taken from a scenic viewpoint looking down at the Chihuahuan Desert near Fort Davis.

Spent a lot of time at a bird watching station hoping to see some Montezuma quail. It never happened, although some people were lucky enough to see them.

Again with the peanut butter! Although I didn’t see any Montezuma quail, was pleased with the birds I did see.  Shown above are a cactus wren, a black-crested titmouse, a ladder-backed woodpecker, a Bewick’s wren, and an acorn woodpecker.

An overabundance of white-winged doves were present. Their call sounds like “Give us this day” to me. I will definitely recognize a white-winged dove by it’s call from now on.

Above: a dark-eyed junco and a canyon towhee.

In Big Bend you were warned not to leave food out at night because of the javelina. Didn’t see any while I was there, but they did come around at night here. The javelina and the deer both visit the bird feeding stations for water (drinking all the water meant for the birds). The javelina trump the deer—the deer gave them wide berth when I saw them both there at the same time.

The deer above has it’s head in an oak tree.

Seen below, the campground at Davis Mountains State Park. The park was established in 1933/1935. The white structure is Indian Lodge, originally constructed in 1935 by the CCC. It’s a beautiful building. There’s a trail up the mountain nearby where you may see mountain goats.

Posted in canyon wren, deer, dove, Fort Davis, javelina, junco, State, titmouse, towhee, woodpecker | No Comments »

Big Bend National Park, 2011

Saturday, February 19th, 2011

Stayed at Rio Grande Village Campground in Big Bend National Park for a few days. Had the first hot, dry weather I’ve had this year (in the 90′s). Had decided to just stay in the campground this visit, before the price of gas went up ($4 a gallon in the park). I drove all over the park on my first visit here and there was enough to do around the campground.

On driving from the town of Marathon to the campground, I was struck by the complete lack of roadside trash (not one plastic bag blowing in the wind)! Trash in the Rio Grande Valley area is omnipresent.

There are spring fed ponds (in the foreground in the picture above) along a nature trail in the campground. Water from the Rio Grande River enters the one seen above when the river floods.

Saw a number of roadrunners. Was surprised to see one “wag it’s tail”, hold it’s tail up and wag it right and left. Also intermittently heard roadrunners in trees making deep cooing sounds.

Cardinals and pyrrhuloxia were present in the campground area. Near the pond there were two young herons, along with common yellowthroats, a bittern, and a pied-billed grebe.

Coyotes were often seen walking through the campground.

There are mosquitofish in the pond. An endangered species, Big Bend Gambusia, or Big Bend Mosquitofish, are in a protected isolated pond.

Posted in coyote, National, roadrunner, Texas | Comments Off

Falcon State Park: Week 3

Sunday, February 13th, 2011

My third and last week at Falcon State Park. One picnic area at the park has half of its sites closed off because of water damage (top picture). There were strong winds here one day that brought the water in close to the remaining sites. The park has definitely lost land to the water this past year.

There is a 3-mile trail around the park (lower picture) that shows the brush that is so easy for wildlife to disappear into. The brushland appears so desolate when driving through it, but a lot of wildlife depend on it to survive.

There are javelina here. Saw a group with one baby walk through my campsite one night.

The large flocks of kiskadees are gone, but you see individual ones around. Just this week started hearing and seeing cactus wrens (above). They are year-round residents, so they were probably here, I just didn’t cross paths with them.

On the park road, before you enter the park past the headquarters, I saw a group of chachalaca’s. Don’t recall seeing them here before. Know the bobcats would love the park to have a large population of them.

Meadowlarks are seen in groups and individually.

Have seen three pairs of roadrunners that come out to sun themselves in the morning.

Below, a blue-gray gnatcatcher and a pyrrhloxia.

Posted in cactus wren, Falcon Heights, gnatcatcher, javelina, meadowlark, pyrrhuloxia, roadrunner, State | Comments Off

Falcon State Park

Sunday, January 30th, 2011

Falcon State Park is located near Falcon Dam at the southern end of a 60-mile lake created by a dam on the Rio Grande River. The park sustained damage from flooding secondary to Hurricane Alex, but some brushland areas seem to have benefited from the flooding. There are more birds here than I have ever seen before.

The murder of a man on a jet ski here last October has not affected visitation, at least by winter Texans. The park is nearly full and there are lots of boaters.

Berry war: There is a large flock of great kiskadees enjoying the berries on some bushes (top picture). They are continually being attacked by territorial mockingbirds. Usually one mockingbird will chase one shrieking kiskadee. Kiskadees are a little larger than mockingbirds, but that doesn’t seem to make a difference. While I was taking pictures a hawk tried to chase down a kiskadee, but was unsuccessful. Maybe the practice of running from the mockingbirds helps keep them in shape to run from predators.

Berry update: Went back to the bush with the berries where I took the above pictures. All but a few of the berries are gone!

I’ve had three bobcat sightings, but just one picture. The above guy came to the edge of the brush near my rv, but quickly escaped back into the brush when it saw me.

A male (foreground) and female bobwhite.

A pyrrhuloxia. Falcon State Park is the main place I see them.

I put out grapefruit for the birds. Orange-crowned warblers are the main takers as well as being one of the more numerous birds here.

A deer surprised me by eating one half-grapefruit whole. When she returned later in the evening she didn’t want another one, but the young one ate part of one.

Posted in bobcat, bobwhite, deer, Falcon Heights, kiskadee, pyrrhuloxia, State | No Comments »

South Texas Plains Region

Friday, December 17th, 2010

Returned to Choke Canyon State Park that I enjoyed so much last year. The el nino weather pattern does not appear to be present this year and the nicer weather probably accounts for more visitors here this time. There is still plenty of breathing room though.

Photos above: the oak trees in the park are full of green jays this year, much more so than last year. They are busy burying acorns and doing their part to plant more oak trees.

Great kiskadee. It’s so great hearing green jays and great kiskadees again. This is the northern edge of their habitat.

Scissor-tailed flycatcher. The only one I’ve seen so far. Also have not seen many vermiion flycatcher’s this year. Last year there was a resident one at my campsite.There are lots of raptors around: red-tailed hawks, caracara, osprey, and an amazing number of great-horned owls. There have to be 20-30 of them in the brush around the campground.

I drove the backroads through southern Texas hill country to get to the park. Started seeing creasted caracara (Mexican eagles) where the hill country and southern plains meet.

Golden-fronted woodpecker

Happened to see this curve-billed thrasher while watching green jays in an oak tree.

Armadillos are doing their part to aerate the soil. There have been groups of white-tailed deer, wild turkeys, and armadillos grazing in the area around the campground.

Posted in armadillo, Calliham, caracara, flycatcher, kiskadee, State, thrasher, woodpecker | No Comments »

Bosque del Apache NWR

Monday, November 29th, 2010

Have been staying close to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge for close to a week. It’s been cold, as I guess it has been over a lot of the US, in the teens at night and the 40′s and 50′s during the day. Still just need the furnace at night.

Saw the coyote in the top picture wondering around the refuge on Saturday. Just a little earlier in the day had seen a coyote, possibly the same one, in a field with some sandhill cranes. It always surprises me that the cranes don’t fly away on seeing a coyote. They do have a weapon in their bill. They can stab a coyote with it, as long as the coyote doesn’t come from behind.

The last two pictures are from Monday morning. The coyote in the third picture has just nabbed a duck in the same area as seen in the picture with the cranes. On leaving the refuge, saw three young, healthy looking coyotes (one seen in the bottom picture).

Adult sandhill crane (top picture) and two juvenile cranes (bottom picture).

Northern shovelers

Below, photographers bundled up to see the cranes fly in to roost.

Posted in coyote, northern shoveler, San Antonio, sandhill crane, Socorro, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

More from Rockhound State Park

Saturday, October 30th, 2010

Black-throated sparrow. These little guys are so cute.

Cactus wren going into and out of a nest. The nest is supported on three sides by the prickly pear cactus.  There are three cactus wren nests around my site. I read online that they build two nests, one for young ones and one for roosting.

Sage thrasher

Gila Ladder-backed woodpecker (thanks Jonathan)

Some birds seen but not pictured: a pair of orioles, not sure which kind; a pair of pyrruloxia, Gambel’s quail, & sandhill cranes. A flock of sandhill cranes flew overhead one day and the next morning I heard them. There is no body of water nearby, so I was a little worried about them.

Along with lots of birds in the area, there are lots of insects. The tarantula above walked through my campsite one day. Made sure to wear my heavy hiking shoes when sitting outside after that. Sitting next to a retaining wall, your eyes are level with the ground and you see all kinds of insects.

Below, a curved-billed thrasher. The light at sunset is so incredible here.

Posted in cactus wren, Deming, sparrow, spider, State, thrasher, woodpecker | 1 Comment »

Elephant Butte Lake State Park

Monday, October 18th, 2010

Spent some time at Elephant Butte Lake State Park in their desert campground at the north end of the lake. The weather was great, high 70′s during the day, in the 50′s at night. The nights were beautiful, with so many stars visible.

Not a lot of birds near the campground, but large flocks of white pelicans fished in the lake, along with grebes. The fish were really jumping. The campground was not crowded. Most of the people there had come to fish and had boats.

One night saw a blackhawk type of helicopter circling the mountain in the background. It was eerie because you just saw a faint blue glow in the darkness. Knew it was a helicopter from it’s sound and had seen the blackhawk (type) helicopter earlier in the day. Did see a blinking light when it sped away really fast. The next morning a fighter jet circled the mountain once.

When I went to the post office to pick up my mail, saw the above dog in the driver’s seat with the car motor running. Had to get a picture. You just have to imagine the sound of the motor.

Posted in Airstream, dog, Elephant Butte, State, sunset | Comments Off

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