Spent a few days in a Phoenix suburb and found lot’s of Gambel’s quail. There was both a greater number than I’d ever seen before and they were not as skittish. Nesting appears to be on the agenda.
There are some beautiful areas around Phoenix. One I drove through had the desert landscape, especially palo verde trees, heavy enough to pretty much hide business and shopping areas from the road.
A female phainopepla.
Below, a verdin and a cactus wren. Just starting to see ocotillo plants blooming.
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.
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.
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.
I first visited Rockhound State Park in 2007, when I first started traveling. At that time, they were having problems with rain water damaging their roads and campsites. They have 4 or 5 full-time residents here that have worked hard building retaining walls around venerable campsites. Now it is hard to get a site. The best sites are reservable and the few remaining ones are taken by people that stay a long time.
Curved-bill thrashers
Cactus wren
Black-throated sparrow
A loggerhead shrike. The first one I’ve seen outside of Texas. Deming, New Mexico is, of course, close to Texas and Mexico. The plants around the campground remind me very much of the Big Bend area of Texas.
A Say’s phoebe flying above a bush to catch insects (top).
A Say’s phoebe and a rock wren (bottom)
Rock wren
Sage thrasher
Prickly pear cactus grow all the way to the top of the mountain that the campground is situated against. Only the cactus in the campground, however, still have “pears” on them. Found that some kind of rodent, think a rock squirrel, ate one next to one of my truck tires. There was a scooped out pear next to the tire with red juice sprayed on it.
Stayed at Black Rock Campground in Yucca Valley for a few days. Not sure when the next time I will be in the area during the prime winter, early spring time frame, so wanted to take advantage of it. This campground has great Verizon evdo coverage. Not sure when I’ve had a faster internet connection.
Ten miles south of the campground is Big Morongo Canyon Preserve. It is on an earthquake fault where a spring comes to the surface for a short distance. It is just beautiful and worth a visit. Their land borders on Joshua Tree National Park and is managed by the BLM. They have a goal of making a large corridor for wildlife, so they are not boxed into a small area surrounded by developed areas.
Talk about developed areas, houses have been built right up to Black Rock Campground. So glad Joshua Tree National Park has their land. Otherwise, you know houses would have been built all the way through the park and up to the hilltops.
An antelope ground squirrel. Have wanted to get a picture of one of these small squirrels for a long time. This guy had a burrow under a yucca plant next to my campsite.
Black tailed jackrabbit.
Cactus wren
Male and female Gambel’s quail
Scrub jay. Also saw a large flock of pinyon jays. They are the only jay that travels in a flock. Didn’t get a picture. Drats!!
A titmouse, either a juniper or oak titmouse, not sure which.
Noticed that it became very quiet after around 3:00 pm most days. That must be predator time. A coyote walked through my camp one day during this time.
Stayed at Salt Creek Campground on the Salton Sea prior to coming to Joshua Tree National Park. Not many pelicans there yet. There is a 10-15 degree temperature difference between the Salton Sea area and Black Rock Campground at 4,000 feet elevation.
Spent four days at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona. Had forgotten their Twin Peaks Campground doesn’t have hookups. Had not used my generator for a long time, probably last summer. A camp host helped me start it up. After that there was no problem. Promptly at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., all the generators in the generator section of the campground started up for the allotted two hours. It was cold at night, and my furnace draws a lot of power. Otherwise, I could go two days before needing a generator. Glad to know it works. It is good to have the option to stay places that don’t have hookups and are often free.
Also had a problem with my hitch jack, the fuse blew. I asked another Airstream camper to look at it and he was able to diagnose the problem. Really lucky he was there.
Could not get an internet connection at the park. Really missed it, to say the least. I don’t watch tv. The internet is my main connection to what is going on.
Cactus wrens
Gambel’s quail
Both the cactus wrens and the Gambel’s quail usually run from bush to bush so as to not be seen by predators, like the red-tailed hawk above.
This curve-billed thrasher really sang it’s heart out one morning.
House finch
Gila woodpecker. None of the birds seemed to have a problem standing on a cactus or other thorny plants.
Below, road to the park and the Mexican border.
Top picture: broad-winged hawk
Bottom two pictures: crested caracara (the Mexican eagle).
House (top) and marsh (bottom) wrens. They are elusive, fast moving guys.
Swamp sparrow
Heron’s have to be the curmudgeons of the bird world.
Below, watched a group of white pelicans work their way along a shore, forming a circle to catch fish. They did this over and over, swimming a few feet, then forming the circle. Reminded me of an old dance movie.
Drove from Riverside to Cave Creek Regional Park above Phoenix, Arizona. When I got to Blythe it seemed to early to stop, so I continued on to the campground. It’s a very nice park with lots of birds. The weather was in the 90′s during the day, however, so I just stayed the one night.
Phainopepla
A black-throated sparrow
Blue-gray-gnatcatcher
Cactus wren
From Phoenix I went on to Cottonwood, Arizona and Dead Horse Ranch State Park. Cottonwood is around 10 degrees cooler than Phoenix. The park is very popular and people are coming and going all the time. It is not just a weekend park.
It is just the second time I’ve driven on the I-17 that connects the I-8 and I-40. It has a significant grade, but it’s worth it to get away from the heat of Southern Arizona.
Gambel’s quail
Canyon wren
A brown creeper
I came to Eureka to see the Humboldt Bay Wildlife Refuge. Noticed a lot of egrets and saw that there was a rookery across the road from the refuge on private property in a grove of tall trees. The egrets are going to the refuge for food and water and then flying back to the trees with one twig. It will take a lot of trips to make a nest at that rate. There was constant traffic to and from the rookery. I walked up to the trees, but you can’t see much, the egrets are so high up. You can hear a lot of activity going on. While they are safe from ground predators, there are eagles, hawks, crows and vultures circling above the trees.
Barn swallow at the refuge visitor center.
Song sparrow
Went to visit the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary that is part of their wastewater treatment system. The marsh wren above was singing away. Did not seem to mind my presence.
