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.
