After going to the San Diego Zoo five days in a row and visiting the panda exhibit multiple times each of those days, finally saw some activity from Yun Zi.

A zoo keeper shows Bai Yun an empty treat container to let her know there are none left. She then goes and searches for them in her exhibit. Think this is a daily routine.

A Sulawesi Tarictic Hornbill found in Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Mandarin ducks

A victorian crowned pigeon found in North New Guinea looking into the fish tank.

Breeding hooded merganser

Below, Janey, the orangutan, looking through the glass at a woman whom she knows.

Have been in San Diego to visit  Bai Yun and her young cub, Yun Zi at the zoo. He sleeps a lot so there are not a lot of photo ops, unless your lucky enough to be there when he is active. So far I haven’t.

Su Lin, the 4-year-old sister on Yun Zi. She is supposed to go to China sometime in the near future.

Mandarin ducks. They are related to wood ducks and have to be one of the most beautiful duck there is. These two bent over in unison to get a drink of water. There are some birds and ducks that fly into the zoo grounds, this isn’t one of them. They are definitely specimen ducks.

Male and female wood ducks.

I have really enjoyed visiting the zoo’s walk-in bird aviaries this visit. In the late afternoon, birds are flying all around you as they prepare to roost for the evening, eating and taking baths in the waterfalls.

Above is a White-bellied-Imperial-pigeon that has an incredible bass two note song. He bows each time he says “who who”.  He does this for a long time, then has to stop to get his breath. Everyone that came in asked “Is he making that sound?” I recorded a short video and will try to upload it later.

Nicobar pigeon

Grand eclectus parrot

White breasted kingfisher. There is an fish tank in the aviary. Guess the kingfishers can catch their own dinner.

Below, an African lion let out a loud growl when an animal keeper walked in front of him after giving a talk about the lions.

Have been at one of my frequent stopping points, Rancho Jurupa Park in Riverside, California for the past week. Had gone without hookups for more than a week, so really appreciated having electricity again. The weather fronts with rain keep coming through California on a regular basis. Today heavy rain and thunder have been present most of the day.

Two pairs of herons are reusing two nests from last year. Saw one heron bring one twig to the heron in a nest and the waiting heron spent some time arranging that one twig. A red-tailed hawk landed between the two nests one day. The herons in the nests flew away and one came back so it was facing the hawk and started hissing at it till the hawk flew away. Heron’s can hurt hawks with their beaks if they are facing them and are not taken by surprise.

Have seen both herons and egrets hunting gophers in the field by me. The gopher exterminator that was here in the fall must have left some.

Saw an adult and then a juvenile night heron resting in the same tree on two different mornings.

Northern flicker

Cormorants. Have read where some places are killing them because they eat fish meant for fishermen.

Say’s phoebe. Probably the same one I saw in the fall, at least it was hunting and perching in the same spot.

Mallard. Have also seen a small group of ruddy ducks.

Feel like I’m seeing old friends when I see the geese mascots that have been here as long as I’ve been coming here. Glad to see they have made it through another season of kids, dogs, and fishermen.

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.

Made a quick visit to the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge. It is listed as an Arizona refuge, but it’s along the Colorado River and the border with California. I stay on the California side, below Blythe.

Saw some sandhill cranes, but most of them were out of range of the refuge tour route. The visitor center said they start to leave in March when the winds pick up. There were lots of Canada geese and other assorted waterfowl. They know they are safe on the refuge, but can be hunted when leave that sanctuary.

The American kestral above has to be one of the calmest I’ve seen. They usually are gone by the time I point my camera in their direction.

A huge ball of yellow-headed blackbirds were in a cleared corn field.

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.

After leaving Falcon State Park, I stayed at Lake Casa Blanca State Park, around 60 miles away, to wait out some bad winds. From there, went to Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site, just past the town of Del Rio. At Del Rio, you leave southern Texas brush country behind and enter the Chihuahuan desert. Next stop was the small town of Alpine, north of Big Bend National Park. I had thought I’d stop at Big Bend, but the weather this season has been too wild and more rain was due in two days. I continued on to Deming, New Mexico, to wait out that rain. It is always a bit of a jolt to leave the rural areas I have been staying in for a number of months and then drive the interstate through a large city, in this case El Paso to get to Deming.

In going from Falcon State Park to Deming, I had to stop at 4 border inspection stations. At the first stop, an agent even went into my trailer. First time that has occurred. Noticed they have a complex system of cameras and other equipment to get pictures of each car, both front and rear. Bet they are using face recognition software. Most checkpoints also had a working dog sniff your vehicle.

I love the town of Marfa, Texas, with it’s combination of art and ranching. It was most recently made famous as where Randy Quaid and his wife were arrested. I tried staying in Alpine, instead of Marfa, because they have nicer rv parks. Next time I’ll stick it out in Marfa’s one cramped park. You can boondock in rest areas if the weather permits (which it didn’t this trip).

Last year when I left Marfa heading to the I-10, I passed what you see in the picture above, out in the middle of nowhere. I was going around 60 mph and just made out the words Prada – Marfa. This time I made sure to drive slow and pull over to get a picture. It was created by artists in 2005. They got the approval of Prada to use their name. There are some purses and high heel shoes on display. The “door” is fake.

Ballroom Marfa is the non-profit art center that helped create the Prada – Marfa work. The second picture is obviously an old gas station made into an art center. The art community either reuses old buildings or builds new buildings that blend right in.

At Lake Casa Blanca State Park there were a couple of hundred dead fish on the shore. The visitor center said they were tropical fish that were not supposed to be there. They died as the water got colder. The second picture shows a caracara making a meal of one of the fish.

Pictured below: I was so surprised to see mountain goats a little past Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site. There were puddles of water in rocky areas that may have allowed them to graze there. Before the town of Marathon, and after the town of Alpine, saw several small groups of pronghorn elk.

Have been at Falcon State Park for a week. This is where you start seeing pyrrhuloxia (above). They are one of the calmer birds who don’t fly away the minute they see you. An online article said they should have been named desert cardinals rather than pyrrhuloxia.

My first sighting of a northern bobwhite (above). Grackles imitate bobwhite sounds and search through the brush for nests with eggs.

Orange-crowned warblers are very common here.

Yellow-rumped warbler

Ladder-backed woodpecker with peanut butter.

Swamp sparrow

A hispid cotton rat. Looks like a hamster. There is lots of brush for them to hide in. Bobcats have been seen in the area and these rats are something they’d hunt for.

Birds seen in the area, but not pictured: one white-tailed kite, a pair of caracaras, cactus wrens, roadrunners, and several loggerhead shrikes. The shrikes were always perched on barbed wire surrounding private property. They are known for impaling their prey on barbed wire.

Below, a Harris’ hawk and a great kiskadee. I’ll miss seeing the kiskadees as I head north.

The Salineño Bird Refuge (aka USFWS Kepler Tract) is next to the Rio Grande River a few miles from Falcon Dam. There is a caretaker on site who puts out food for the birds. It is a place where you can see three different orioles at the same site.

Above, an male altamira oriole on the left, and a female hooded oriole on the right. The altamira orioles are the largest of the orioles.

Male hooded oriole

Male, juvenile hooded oriole.

Audubon’s oriole with a mealworm.

The altamira oriole on the left kept hissing at the great kiskadee on the right, until the kiskadee responded.

One green jay try’s a mealworm, while the other one sticks to peanuts. Mealworms have to be a rare treat. The kiskadees were really going after them. They have never seemed interested in the regular bird food I put out.

Random musings: The central Rio Grande Valley between the towns of Weslaco and Mission seems like a unique mix of people. You have a large population of winter Texans, mostly older and white, and a large population of young hispanics. A lot of the winter Texans come from midwest farming states. Many of the rv parks offer a lot of social activities. I talked to a man when I took my truck in for an oil change who has been coming here for 20 years. He and his wife love to dance, and there are lots of dances here. He also has a mobile home in Maine. They spend summers in Maine and winters in Texas and fly between the two sites.

The rv park I stayed at in Alamo charges around $2,000 for 6 months occupancy and 6 months storage. If you put a mobile home on the site, you are kind of stuck, as it is not easy to move a mobile home. The man I talked to said he owned the land his home is on, but that is probably rare.

Heard a lot of sirens this visit, at least one every 2 or 3 hours. All I saw were ambulances, no police cars. This may reflect on the large number of older people here and some large hospitals in the area.

Below, an orange-crowned warbler and a singing black-crested titmouse at the Frontera Audubon site.

The bird above is a common poorwill. It may be common, but it’s the first one I’ve seen. A volunteer at Estero Llano Grande State Park pointed it out to me and several other people. It was not more than 5 feet away with 4 or 5 people standing around it, but it didn’t even open it’s eyes! Someone had tried to point one out to me last year, but it was 15 or 20 feet away and I couldn’t see it.

A little closer look.

I was afraid I was going to have to leave the area without getting a picture of a great kiskadee. They, and the green jays, are my two favorite birds in the area. The kiskadee isn’t great at posing, but finally got a picture on an overcast, rainy day at the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge.

Red cardinal at the Santa Ana Refuge on a sunny day.

Northern shovelers at Estero Llano Grande State Park.

Above, either a broad-tailed or a buff-bellied hummingbird. It, and the chachalacas below were seen at the Frontera Audubon site.

Below, chachalacas. There seem to be more of them this year. Not sure what predators they have.