March 1: Jim and I took a ride in my truck up to Cloudcroft and The National Solar Observatory at Sunspot, NM. We had a bit of rain in Alamogordo yesterday and the mountains got a good amount of snow. The roads were plowed, sanded and salted. This is the first time in many years that I was driving snowy roads. My tires are bad, but the four wheel drive works. Here's the truck at the parking lot.
This is one of the instruments, needless to say there were no other tourists there today. I felt like I was back home in Iron County Wisconsin with all the snow.
When I got back to town I took the truck to a carwash and sprayed off all the accumulated mud, salt and grime. I left a pile of mud in the carwash!
March 2: Spent the morning in town. In the afternoon Jim and drove south of Alamorgordo looking for Muleshoe Mound, reportedly a "bioherm". A boiherm is a group of sedimentary rocks full of fossils. Our search was fruitless since Muleshoe Mound looks like all the other rocks in that area.
March 3: Jim and I took a hike in the Three Rivers area near where we hiked last week. We only saw about 4-6 elk this time. There were a number of large explosions in the desert in the afternoon. I could see plumes of dust out in the the north end of the White Sands Missile Range. I can only assume the Air Force was having some fun. I did see my first Juniper Titmouse right in the parking lot. As last week there were lots of cat tracks in the area, bobcat and cougar.
Here's what this area looks like.
March 4-6: March 4 was a day in town. On the 5th Jim and I drove up to the Three Rivers Petroglyphs in the morning. This is a couple of low rock covered hills with an estimated 21,000 Native American petroglyphs carved in the desert varnish on the rocks. I visited this spot before, but had to return because it so special. I took 103 digital photos, the most I've ever taken at one time. I uploaded a few of the better ones to my Picassa site. The afternoon was spent getting ready to leave.
On March 6th I left Alamorgordo and drove to Demming and spent the night at the LoWs RV park. On the 7th I drove over to Benson. The weather was very active; I drove through rain, dust storms, sunny skies and very strong winds. Two Pacific storms are approaching as I write this and the wind is rocking the trailer.(It's a few minutes later and it's starting to rain horizontally. The wind is coming at the side of the trailer with the slides, I hope they don't leak.) I arrived at noon and had a couple of hours to visit with my old friends from Minnesota, Frank and Joan. They drove down from Minnesota to visit an old friend of Frank's from the University of Minnesota. I was very lucky to be in the same area as them this winter. I worked with Frank at the Cloquet Forest Research Center in the late 60's. I was even there when he met Joan, his future wife. The evening of the 7th Frank, Joan and tried to catch up on happenings in our families. We looked a a lot of pictures of our kids and the DVD made at Joan's fathers funeral. I had the pleasure of knowing him back in the late 1960s.
March 7-8: Frank, Bob and I took a hike up Ramsey Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains. The weather was blustery and there was now at the higher elevations. This area of the Huachaca Mountains is famous for hummingbirds, other unusual birds from the south and plants from much further north. We did not see any hummingbirds, because of the weather. I did however see a painted redstart. Bob made an excellent guide, he has spent a number of winters here and is a good biologist.
Here's Bob and Frank at the overlook above the canyon.
Here's Frank slogging up the trail.
After our hike Frank and Joan had to leave and start working their way back to Minnesota. Because of the weather, I decided to stay in Benson until next Saturday. The storms are supposed to end Thursday(11th) and that will give me a couple of good weather days and three or four bad weather days to explore this region. It was nice Monday morning and I took a ride north of Benson into the desert. It's Monday afternoon now and I'm working on taxes.
March 9-11: The details of these days are a bit blurred as I have been fighting a flu. On the 9th I was a bit "fuzzy" and on the afternoon of the 10th I was down big time. Curled up on the sofa with a blanket, I watched TV and napped. The morning of the 10th, in spite of the flu, I took a drive to the Empire Ranch/Las Cienegas National Resource Conservation Area. This site has unique(that word is used a lot in this part of Arizona) biological, ecological and historical significance. The ranch was a cattle ranch dating from the time of Mexican ownership and in more recent times was used as a site for filming western movies. The habitat is mostly grassland, but with a significant riparian strip. It was along this small stream that I saw my first vermilion flycatcher. This little male was along the stream not far from the ranch house. On the way back to Benson I encountered a freeway that was shut down due to an accident. I have a CB radio in my truck for the sole purpose of keeping informed when these kind of situations develop. I listened long enough to get a status report and stopped when the trucker conversations became political.
On the morning of the 11th I was mostly back to normal. I drove down to Ramsey Canyon and accompanied a hike conducted by The Nature Conservancy folks. The highlights were Coues white-tailed deer and Gould's wild turkeys. Each of these critters is a distinctive subspecies. The Coues deer is small for a whitetail and lighter colored. The Gould's turkey is more colorful than any other turkeys that I've seen. Photos below.
After leaving Ramsey Canyon I drove through the San Pedro River Valley then north through Tombstone and back to Benson. Tombstone was a real disappointment and I did not even stop...looked like the usual tourist trap. As of today(11th) I am still undecided where to go after I leave here. SE Arizona is a wonderful place, but the weather has been unfriendly to outdoor activities. Again this morning the truck was covered with snow and the wind blew all day long. I need to see these strong west winds end before I drive toward California. I am paid up for two more nights here in Benson, the weather is predicted to moderate tomorrow and remain nice for a while. Decisions, decisions.
March 12: Million dollar day! Bob picked me up at 9AM and we drove down to Fort Huachuca and entered the fort and drove up into the Huachuca Mountains. We hiked up a canyon for about 5 hours, the weather was nice...clear and calm. Our first encounter was with two Mexican Spotted Owls. These owls were sleeping just above the trail. Photo below.
We continued up the trail and saw few other birds. We got to the end of our hike and sat down for lunch. As we ate I heard some crunching in the snow behind me. I turned around just in time to see a black and white striped tail disappear behind a rock. I knew there were Procyonids(raccoon relatives)in this region, but I had no idea what this beast was. As Bob and I approached the rock we saw the little guy hiding in a crevice between to rocks and peeking out at us. The critter turned out to be a ringtail. Photo below.
When we backed off the ringtail came down toward us. He ran into the rocks below where I had been sitting eating lunch. It appeared that this was his/her den. Photo below.
If this ringtail was not enough, on the way down we flushed three Montezuma Quail and a bit later had a Zone-tailed Hawk soaring near the canyon edge above us. This hawk was the 410th bird on my life list. This was an absolutely great day. In light of today's happenings I decided to stay here for three more nights. The weather has turned better and there are a lot more things to see here. I'm beginning to really like this part of the world. As a bonus, we saw 5 pronghorns on our way out of the Fort.
March 13-15: March 13th was mostly a day around the trailer. I got a few chores done and worked on taxes again(yuck!). Midday I took a drive to Tucson and bought a new pair of binoculars. Here I am in one of the best birding spots in the USA and my binoculars are dying. Only after I got the new pair home and tried them did I realize how bad the old pair were.
March 14 Bob and I headed down to Patigonia State Park to meet up with a group from the Huachuca Audubon Society. This was the first time in many years that I birded with a group, They were very knowledgeable and it was a pleasure for me to be with the group. We hiked upstream from the park in a riparian woodland that is famous for a elegant trogon that occcures there. We did not see the trogon, but we saw around 70 species here and in the town of Patagonia. I saw four species of hummingbirds, two of which we new for me. We left the group after visiting a residence in Patagonia that is known for hummingbirds and we hiked the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve which is owned by The Nature Conservancy. All-in-all another great day. Bob has been an invaluable guide during my stay here in Benson and I greatly appreciate his guidance.
Look at the size of this cottonwood in the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve. This tree is around 8 feet in diameter.
March 15th I plan to do laundry and work on getting ready to leave. I plan to head west on the 16th and hopefullly get as far as Gila Bend and then back to the Imperial Valley on the 16th. I'll head on up to the Slab LoWs for a while again and check out the migrations at the Salton Sea.
March 16, 17& 18: Tuesday was a driving day. I planned to make the run from Benson, AZ to Slab City, CA in two days. However, once I got started I kept driving till I got to Slab City. There were two reasons for this, I had a strong tail wind and traffic was light once I reached I-8. The tail wind increased my fuel mileage by 20%. I got to the LoWs site a bit too late to set up the trailer, but that was not a problem. Upon my arrival I was informed that the group was having a corned beef and cabbage dinner on Wednesday(St. Patrick's Day). On Wednesday I got the trailer set up in the same spot I was in before. Verizon cell service is spotty here and I have a spot where I can usually get a signal. It is strange in that the signal strength varies over time. Sometimes there is a nice strong signal and at other times the signal fades to nothing. Since Verizon is my Internet provider as well as cell phone, I need to park where I can connect.
The weather here is significantly hotter than over in Arizona. I had not seen daytime temperatures over 70 in either New Mexico or Arizona. As I was driving west I noticed the temps constantly climbing. On the 16th the highest temp was 88 near Yuma. Forecasts here are for daytime temps in the upper 80s. All the desert areas I drove through have annual plants in profusion. The wet winter has definitely had an effect. I'm hopeing to get over to Anza Borrego before all the wildflowers dry up.
I've heard a lot of explosions since I got here. The Navy has been dropping BIG bombs over in the Chocolate Mountains and as I write this the nearby base is setting off some type of ordinance.
There are fewer people here at the LoWs site and more leave daily. The club is in the process of closing down for the summer. I plan to wait here until I get my mail forwarded from Escondido and then I'll head over to the south end of Anza Borrego State Park. There is a rocket launch at Plaster City in two and a half weeks and I plan to be there.
Here's my campsite at Slab City.
Some parts of Slab City are a real mess. Fortunately many of the RV groups(like the LoWs) keep their areas neat and clean. Contrast the photos above and below.
March 19-23: Just been hanging out at Slab LoWs. Made a few trips over to the Salton Sea for birding. There are still thousands of gulls, shorebirds, pelicans, etc. hanging around. On the 22nd I helped the LoWs prepare for summer. None of them stay here and they need to close down their operation here. After the cleanup we had a nice group dinner. Tomorrow(the 34th) I'll leave here and head on over to Anza Borrego State Park. My hope is that the desert flowers will be blooming after the winter rains.
March 23- : March 23rd was a driving and shopping day. When I got to Mountain Palm Springs in Anza Borrego Desert State Park the camping area was full. I drove north to a short side road between Agua Caliente and Vallicito Stage Station County park and I spent the first night there. The morning of the the 24th I drove up to Blair Valley. When I pulled into the Blair Valley road I saw a car that I recognized from Mtn. Palm Springs with a lady checking out the information signs. I asked her if any spots opened up at Mtn. Palm Springs and she said a couple of rigs had left in the morning. I hotfooted it back down to Mtn. Palm Springs to find all the big rigs gone. I got an excellent camp site overlooking the wash and hillside.
While camped at Mtn. Palm Springs I hiked to the various palm groves above the campground. The desert wildflowers are in bloom and the weekend of the 27th & 28th the campground was full with 9 RVs and a number of tents(including one Boy Scout troop).
During my week at Mountain Palm Springs I had a pair of loggerhead shrikes feeding a large chick in the bushes down in the wash below my trailer. I could set next to my door and watch the adults bring food to the chick. The most common food items were insects, with an occasional lizard. Shrikes are unusual birds because the are Passerines(perching birds) and are predators on mice, lizards, etc. They have a raptor-like beak which they use to subdue and tear apart their prey. Shrikes are also famous among ornithologists for caching their prey on thorns or barbed wire fences. I had never personally witnessed this behavior until this week. Several times I saw the adults fly over to an ocotillo with prey in their beak. At first I was not able to locate the impaled prey items. Finally I watched them tear apart a lizard and feed pieces to the chick. After the feeding one adult flew off to an ocotillo with the lizard remnants. I walked over and found the lizard hind legs and a desert blister beetle each impaled on the ocotillo spines.
Here's the fresh desert iguana parts hanging on the ocotillo spine.
Another highlight of my time at Mountain Palm Springs was enjoying the company of a couple that also stayed the entire week. We traded books and stories and even shared a few meals. You meet a wide variety of people when camping and these were some of the best.
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