Dunken to Pinon and Russell Gap Road to Guadalupe Rim Road

We decided this would be a good day to explore and possibly hunt for the Juniper Titmouse se we mentally flipped the coin and headed for Dunken and to Pinon along Hwy 24. Just after turning off Hwy 82 we crossed the Rio Penasco. I had been watching the water all the way down the canyon and remarked what a good volume was flowing. 

 Looking east from the bridge...













and looking back to the west...  

Don't know where the river disappears between the bridge and Hope, but it never makes it all the way to the Pecos anymore except in a flash flood.

After leaving the river, we entered the desert for real. Despite the intense drought conditions, bits of color decorated the mostly brown, crispy landscape.

Cholla

More Cholla

Prickly Poppy

Luckily traffic was practically non-existent

















so we could cruise slowly and stop for photos
















when something caught my eye.











In addition to the big showy stuff, I noted Buffalo Burr, Thistle, Basket Flower, Apache Plume, and several DYC's. We picked up the first Meadowlark (Eastern/Western) of this summer along with Common Nighthawk and Horned Lark.

Along the way we discovered a forest road to Guadalupe Rim Road. Being pathfinders at heart, we opted to explore it. Road sign said 14 miles. Gravel, but pretty good with ranch buildings scattered here and there, was also very birdy. First was Cassin's Kingbird,  followed by Western Kingbird. Canyon Towhee were plentiful, too.

BIRD OF THE DAY!

Pair of Hepatic Tanager struggling to stay perched in the wind, gusting to 30 mph,
but being very cooperative for my camera.

The female was a tad shyer, but just as photogenic.














According to the time stamps on the photos, we only observed them for 1 minute, sure seemed like a longer time.

We added Say's Phoebe, Lark Sparrow, Mourning Dove,  Mockingbird, Ashthroated Flycatcher, Loggerhead Shrike, Red-tailed Hawk, and House Finch to the list.

 Birds thinned out, but the ranch gate

and the combo windmill/pumpjack provided plenty to look at.

The road took a definite upward turn and Alvin bristled with the exciting prospect of some white-knuckle driving... 

doesn't take a lot for us older folks...

The view from the top was spectacular!

The desert mountains have a special beauty all their own.

Century Plants punctuated the landscape...

with dramatic colors. 

Gnarled Alligator Juniper with lots of personality. Would love to know just how old this old man of  the  mountain might be. 

I felt I could see the edge of the world from here. Puts the word INFINITY in a whole new perspective. 

Since we were NOT prepared to drive the entire Rim Road to Queen, we turned back from the edge of the Universe to retrace our tracks to Hwy 24. This handsome fellow had appeared on the road maybe fifteen feet behind us. I told some photos and tossed a pebble in his direction to move him off the roadway. He wouldn't budge. 

Alvin edged the jeep around him  to change his mind

and he slithered to the safety of the brushy edge.

Later input from MidNats held me ID Sonoran Gopher Snake. 

 What ever goes up, must come down, so that really steep hill was waiting.












I snapped away while Alvin negotiated the slope precisely.

Looked much steeper from the top...

 Looking back, still looks mighty steep. Wish we had an altimeter. The other GPS unit does, but we left it back home.

I was intrigued by the remains of a power line, I imagined the sweat and toil that went into the original construction and what a shame that it was abandoned. 

The cables littered the ground on both sides of the road

 amid broken spires

But a few have managed to survive the ravages of time and weather intact. 

We met a ranch truck on the way back to the highway...

She evidently hit this Western Diamondback just minutes earlier.

 Turkey Vulture flew away when we approached, was he waiting for him to die? I did see a slight movement of the rattles, whether it was a last flicker of life or involuntary muscle reflex, I don't know. 

The wound on the head was barely visible. 

The final leg of the drive into Pinon was pretty uneventful. 

We located the cemetery, but with the temp up to 90+ and a hot 25 mph wind, I passed on close inspection of the older headstones. 

We did tag a female Scott's Oriole on the two track road from town. 

Pinon is another story for another day. The quest for the Juniper Titmouse continues. 

Birding with friends June 25

Connected with Terri and Kathy for a morning of birding with MidNat friends this morning.

 Kathy has a neat little cabin on Trading Post Road and there are 2 small ponds up the mountain from her place. Her yard is fabulous, too. She has food and water available and the birds flock to it. We picked up Townsend's Solitaire, Acorn Woodpecker, and Violet-green Swallow along with Pine Siskin, Western Bluebird, American Robin, White-breasted Nuthatch, Mountain Chickadee, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Western Wood Pewee, Brewer's Blackbird, and Black-headed Grosbeak. 

The Bluebird posed nicely for photos...

But the Solitaire was chased away by the Robins and I only managed this one fuzzy photo. 

This first and largest pond was stocked with trout and Koi. Surrounded by cattails inhabited by Red-winged Blackbirds, we watched as a BT Hummingbird gathered fluff for her nest closely guarded by a Common Green Darner that was bigger than she was. 

A female Blackbird made several trips into a well camouflaged nest carrying food to hungry youngsters, leaving each time with a bright white fecal sack to drop into the water a good distance from the nest site. A fledgling begged for food from a male on the other side of the pond. 

Across the road, Evening Grosbeak crowded around a seed feeder on the deck of a cabin, too far away for any pictures.   

A small garter snake decided to cross the road, Alvin almost stepped on him. 

 The second pond is smaller and almost choked with cattails, a prime example of biological succession, but popular with Violet-green Swallow. I took a chance and managed to snag on in mid-air. What a treat to watch the swallows from a higher vantage point as they foraged below eye level across the grassy expanse. 

The small spring that feeds the ponds still gurgles refreshingly before disappearing into the watercress. 

The gravel hosted two great butterflies...

Questionmark 

Milbert's Tortoiseshell

that I managed to tag. 

Purple Penstemon 

Time for flowers, although most things don't bloom until after the July rains, we did manage to locate some real beauties.

Spike Verbena

Blue Flax

Wild Rose

One the walk back down we added Brown Creeper and House Wren to our list along with a pair of Hairy Woodpecker, one was a juve with a red-forehead. 

True to MidNat bird outings we finished with a scrumptious lunch at Big Daddies, one of the most popular and dependable food spots in Cloudcroft. We finished off with a Trip to Burro Street Bakery for sour dough bread and giant cinnamon roll for tomorrow morning and Aged Cheddar Cheese from Noisy Water Cheese and Wine. 

About halfway down the mountain, we found the ground covered with several inches of white stuff. 

 Under the trees up the hill side and along the edges of the road

Piled up against this quonset hut

 closer inspection revealed pea sized hail

stretching for half a mile or more. Farther down the mountain we could see puddles, but no ice. 

 Arriving home, the ground and picnic tables were littered with leaves and small twigs, and the awnings had numerous punctures.

These are the largest ones, but along the roof line are way too many pinhole sized fractures. Drat!

Luckily I was distracted by a tiny blue butter which I managed to capture even though I couldn't see him through my view finder. 

Nothing like seeing eye to eye with a Reakirt's Blue!