Relaxing Time on the Border

May 3 and 4, 2013

Friday: We both got some work done while here in our little New Mexico campground, and had some fun too. Friday we went into the little town to mail some cards and get lunch at a tiny little “Ma and Pa” Mexican restaurant—mostly “Ma”, it seemed. Food was great. I practiced my Spanish on a couple of other patrons eating lunch there; they were gracious. Some additional ruins from the 1916 attack on the town by Pancho Villa have been preserved in town, so we looked at them a while after lunch. (Apparently not much has changed in Columbus since 1916.) We went to the small grocery to see if they had any soymilk, but it was closed for siesta. So we decided, “when in Rome”—maybe we should take a siesta too!  Today it’s still cold and windy but the forecast is for better weather on Saturday. We had to pull out our extra winter blanket the last couple of nights—we had already put it away, thinking we wouldn’t need it anymore!

Saturday morning dawned warmer and much less windy, so we walked out for an early morning birdwatching session. I had seen a big owl’s nest in a tree toward the back of our campground. A park ranger told us that several young owls had flown the nest just a few days ago. We walked around that way. Jack spotted a big owl in the next tree over from the nest and we got a good look at it in our binoculars. It’s a great horned owl, very big and stately. Then we noticed a couple of other, more fluffy owls sleeping in other branches of the same tree—we guess they’re the young ones. We got a pretty good look at them too.

We worked on our projects during the middle of the day, and Jack made some delicious potato salad for supper, one of our summer favorites. It was finally warm enough to sit out on our nice picnic table to eat. It’s been great birdwatching here and today was the best day. We’ve spotted lots of nests with babies of many species: canyon wren, ladder-backed woodpeckers, white-winged doves, finches, in addition to the owls. I think I spotted a bunting this evening, but it was too dark to positively identify it. I think it was the varied bunting, not the painted bunting, though. We added one “lifer” to our bird list: the pyrrhuloxia, a flashy, cardinal-like bird that’s native to Mexico. I spotted a pair of them tonight near dusk. We saw a bunch of other bird species today too, and positively identified the curve-billed thrasher.

The pyrrhuloxia.

Tomorrow we’re off, driving to California. We plan to stop at the George S. Patton museum in the California desert, as we’ve wanted to stop and check it out on previous trips, but never had time.

Carol writing this blog.

Jack adding the photos. Note the big Apple on his laptop.

Bird species count: Vermilion flycatcher, turkey vulture, Bell’s vireo, *golden-fronted woodpecker, Say’s phoebe, northern cardinal, greater roadrunner, house finch, common raven, *northern rough-winged swallow, *summer tanager, *prothonotary warbler, *yellow-breasted chat, *yellow-rumped warbler, northern mockingbird, mourning dove, cliff swallow, Mexican jay, black-headed grosbeak, black-chinned  hummingbird, Wilson’s warbler, *Scott’s oriole, chipping sparrow, house sparrow, lesser goldfinch, black-crested titmouse, acorn woodpecker, scrub jay, *western kingbird, white-winged dove, *canyon towhee, *Grace’s warbler, *zone-tailed hawk, *curve-billed thrasher, Bullock’s oriole, Gambel’s quail, great horned owl, black-throated sparrow, *cactus wren, ladder-backed woodpecker, white-crowned sparrow, brownheaded cowbird, Brewer’s blackbird, *pyrrhuloxia

State count: 9 [Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico]

Odometer count:

Surber, VA: 107,435

Columbus, NM: 111,332                                                                                                                    

Accommodations avg cost: 27 nights @ $15.63/night