After more than a year with no visitors, we have had three sets of house guests from Austin in the last two weeks. Three of the visitors were long time friends and we were happy to make a new friend. We shared some of our favorites places in the Las Cruces area with our friends.

Sleepy Grass Campground

Wild Irises

Lilacs in Cloudcroft Village

Sighted along the Mexican Trestle Trail in Cloudcroft

Red Columbine

Vinny and Dennis

Bluff Springs Recreation Area

Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

Kokopelli, the Flute Player

Dennis, Jamie, Ainge and the Organ Mountains

El Paso Airport

Mesilla, New Mexico

Tony and Michael at Aguirre Springs Campground

Sunset on the Sacramento Mountains

Tony at White Sands National Park

Michael in the dunes

Bleached Earless Lizard

 Last week, Mike and I spent a few days in the Lincoln National Forest near Cloudcroft, NM. It is still early spring at around 9000 feet, and it was very lovely, if still a bit cold in the mornings. (Okay it was jacket weather all day long.)

 

 

Mike fighting with the law again. 

Wild Strawberry

Wild Iris

Broad Tailed Hummingbird

 

Wild Horses loose in the forest

Facebook does not have a very good history with showing decent quality videos, so we have posted two videos of the wild horses on youtube:  

 https://youtu.be/2Br_orzRUHw  and 
https://youtu.be/Lp9Dtq4O_Js

 

 

Percha Dam State Park is only about sixy miles north of Las Cruces on the Rio Grande River. We spent 2 nights there last week, with friends, and then drove over to Aguirre Springs Campground for a night as well. It was not a big trip, but it was lovely - and we enjoyed being out and about. 

Robins winter along the river and had not yet headed northward. 

A Greater Yellow-Legs wading in the Rio Grande.

And the place was thick with Vermillion Flycatchers - both courting and solo. They were very hard to catch, but here are two glimpses. 

A Black Hawk - sitting and in flight. 

A portrait of a White Winged Dove. 

Black Phoebe.

Osprey! They are also know as fish hawks since most of their diet is fish. But they are not a true hawk and are about twice the size of a large hawk. They look like they are the size of an eagle, but will only have about a 5 foot wingspan instead of the eagle's 6 foot or more. 

Say's Phoebe.

Sparrow.

Northern Flicker.

And a new bird that we had never heard of before: Phainopepla. Glorious birds about the size of a black bird but with white underwings and a crest. The males were solid (almost shiny) black and the females were mostly dark gray. It turns out they are primarily from Mexico and Central America but will be found in the deep southwest wherever they may find mistletoe. Mistletoe berries make up over 90% of their diet, and along this stretch of the river many trees were laden with mistletoe. 

Red-winged Blackbird.

Cattails.

Screwbean Mesquite.

Last year's leaves.

Trees along the Rio Grande.

Last year's flower skeleton.

This year's spring cactus bloom.

Evening Campfire and the Caballo Mountains.

Sunset.

And the moon through the trees - with scattered stars all around. 

The Organ Mountains from Aguirre Springs Campground.

And a Mule deer in the campground.

Sunset through the Organ Mountain Rocky Peaks.

And Dennis relaxing.