Squirrels, Kangaroo Rat, Mouse and 2 new birds!

It seems nothing much is going on until I look at all the photos I have waiting to be posted.

Our last day at Elephant Butte main campground I had a visit from Donna and Bob, whom I met at Rock Hound and then saw again at Poncho Villa.  I was packing up to leave when they drove up, and we spent some time visiting.  They were looking for another friend who wasn't home and saw us outside, and stopped for a bit.  After they left Tom and Roxi came over for a visit.  I met Tom at Quartzsite, and he had stopped by the day before.  He had been driving by, and recognized me.  We sat down and visited for a while, and it turns out he is camping where Roxi is, and just met her that morning.  That next morning they both came over to visit.  I was just packed up and was ready to leave, so they got there just in time.  

After the Easter weekend and all the craziness, I wanted to be in a quieter place.  So we drove out of the main park and started driving to the South Monticello campground.  I wanted to park in the parking lot above the boat ramp directly below the campground.  We stayed overnight, but I felt too isolated, so we got back on the road.

As soon as we hit the road, Katie started barking and wouldn't stop.  She was just sitting in her car seat, barking and trying to sniff the dashboard.  Oh-oh!  I stopped the car at the first pull-out and opened the hood.  EEEEKKKKK!  There was a Kangaroo Rat looking at me, sitting in a pile of cedar bits spilling out from the Fresh Cab he had chewed open. I jumped back and screamed and dropped the hood.  This photo from the Internet is what he looked like - up on his back legs looking right at me:

I'm sure he jumped back and screamed, as well, and hustled down through the engine onto the road and ran away.  When I got back with my Reacher in case I had to remove him, opened the hood again and checked, he was gone.  I checked the engine, but no damage.  Whew.  Back on the road with Kudos to Katie.  (I thought he was a pack rat until I went on-line for a photo, and realized it was a Kangaroo Rat.  I've never seen one of these guys before.)

We went into T or C and did laundry, gassed up the truck, shopped at Wal-Mart and then headed back to Caballo Lake.

I picked a campsite across from the showers which was up a ways from our previous site where we got the mice last time.  Next morning we had two squirrels and one mouse stuck on our traps in the engine.  I don't mind getting the mice because they are easy to kill (sorry), but the squirrels are different.  They were large enough to get themselves off the sticky stuff, but I don't want to go through that again.  Trust me, it hurt me way more than it hurt them.  I had no idea the squirrels were getting into the engine.  I removed the sticky traps and put small baited enclosed mouse traps in the engine with duct tape.  Then we moved down the road to be along the river and hopefully away from the squirrels.

It's peaceful here and this area is empty except for us and Ryan - The New Age Nomad, who we finally met.



When Katie and I pass by his campsite on our walks, he usually comes out to say hi and talk for while.  He's a good neighbor, and it's nice to have someone else down here with us.  It's Thursday evening, and I'm surprised we haven't gotten more campers here for the weekend.

I haven't seen a single squirrel here, even though we're pretty close to the main Riverside Campground.  Weird, but I'm happy!  I hope we'll be able to stay here the full two weeks, and so far no critters to be seen.  Just birds and the occasional duck on the river.   

Here are some of the birds I've snapped in the last week.  I think they are all from Elephant Butte down by the boat ramp.

This is a new bird for me, a Clark's Grebe:

This Killdeer was in the parking lot and we saw him as we were walking along.  He didn't seem bothered that we were there:

Pretty lizard with turquoise markings:

This is another new bird for me - a female Ring-necked duck:

I think this is a Sandpiper, or maybe a Willet?  Hazel thinks it might be a Willet, which was my second choice.  If so, then it's another First Sighting:

And some of the flowering plants at Elephant Butte State Park:

WELCOME to our newest follower, Susan Hammer.  Susan doesn't show any information, so I can't give you any links.  Susan, if you have a blog, let me know and I'll post it so our readers can check it out.  Thanks for following along with me and Katie - Welcome Aboard!  :)

From me and Katie, have a great Thursday, everybody!  :)

Thank God it's Monday!

Look what I saw walking in front of The Palms the other day:

Yup!  A coyote was in the area.  It's been a while since I've seen one, and I wasn't expecting any to be here in this campground.   He just walked along, crossed the street in front of a car, and disappeared into the desert bushes.

I took some photos the night of the Lunar Eclipse - the full moon was beautiful and the sunset in the east was gorgeous, too.

 

On Saturday there was going to be a big Easter Egg Hunt down on the beach.  Unfortunately the rain started Friday night, and Saturday was grey, windy and rainy until the afternoon, so I don't know if the event was held.

Saturday morning there was something going on down where the Egg Hunt was going to be.  A large firetruck drove past our site headed in that direction, and I thought it was there for the crowd that would show up for the hunt, you know - for the kids to look at and get to talk to a real fireman.

 

Then two more large fire engines and one Fire Department car went past in the same direction.  That seemed excessive for visiting an Easter Egg Hunt.  I wondered what was going on.  Then a bunch of Park vehicles went past in the same direction.  Then some police cars.  Next two ambulances.  Shortly thereafter I heard a helicopter going overhead, and it circled around and landed nearby. 

I never did hear what happened, but it must have been something big.  It was quite a while before the official vehicles drove back toward the park entrance. 

It cleared up in the afternoon and Easter Sunday was nice, too.  This photo was taken on our walk Sunday; it was a beautiful day:

On the way back down to our site, I saw a huge spider in the road.  It had to be 3 or 4 inches long.  Katie sniffed it, and I yanked her away from it.  I went kind of close to it, but didn't want to get too close.  I was thinking, "Boy, is this spider going to be great for the blog!" and got a picture.  When I got home and pulled it up on the computer this is what I saw:

Do you think someone was watching out the window - laughing?  Yup, I think I was punked.  It sure was ugly, even if it WAS fake and missing most of it's legs.  :)

We moved this morning.  

Until this morning we were up over the lake in the dry camping sites.  Wow, this weekend was brutal - since our site was right on the road going down to the water there was constant traffic going by, even till 11 pm on the weekend.  

People kept using our site as a turn around - I thought we'd be side-swiped more than once.  

One guy in a van decided to overnight in front of The Palms.  That was sure nice of him to use part of my campsite???!!!   Don't you just love holiday weekends?

And then around 9:30 on Saturday night a guy in a big truck full of people drove right into my site behind The Palms and ran over my little black table.  Can you believe it?  I had moved the chairs into the shelter because of the rain, so it was just the rug, the table and some rocks to hold the rug down.

Picture this scene without the chairs - and with more big rocks to hold the rug down in the wind. 

I went out and checked out what in the world he was doing, he said he thought it was an empty site.  I said, "At 9:30 on a Saturday night on a holiday weekend, you thought you were going to get an empty site???   Did you NOT see my motor home right THERE???"  He said yes, but there was room between it and the shelter, so he thought it was vacant.  I suspect a lot of alcohol was consumed this weekend!  

So this morning we moved to another area where we aren't surrounded by a lot of other people and there's not a lot of traffic going by.  Peace and Quiet - much better!

It's actually amazing how seldom I'm bothered by other campers; when it happens it's usually weekenders during a holiday weekend. I guess if I was living in a house somewhere and people came to my street and partied for three days I wouldn't like that either.  But I DO remember back in the olden days when I was the one doing the partying.  So I try to remember that, too, and always sigh in relief when the campground is quiet again.  :)

We should sleep well tonight - Katie and I hope you do, too!  :)

FINALLY!

A Roadrunner!  I was working in the kitchen and noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye, and when I looked out I saw a very large Roadrunner walking along the post line behind The Palms.

Of course, I  s-l-o-w-l-y  rushed to get my camera.  I've learned that if I RUN, then Katie gets excited and starts barking, and when I get back to the window, the bird will be gone.  GRRR.   So I did a fast walk, got the camera, turned it on, and went back to my kitchen window and started snapping.

I've never noticed the iridescence in their feathers before.  This morning the sun was catching his feathers just right for me to see it.

He jumped up on a post and started preening, fluffing up his feathers, etc., just like a regular bird.  As I was snapping photos I realized he IS just a regular bird.  I guess since he is always just running by, I've never seen one act like a bird.  Never seen one fly, never seen one preening, flying here and there, etc.

Unfortunately most of the pictures didn't come out - too much in the background, I think, and I was having problems focusing clearly on the Roadrunner.  Such a bummer.

There was a breeze blowing his feathers up.

He stayed on the post for a while, then jumped down, walked along a little and jumped up on another post.  He totally fluffed up on the way, but I couldn't get a clear photo.  I'm going to show you, anyway, even though it's a really bad photo.  I don't know why these didn't come out, I could clearly see him, but I was shooting at an angle through the thick kitchen window glass, and maybe that made a difference.  He fluffed up and just stood there, kind of like the Turkey Buzzards when they hold out their wings to cool off and dry their feathers. 

Then he jumped up on another post, preened a little, jumped down from that post, and headed toward The Palms.  He looked around, turned around and headed off down the road. 

Bye-bye Roadrunner, y'all come back soon, ya hear?  

That just made my day!

From me and Katie, have a great Thursday, everyone!  :)

Wordless Wednesday - This is how Amazon.com ships cars

Interesting.

From me and Katie, have a great Wordless Wednesday, everyone!  :)

Tow Truck

Katie in her stroller - this is what she does when she doesn't want me to take her picture - squint.

Here are a few photos from our walk yesterday.  First a bird nest in a tree across the road, made of lots of fishing line.  These birds sure love the fishing line for their nests.  I'd love to see what the inside is made of, but it must be something soft for their eggs and babies.  The fishing line must be easy to work with, and of course it lasts a long time.  I'll bet these nests last from year to year to year, even with all the winds in New Mexico in the spring.

I noticed this little colorful bug sitting on a post.  He was so pretty - a type of beetle?

Here's The Palms in the distance with Elephant Butte in the background:

Per John Hedges in a comment on my last post:  "Having gone to EB spring and fall for the last 4 years I caution you of the soft sand by the water. There a local guy with old army surplus trucks pulling people out of the sand at $500.00 per pop."

Sunday afternoon I saw a large army camo truck pulling a large motor home going up the street.  I was thinking, Well, that's a new kind of truck to pull an RV.   Then I remembered seeing them last year when I was here.

Then he went by again with another large Class A.  Then another.   I finally realized that Army truck was a TOW TRUCK.   I looked down at the beach below me, and where there had been a lot of RVs camping, it was now almost empty, obviously many of the RVs were towed out.  I should have gotten a photo of the tow truck pulling one of the RVs.

As nice as it would be to park down right ON the water, after getting stuck in the sand at Hot Springs LTVA, I'm a little gun-shy of parking on sandy places.  And at a $500 fee?  WOW, that's a lot.  I'm wondering if our roadside service policies would cover a tow out of sand along a lakeside, though.  That's not really "road side."

So, fair warning to anyone heading this way.  Make sure you're on a solid surface if you want to be close to the water.  Especially big rigs - the three I saw driving by behind the tow truck were all long Class A's.  What an expensive weekend that was for those RVers.  :(

This morning I looked out the window at the place all the RVs were camped out over the weekend, and this is what I saw:

The put a bunch of concrete barriers on the sand and placed a bar-b-que and picnic table in the middle to keep vehicles out of the area.  Obviously this is where the RVs were stuck in the sand yesterday.

It looked like a full moon last night, but not quite yet.  Here are my photos from yesterday evening:

The full moon will be tonight.  And tonight, or I should say early tomorrow morning after midnight, there will be a blood moon, the first lunar eclipse of 2014.  All lunar eclipses happen during full moons, and this one will start at 2:58 am CDT. The total eclipse will happen between 2:06 and 3:24.  This is when the the moon is completely immersed in the earth's shadow.  You can read more about it HERE.  Will you be up and watching, or snuggled in under your covers?  I hope to be up, but realistically - I'll be sound asleep.

From me and Katie - have a great Monday, everyone!  :)