Katie and I have been at Elephant Butte Lake State Park in Truth or Consequences for a little over a month, and have now moved to Caballo Lake State Park. I've been busy and not particularly in the mood to sit down and go through all my photos, you Bloggers know how THAT is! Tonight the mood hit, and here I am.
Finally.
We really enjoyed our stay at Elephant Butte. Did lots of walking, lots of visiting, some lunches in town, walked around TorC a little, and did some sightseeing. All in all great weather and an enjoyable stay. I'd have to say the same for our time at Caballo Lake, too, so far.
Below are some of the photos I've taken in the last month. Most of my favorites were Roadrunner shots, but I've taken a few of other critters, some campsite pictures, a rainbow and some sunsets, the usual. Sometimes I think I'm re-taking the same photos as I'm staying again and again in my favorite campgrounds, but I still can't resist. And trust me, I'm sparing you all the lizard shots, I'd swear it's the same lizard as last year, the moon photos that look exactly like every other full moon I've posted, and the endless birds that live in this area. Etc., etc., etc.
Here's one of the sites we stayed in overlooking the lake:
Elephant Butte State Park has these really pretty trees, and when they're in bloom they are just beautiful. I love these little flowers, in fact I'm using the photo below as my screen saver right now.
The third and fourth weeks we were at the lake, we were lucky to get the end campsite with a great view. After one of the rainstorms there was a rainbow going completely over the lake:
Lots of Mourning Doves - I knew they had blue rings of featherless skin around their eyes, but didn't know until I saw the photo below, while he was blinking, that their whole eyelid was blue. Interesting.
See his blue eyelid?
Of course, I had to post a couple of bunny photos. They are running all over the place here, these cottontails and also jackrabbits. They're so cute - the jackrabbits run when they see us, but these little guys think that if they stop and stay still, we won't see them. (?) I guess that's what they're doing, sorry little guy, I can see you!
On one of the especially
hot days, the rabbit below hopped into the shade, fashioned himself a nice cool depression in the sand, and laid down in it.
This large
grasshopper Preying Mantis (Thanks to Anonymous and ndenim for the correction) was on my tire when we were moving to a new campground, and I had to flick him off the tire. I was afraid I'd run right over him. Pretty small wings for a big insect - they look like a skirt, don't they?
And my Roadrunners. They've kept me entertained. Twice in two different campsites I've looked up and there was a Roadrunner on my truck hood, looking at me through the window.
They have so many different poses, it's fun taking pictures of them.
Do you remember when Mello Mike had his Annual Roadrunner Photo Contest a few years ago? I ended up winning First Place the first year. I haven't seen a post from Mike in two years now, but every time I take a Roadrunner shot that I especially like, I always think, "This could have been a winner this year." These are two of those shots:
There were three Roadrunners seeming to fight over a piece of food, and the two on the left were jockeying for position to grab it while the roadrunner on the right and the rabbit behind him in the photo looked on. Later I thought maybe the center bird was the mom and the one with the open beak was her baby.
After the center bird finally chased the bird on the left away, she went over to the food and picked it up and offered it to the other bird. It doesn't look much smaller than the others, though, so... I don't know what was going on, really, but it was very entertaining to watch.
Below is a sunset photo from Elephant Butte - the sky was so red around the setting sun:
I just scheduled my annual medical appointments in San Diego and will be
heading west soon. I'm sure going to miss New Mexico, but it's always
nice to get those appointments out of the way for another year!
From me and Katie, have a great weekend, everyone!
❤❤
