Living Desert Zoo & State Park

November 9, 2013




 I am sharing some critters from the Living Desert Zoo in Carlsbad, New Mexico. The Living Desert Zoo exhibits 40 species of native animals and hundreds of species of native plants. These are critters and plants native to the Chihuahuan Desert. There is 1.3 miles of trail, walk along seeing the wildlife, native plants, flowers and of course seeing the native wild birds.

It was in the Aviary, I saw my first Roadrunner. They are quick movers and kind of funny to watch. I did not count this captured bird as a lifer but later in the trip I started seeing the Roadrunners in the wild. I was really surprised to see a lot of House Sparrows in the Aviary.

I love the cute roadrunner and the  hare riding the armadillo?

 

The Roadrunner in the aviary.

Are these birds are native to New Mexico,  they look like they belong in Costa Rica. They are a cute couple. I do NOT  remember their name, I am guessing the Red-Crowned Parrot.

A display of the pretty native plants.

A Eurasian Collared Dove, not a native but I found it in one of the trees in the zoo.

Besides the zoo critters, I was seeing the wild birds in the zoo like the Yellow-rumped Warbler above.

A cool Mountain Lion seen at the zoo, I did get to see (no photo) a real wild mountain lion at the Bosque Del Apache NWR later in the week.

 

The Black Bear is another native animal seen in New Mexico..

The Great Horned Owl..

A beautiful butterfly on one of the native plants.

 

One of the many Red-Shafted Flickers I saw at the zoo and during the week.

Pretty sure this is another Townsend's Solitaire seen at the zoo.

This was one of the few lizards I saw during the vacation, I was expecting to see more.

The native plants at the zoo attracted many different butterflies and moths. I believe this one is a Sulfur..Clouded Yellow.

Another one of the pretties.  I have to find a website for native butterflies and moths of New Mexico. I hope you enjoyed the walk thru the zoo.

Thanks for stopping by and  I wish everyone a happy weekend.

 To see more beautiful photos and cute critters.

Please visit:  Favorite fotos Thanks to the gracious host Lydia of Where the Wild Things Were

Birding Carlsbad, New Mexico

I am linking up with NF Winged   and  Skywatch Friday 

 I think by now everyone knows I went to New Mexico on vacation. One major attraction for hubby was seeing the Carlsbad Caverns and I figured there had to be birds there for me to see. The first day was mainly a travel day and on the second day we visited the Carlsbad Caverns and the national park. I am sharing some birds from the park for my NF Winged entry and I have some sky shots from around the Guadalupe Mountains.

We were up early and on our way to the Carlsbad Cavern National Park when we stopped to watch the sunrise.  

There were many New Mexico birds that were not lifers, like the House Finches above.

The Guadalupe Mountains and the moon seen from the road going into the Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

The Cave Swallows were a lifer.  It was fun watching the Swallows going in and out of the cave.

We hiked into the natural entrance of the caverns, 750 feet down. It was a steep one mile  hike for the Natural Entrance and  took us a little over an hour then we arrived at the BIG room which was another one mile walk.

I was able to watch this American Kestrel while it was watching the Cave Swallows.

For a scenic shot and showing off the pretty blue sky, I am sharing the view of the Cavern hole ( near the left middle of the photo and the seating for the bat flight program. It was cool to experience the bat flight, swarms of bats coming out of the cave.  As more bats poured out of the cave, I could look up in the sky and see the previous swarm of bats. The bats fly around at night eating within 30-50 miles of cave and then return early in the morning. The Cave Swallows wait for them to leave and they go back inside the cave for the night. Photography was not allowed during the bat flight program.

It was cool to watch the moon setting behind the Guadalupe Mountains. I hope you enjoyed my Carlsbad birds and my sky photos. We spent the first three nights in Carlsbad and visited the caverns and park a couple of times.

 Thanks for visiting my post and  blog and I always appreciate your comments.

  Happy Skywatching everyone!

To see more pretty skies from around the world please visit  Skywatch Friday
and to see more of the winged critters check out NF Winged

Thanks to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday! Thanks to Monica the host of NF Winged.   I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.

New Mexico

  I am linking up with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday 

October 27, 2013

Hubby and I are back after  a week long vacation to New Mexico. We were kind of scared the week before leaving with the government shutdown. Our trip was planned around a few National Parks and Wildlife refuges all of which were closed during the shutdown. Luckily the politicians came to an agreement days before we were to leave.  Driving a loop we went from Albuquerque RT 40 to RT 285 to Carlsbad. One of our main stops was at the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We drove along on RT 180 the national park highway stopping at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas. Continuing on to RT 25 to our next stop in the town of Truth or Consequences and a one night stay at a hot springs hotel. From there we stayed a couple of nights in Socorro and then back to Albuquerque. We put 1,250 miles on the rental car!

You can see some of the New Mexico sights we saw while on our first day. Rt 285 looks like it goes on forever. While driving I saw a couple of different herds of Antelope or I call them Pronghorn. After flying and driving for hours we started looking for food. The first town we came to was like a ghost town with tumbleweed blowing across the road.  In the next town of Vaughn we found a nice place with good food called Penny's Diner.

Above are the birds seen at the Bitter Lake NWR : lots of Sandhill Cranes, Pied-bill Grebe, Loggerhead Shrike, a few White Pelicans and a pretty shot of the full moon near Carlsbad.

When I plan our vacations, I try to find attractions that both hubby and I will enjoy. On this trip the main attraction for hubby was the Carlsbad Caverns and of course I managed to research all the great places for birding. We managed to break up our drive along the route 285 stopping at the Bitter Lake wildlife refuge near Roswell, New Mexico.  I have to report we did NOT see any aliens on our drive.

I will be showing more photos from our New Mexico vacation, so I hope you will stop back and check out my post.  It was a fun trip..


As always, I hope you enjoy my post and thanks for visiting my blog. I always appreciate your comments.

Join in on the fun and for more wonderful photos please visit  Mosaic Monday and more
 from  Our World Tuesday

 Thanks to our host: Mary our host of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer.  I wish everyone a happy week!