Wildlife of Willcox {Arizona}

In Willcox, our friends joined us for four nights at another Boondockers Welcome host with a beautiful, wild, desert property. They were a nice family who not only invited the kids to jump on their trampoline, but their daughter even taught the kids some new gymnastics skills on it. When we arrived they warned us of many different kids of wildlife that can be found on the property. He mentioned snakes, bobcats, coyotes, and three kinds of skunk! I only knew two existed! Boy did I want to see some skunks! Oh, and once there was a mountain lion in the tree by the house! This place is perfect!

When we booked this, I had no idea that Willcox was a birding destination due to the popularity of Lake Cochise, a water treatment lake and the grasslands nearby where thousands of sandhill cranes spend the winter. The cranes had already headed north when we arrived, but I saw a good number of birds between the lake and the adjacent golf course. I birded here twice. The first day, I had not even parked yet when I saw an Upland Sandpiper drop onto the golf course! I had no idea that was the coveted bird of the day, until I ran into birder after birder asking me about it. Though it was no longer where I saw it, my sighting gave them hope to keep looking. One guy actually drove the lake loop one last time just to tell me he finally saw it and to thank me. He said without my info, he would have left for the day. 

May not look like much from the photo, but I identified 65 species between here and the adjacent golf course. A great variety of birds and I love the mountains in the distance. I noticed this heart-shaped tree on the golf course.

One birder stopped to make sure I saw the celebrity couple, a pair of Bendire's Thrashers, unusual for the area, that had nested in a bush. I was able to watch for them as they brought food back to their young.

White-faced Ibis (above)      American Avocet (below)

Back at the ranch... Our host had a third RV staying with them. The other RVers had an archery set and let Daddy and Asher borrow it. Nice! Target practice in the yard. Check out the shadow in the last photo.

One night this snake slithered past while we were eating dinner outside. We took photos and I researched it, finding out it's a Desert Kingsnake, a snake known for a mild temperment. I decided if I saw it again, we were going to get a closer look. The day we were leaving, Asher spotted him just outside our door. I ran out and picked him up as gently as possible. He did not try to bite or musk. We held him for a bit then returned him to where he was headed. Such a cool opportunity for my kids to learn more about snakes and interact with a wild one.

This was a great base to explore the Chiricahuas, Portal, and visit a hummingbird banding station near Sierra Vista! 

Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Have you ever heard of Guadalupe Mountains National Park? Yah, me neither. It straddles the border between New Mexico and Texas along that little section that points west. I almost missed it again, but this time as I was plotting our path, this park jumped out at me. We absolutely love national parks, so I couldn't pass this up and I'm so glad we went. The drive there from Monahans Sandhills State Park was really pretty in places.

We stopped at the Pine Springs Visitor Center for Jr Ranger books and to see the displays before driving to the McKittrick Canyon trailhead.

We planned to hike the Nature Trail, but decided we wanted to check out the McKittrick Canyon Trail instead. It's a long one, but we just hiked for a couple hours and returned. 

At one point the trail drops into a wash, where we found lizards hanging out among the rocks.

Southwestern Fence Lizard

Greater Earless Lizard (left)    An unidentified blue-bellied lizard   (right)

After this we spent the night in the Las Cruces Walmart. In the morning the Daddies took all four kids to White Sands National Park while Denali and I did some birding from the RV. A Gambel's Quail was calling just 10 feet from our window, followed by Verdin and a Ladder-backed Woodpecker!

The kids had fun sledding at White Sands. It looks like snow!

Camping on the Sand Dunes {Texas}

Monahans Sandhills State Park is one of our favorite places to camp when we're driving across Texas. This is our third time staying here and this time we brought friends! Back in December, a family from Israel, who had just begun a year-long RVing adventure, came to stay a few days with us in Florida. Before they left, five weeks later, we had made plans to meet up on the other side of the country- California's Yosemite National Park! They called a couple of months later and wanted to meet up sooner, so they waited in Texas for us to meet them. Finally the day arrived and we all pulled into Monahans for a few days of fun and catching up.

This place is full on weekends, but is pretty empty during the week, so it feels like you almost have the place to yourself. Here we are in the middle with our friends parked across from us. We love that the dunes start right outside our door. There's just one paved road running thru so you don't get stuck. 

The girls were so happy to be reunited and began working on their gymnastics skills right away.

After a shared dinner, the adults caught up while the kids played in the dunes behind us, creating some unique photos with their own special effects.

Of course you must sled the dunes. 

It's become a tradition to take family photos here.

Birding the desert is a different experience. It's more about the subtle signs of life. I still managed to find a decent number of species, but I think my favorite find was this Daihiniini (sand colored cricket-like creature). I picked it up, set it on my jeans it began spinning in circles on my leg.

Western Kingbird (above)      Swainson's Hawk (below)