2011 December 9, from Far West Texas

Hello, Everybody,

I'm on my way to Texas for the winter (again); I had such a great time last
winter I decided to more or less repeat my trip, going a little slower and
seeing places I missed last year -- and hopefully seeing birds which I missed
last year, and getting some new photographs overall. From Cedaredge, in far
western Colorado, I first headed east over the mountains, and visited my old
sailing friends Ed and Mary Arnold in Eagle, then out onto the plains to see my
old mountaineering and new birding mentors Will and Linda Piper.

Will took me to the DEN airport and I flew to BOS for a two week visit with my
daughter Amy and her husband Tom, and my grandson Lewis, now just over 3 years
old. He's getting old enough to be a lot of fun! I loaned Amy my 'spare' Canon
DSLR camera body and medium telephoto lens, went to a couple of evening classes
she was attending on 'How to Photograph your Child', and we spent lots of time
on things like 'f-number' and 'depth-of-field', as well as taking hundreds of
pictures. She's getting a lot of great pictures.

I headed south from Colorado earlier than I have managed in years past, hoping
not to get caught by the cold weather. But the entire mountain region turned
extremely colder than usual, and caught me anyway. I spent several days camped
at one of my favorite birding areas, Whitewater Draw, about 30 miles from the SE
corner of Arizona. There seemed to be hundreds of Sandhill Cranes there, rather
than the usual thousands for this time of year, but seeing them and hearing them
at night from my camper was still very nice. In years past I've seen large
flocks of Yellow-headed Blackbirds there, quite spectacular, and amusing with an
occasional Red-winged Blackbird standing out in the pattern. This year there
seemed to be 5 or 10 times more, maybe 1 or 2 thousand.

From there I drove up the Forest Service dirt road 'The Geronimo Trail', which
I've taken several times before, into New Mexico. This entire area has Border
Patrol presence which has grown enormously in the 10 years I've been driving and
camping along the border -- I have never had any trouble with illegals or
smugglers, and it may be that the very heavy Border Patrol presence makes it
even safer for people like me that it used to be. It's not something I worry
about, in spite of all the TV hype. Now in the Mexican border towns, I think it
is a completely differently story -- I don't go there.

In extreme south central New Mexico, just a mile or two above the border, I
stopped at Pancho Villa State Historic Park, which commemorates the 1910 raid
from the south by around 500 followers of Pancho Villa. A bunch of people were
killed on both sides, especially when the resident Army unit set up two early
model .30-06 machine gun with crossfire and soon ended things. The camp ground
was pleasant, 20% occupied, and the museum excellent.

Next through El Paso for Walmart shopping and parking overnight (100 yards from
I-10 -- noisy!), then on into West Texas to stop at Balmorhea State Park. My
Texas State Parks Pass I purchased last winter is still valid for free
admission, and the camping fees are about half what many of the state parks
farther north and west charge. In addition, Texas has many elaborate as well as
primitive roadside rest and picnic stops, all of which are OK for a 24 hour
camping stop -- very handy! Anywhere you can safely get off the road in Texas,
you can 'camp'. Balmorhea has a fresh-water spring which flows at 1-million
gallons per hour, and in the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed
an enormous swimming pool, 1.75 acres in extent and with 25 foot depth in parts,
where people learn to SCUBA dive in the middle of West Texas! The water flows
out through some marshes and into Lake Balmorhea, all of which make for some
good birding.

Last April a huge wildfire swept through parts of the Davis mountains, traveling
the 30 miles from Marfa to Ft. Davis in less than an hour. In the town of Ft.
Davis 25 homes were destroyed, several historic, but at the State Park in the
mountains nearby some areas and several outlying structures were burned, but the
campground itself was spared. In fact, as I drove through the quite beautiful
Davis Mountains I expected to see vast burned areas, but I never did see any
evidence of fire. This State Park is a very nice to camp, and a favorite with
birders: there are three concentrations of feeders with water drips, one with a
blind, and that vastly ups the density of birds to be seen and offers a chance
to get close to them. I've been there 4 times before hoping to see the Montezuma
Quail, but although EV saw it one time, I never did. This time I spent 2 hours
each three times 'staking out' the recommended areas with no luck, and had given
up, but as I was driving toward the exit, a friendly ranger stopped me and said
they had been seen recently at the exit/entrance area. And there they were! I
was so happy. If he had not stopped me, I'd probably have driven right by them.

I'm now in Big Bend Ranch State Park (just west of Big Bend National Park), a
vast area of very rugged geology and a few dirt roads. They have recently
developed 80 very primitive campsites which offer the ultimate in isolation and
seclusion. (Big Bend National Park has around 15 similar primitive campsites in
addition to the developed main camp ground in the Chisos Mountains  -- I'm going
to rendezvous there with Ed and Mary next week for 3 days). Then it will be on
down the Rio Grand Valley and after that up the Coast as spring migration comes
in.

The new slideshow is 11_11_12_Nov_Dec_AZ_NM_TX.exe

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before the john part)

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Regards, John Armitage 1-970-250-6080 john@qued.com