We’ve gotten to see some bird types we’ve never seen before while we’ve been here. I heard a bird the other morning on our walk that reminded me of the Cardinal, but this bird was more brown when we finally could see it. I looked it up in my bird book and it is a Pyrrhuloxia, can’t even begin to pronounce that one! We’ve seen Thrashers, Orioles, Roadrunners, Nighthawks, Whitewinged Doves and Hawks.
This first picture shows the thickness of the Mesquite root. As the sides of the arroyos crumble some of these roots get exposed. Their roots are amazingly large and they are really deeply rooted to survive the dry conditions. This area is in a ten-plus year drought right now and they get most of their rainfall in the summer during the monsoon season.
The second picture shows a big crack where another piece of land is ready to fall into the arroyo and the tops of the much hated Salt Cedar trees can be seen, in other parts of the country they are called Tamarisk and they are considered very undesirable and pests. They suck up all the good water and just leave behind brackish yuck. They are pretty, but are invasive.
The last picture just shows what much of the desert floor right around here looks like.Tomorrow we are headed out and heading north through New Mexico, across part of Utah and then to Fallon from Ely, Nevada. As long as we can get on the internet I’ll try to keep you posted! At one point today the dirt was so thick we couldn’t get a signal!
Since I first typed this draft, Larry checked out the weather north of here and it is COLD still, so we may take a warmer route back to Fallon....hate to give up this warmth before we have to!
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