Back Forty Denizens

The acreage to the west behind the house is mesquite-ridden. The boney-fingered, thorny-threatening plant, likely honey mesquite (prosopis glandulosa), has sucked the surface soil so dry that practically nothing else grows there, neither the yucca elata (soap-tree or palmilla) that is so abundant in this part of the desert otherwise (and is the New Mexico state flower), nor the nopal (prickly pear), which actually grows more on slopes and steep hillsides, nor many of the yellow grasses that dominate much of the wild range land in New Mexico.

The mesquite does not form thickets exactly. Rather, widely-spaced apart clumps called mottes (after the Spanish mata for bush or grove) alternate with flat open patches of featureless sheets of dew-caked and then sun-dried brown clay. Hardly a stone or bone in this back forty relieves the monotony. Yet, this land supports much wildlife. Walking around there one day, I came across a huge burrow in a cluster of mottes and learned soon enough who its inhabitants are.

One morning, just after the sun came over the Florida Mountains, five coyotes ran across the alfalfa fields in front and to the south side of the house. One was limping as if a leg or paw were missing or injured. Speculation arose among friends, with whom we shared pictures of this event, that here was proof that coyotes at times run in packs. I think they are likely a family, mom and kids, almost grown. Their yipping and howling just outside our windows on moonlit nights has been a hair-raising joy for us.

Several weeks after the event of seeing them in the day time, unfortunately, we found one of our coyotes out on Monte Vista road, not more than 100 yards from the driveway, mangled and crushed. Not sure if it was the lame one...

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Coyotes and yes, Beep-Beep, roadrunners too.

Known also by the Spanish appellation paisano, fellow countryman, this species manifested hesitantly to us at first. Then increasingly more and more members of this curious bird family blessed us with their presence.

One evening at a distance a silhouette (blink) appeared before darting into the shrubbery. It may have been that of a roadrunner, but it may also have been that of a boat-tailed grackle, occasionally seen in this area. Most definitely, a roadrunner glided down from a tree on Monte Vista Road very near to and across from our mailbox as we drove by one day. Its plumage appeared to be black outlined in white rather than the expected mottled white, black and brown, but the form was unmistakable. Next sighting was of a road-runner in a mesquite bush as we drove up our lane to the house.

I was hoping to see one close-up some day. 

December 8, 2013 was the date. Around mid-day, a roadrunner was sitting atop of one of the rusted 50-gallon drums near the pump-house. Agapi took several pictures of it from the foyer doorway. Sensing the door open but unable to divine its origin or direction, the bird went into a crouch similar to that of a dog pointing -- a straight line from crest to end of its long tail. The paisano eventually disappeared into the woods behind the garden.

Since that date, we have had several sightings, pretty much in the same spot and same time of day as mentioned. Two birds were darting at grasshoppers in the alfalfa fields one day recently. The male (?) would jerk his tail up suddenly, then ease it down slowly, up suddenly, down slowly-slowly, up, down easy-easy does it. Not sure if it was nervousness or a kind of amorous signal to its mate.

The bird will run as you approach it, but tends to stop after a few paces, look back at you, cock an eye, peek through the bushes. It is a curious bird, in both senses of curious. It is quite a bit more than...

a little cuckoo.

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Bonus:

Here are three pics of a desert effect known as the Fata Morgana. It is commonly seen on cool and clear mornings, persisting for maybe a half-hour to an hour at a time. Mountains at various horizons appear to flatten, stretch, distort; portals open to other worlds.

These are the Florída Mountains to the east of the house getting Swiss-cheesed by the Fata Morgana effect.