This past weekend my husband and I went south to go four-wheeling in the hills around Caballo Lake and around Hillsboro, New Mexico.  The weather was typical spring…warm and sunny on Saturday and cloudy and cold on Sunday.  But we still had a lot of fun.

Saturday we spent the day exploring the Caballo Lake area.  I was amazed at the variety of birds around.  I heard and/or saw 28 different birds.  It was fabulous! There were lots of wildflowers blooming…lizards sunning themselves….birds singing away…and butterfies floating on the breeze.  A wonderful day for enjoying one of nature’s beautiful spring days.

Caballo Lake

Caballo Mountain

American Pipit

Snowy Egret

Ash-Throated Flycatcher

Wilson’s Warbler

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Western Kingbird

Red-Tailed Hawks

I got a new bird on – a pyrrhuloxia! I have been hunting for this bird for 3 years! I finally saw a pair of them.  But they didn’t cooperate at all…dang it.  The only photos I managed to get was facing into the noon day sun and zoomed to the max.  Terrible photo….but it counts!

Pyrrhuloxia – Finally! Now my goal is to get a much better photo someday.

I saw several lizards around.  They were thoroughly enjoying the sunshine.

And I got several pretty butterflies!  I’ve included the prettier ones.  🙂 I don’t know the names of them yet.  I’m waiting for a butterfly identification book.

The highlight of the day was seeing a pair of Red-Tailed Hawks together in a nest.  I managed to capture a photo of one of the hawks leaving the nest carrying a mouse.  It was really cool to watch them together.