Hueco Tanks State Park

As I mentioned in the Coyote post below, Andy and I had a little trouble getting inside of Hueco Tanks State Park. We at first admitted defeat from the long line of cars and headed around the park on some side roads. We were wary of the No Trespassing signs so we didn't go far from the car. Before heading to El Paso we decided to give the park one more try but along the way we found a bridge with a dried up wash/river/creek. Feeling as if this was safe we decided to park and take a little hike.

Andy and I didn't see much in the way of birds on this stroll but we did see a sign for the Dead Snake Society on top of a trailer. About that time we also heard someone in the scrub so we high-tailed it back out. The last thing we wanted to do on our first day in Texas was offend the locals. Luckily for us the park wait was non-existent when we returned so we waited patiently until we were given the green light to go in.

Hueco Tanks S.P. is very much a climber's park. There were lots of trails and land but most of it was off limits if you were not on a guided hike/climb. However the amount of limited land we had we still had fun hiking over the trails (like the one seen below).

Huecos are natural water basins. This area has been a meeting place for Native cultures and then later the first white settlers that crossed the Southwest.

Walking around the rocks we saw many so many Dark-eyed Juncos (more than one color phase), White-crowned Sparrows, and American Robins that we almost that there wasn't much variety.

After scrambling some rocks and finding another trail we picked up a Canyon Towhee, my lifer Green-tailed Towhee, and a Black-throated Sparrow.

This park also gave us some really close up encounters with roadrunners. The photo below isn't very good but it shows you how close we were to it. The park provided classic scenery out of the Roadrunner cartoon so it was certainly fitting that we ran into not only that Coyote coming in the park but also had a chance to see the bird as well.

The Huecos have seen some human damage so we were forced to watch this video when we came in. I now have my official Hueco Tanks S.P. visitor orientation park pass. From what we heard you had to update your card every year to enter the park. I don't know if the video really works because Andy and certainly walked around some signs and went into some restricted areas. For 800 plus acres of park they only allowed us into a few areas. Certainly a climber's park, not a nature/birdwatcher's park.

On our last walk out of the trail Andy managed to find me one more lifer, a great look at my first Verdin. We left dehydrated and a little frustrated at the day but overall happy that we managed to find a few things before my flight out. In total on this trip I managed to see 28 lifers, a new squirrel species (Abert's Squirrel), and of course have my first taste of the American Southwest.