Birds of Benson and Traveling through New Mexico.

We went back to Benson for a few days before heading to New Mexico.  

This time they put us in a spot where the next door neighbor was there for a season and had bird feeders up.

I spent hours...........

I believe this is a regular house finch, not a red or purple finch, bit I don’t really know.  He was pretty.

     Here are some pictures of the yellow finches.  So many pictures because there were sooooo many lesser yellow finches.  We had the bigger yellow finches in our yard in the winter in western Pennsylvania.

This bird, the green tailed towhee, was my favorite find.

Here is a curve-billed thrasher.  He stood at that one spot for about 20 minutes!  He was having a hard time on the red topped bird feeder, the same one the house finch was on.  The thrasher was way bigger than the other birds and he kept tilting the feeder and tried to hang on long enough for seed.

Can you see the bird in this picture?

Bird #1

Bird #2.  These pics were taken at different times, and I think they are 2 different birds.  Like maybe two different sparrows?  Any thoughts?

And my good friend, Spike, who was visiting Benson from Needles.

Right before the NM border were these awesome rocks.  Richard said he thinks Star Trek filmed in this area.  I think I remember episodes using these rocks.  

The better view was on the driver’s side.

And...........

Our drive through New Mexico didn’t have any really big exciting things to take pictures of.  We were on I10, not much to view except road signs with Giant Letters.

Oops, out of order, this was in Arizona.  

Even the towns had giant signs announcing their existence.

There were many warming signs repeated when you enter NM.  They warned you of what to do when a dust storm would come up.  Since a snow storm could cause a white out, would a sand storm cause a brown out?  Anyway, you need to pull over and take your foot off the brake.

I don’t know why, but I didn’t take pictures of the first winery, so here’s the second.

Bought some wine that tasted a lot like chocolate with very little het peppers thrown in.

Here is Mando parked.  I took this picture from the cotton field.

Ever since I saw cotton fields a few years ago, I have wanted to see it up close.  Right now it is between growing seasons, but look how much is on the ground after the machines harvested!  I wonder if it just gets ground into the dirt before planting.  The field on the other side was being fertilized.  Mmmmm, good smell.

Yes, of course, I picked some up to keep.  I have seen cotton in this form before in a souvenir shop in Georgia when I was a little girl.  In fact, when I started teaching I had a sample to show the kids when we sang slave songs and learned about that history.  I was into educating the kids on what songs were about, and why we would sing the song.

And now, this is what I see.  We are in El Paso

Perks of being in a city.  Shopping is much closer.  I need to get my new iPad replaced because the volume up button doesn’t work.  I also had to go to JoAnns for better scissors to cut the fabric for the curtains and purchase more eyes for the Baby Yoda’s I’m crocheting.  They were out.  Plus the variety of restaurants!  Ate at Red Lobster for the first time in about 15 years.  We will go to a Mexican restaurant, too, before we leave this area.  The fun part of traveling are all the changes and additions we are doing.  Richard was shopping today for a shelf to set his coffee on when he is in his chair.  Went to Lowe’s and Home Depot.  Tomorrow will be the zoo.

Next blog will be featuring our visit to the missions.

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Blessings and Hugs!