The Great Chihuahuan Desert

.

It is great to use the Truck and Trailer to get to places, but we really want to use the Truck and Trailer to be in places. We have now arrived at OliverLee State Park and promptly collapsed. Having been on the road for 5 days we are in need of some R&R. We have been here for two whole days and done nothing really except a few short walks, sleep, eat, sleep, sit in the sun and sleep.
Oliver Lee Park is in the middle of the Cihuahaun Desert in New Mexico. The ground is bare rock or pale sand. The plants are either cacti, stunted bushes, grasses, or small flowering plants that can tolerate high temperatures and very little water. The grasses are all very brittle. Almost all the flowers are very small, although I have seen one very pretty yellow colombine that is about the size of a small daffodil. The Campground is right under the Sacremento Mountains which rise from our 4100ft to 9250ft. It is at the mouth of the Dog Canyon, which is one of the few places in this desert that has a perrenial spring. I have followed this small stream for a few hundred yards up into the Dog Canyon and it is amazing to see fresh spring water in such a place (that is where I found the colombine, so that may have been a factor in the colombines presence there).
So far it has not been unbearably hot outside, we did not use the air conditioner until luchtime today. There had been a cool, often strong, wind. However this afternoon the temperature has reached 88 degrees and it feels hot!
Although the information for the State Parks says that there are Tarantula spiders, rattlesnakes and scorpions we have only seen lizards and birds. No roadrunner yet though.
The birds are interesting though a little bird that keeps flying around is the Common Redpoll, with a red front. There are different sorts of wren, the canyon and the mountain wren, though I haven't worked out the difference yet. There is a dove with a white flash on its wing that makes it stand out when flying. Also various flycatchers. I have photographed one eagle flying high (white head, curved fan tail) above the mountain top and one small hawk flying overhead. Also a number of sparrows.
The most amazing find was on the evening of the first day we were here. There is a small garden, which is watered and so has many flowers. When walking through there at sundown I was amazed to see two tiny hummingbirds, but I could not identify them. They were too quick to photograph, except a blur. On asking the next day I was told that they are actually a type of moth that mimics the hummingbird called strangely enough, the Hummingbird Moth. It flits about really fast, then hovers in front of a flower using a long probiscus to remove the nectar. The next evening I went prepared and used a flash to get a good picture of it, which I managed. You can see for yourself how much like a hummingbird it is. (Example on You Tube) Why mimic a hummingbird? No idea, but there must be some advantage for it. Now apparently in Europe there is the Hummingbird Hawk Moth, which has similarities to the hummingbird, but it is an example of converging evloution, in other words two different species become similar because they live in a similar environment or have similar habits. (example on Youtube)