Woke to a warm sunny day this morning….no clouds. Yesterday as we were cruising along, there
were big fat white clouds dotting the sky.
Both of us were wondering what would mean for the night sky…if the
clouds would move on in time to see the planets, nebula and galaxies. Lo and behold, the sky was clear when we got
back from our grocery/supply run…but the dusk to dawn light next to us was
frustrating. Can’t do anything about the
clouds, the weather is going do what the weather is going to do. But a big ol’ light that makes the dog park
look like daylight all night long while all the little doggies are safely in
their campers….well, that’s just plain ol’ light pollution. (I learned that from Kim.)
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So this morning, while I’m up at the clubhouse area paying
bills online, Kim talked to the staff and made plans to move us from our
current campsite to another one….one that has less artificial light
interference for the telescope. Hope it
works!!
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Our new site is at the very back of the campground…no
lights! My first question was “Does that
mean I have to walk way up to the clubhouse to use the bathroom?” Luckily there’s a bathroom nearby and I don’t
have to walk clear to the front of the campground….and I wouldn’t walk anyway,
I’d ride Zeus. J There are two older gentlemen
(brothers) across the road from us. They
appear to be of a talkative sort and one of them has an interest in the night
sky, but I don’t know if he has a telescope or not. Kim had been out here scouting so he talked to
them already. Brother A pointed out the
darkest corner of the area and said that Brother B went over in that area to do
his looking with whatever he uses (here he made a hand gesture that resembled a
TV). So I’m guessing that tonight when
Kim gets his eye scope all set up and starts taking pictures, that he’ll have a
couple of onlookers. Despite Brother A’s
disclaimer that he isn’t the night owl that Brother B is, I bet both will be
curious enough to wander over. Besides last night it got dark between 7 and 8. That’s not ‘night owl’ time by a long
shot. Oh, and they also told us that if
we want cable we should move over a site because we have the one site back here
that doesn’t have cable. No problem with
that…don’t have a TV…we’ll stay where we are. J
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Due to our moving and then Kim setting up his gear, we got a
later start on our exploration than we had planned…so we changed our
destination plans. We rode to the Living
Desert Zoo and Gardens, which is about 12 miles away. You can’t really experience a living desert
inside a building so there we were in the middle of the day walking around
outside learning about the plants and animals that call the Chihuahuan Desert
home. Elk, bison, pronghorn, the great
wolf, javelina and bear exhibits, plus birds and reptiles, made up the zoo
part. There were bobcats and mountain lions, too….but no roadrunner. That exhibit was undergoing renovation. Bah!! Lots of plants along the walkways, also, but
we passed on the cactus and succulent plants greenhouse because it was at the
end of the route and I felt like I was absolutely melting at that point. And,
for the record, pronghorn and antelope are not different names for the same
animal. Information on the pronghorn
exhibit: Pronghorn are not related to antelope. Found only in North America, they are the
sole survivors of an ancient family and the only animals with branched horns,
which have annually-shed outer sheaths.
The fastest American land mammal, pronghorn can run up to 70 mph. They can leap 20 feet, but cannot jump over
fences, choosing instead to crawl under them. With excellent eyesight, they can
spot movement 4 miles away.
The part about crawling under fences is great imagery. J
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Since the Living Desert was only 12 miles away and we were
out of there before 3 p.m., we decided to ride to Sitting Bull Falls…about 35
miles down Hwy 137. I knew the park
closed at 5 p.m. but didn’t worry because we’d be there before then. We were about 2 miles from the entrance when
another biker stopped me on the road…park was open ‘til 5 but the entrance
closed at 4 p.m. and since it was just after 4, he wanted to let us know we
couldn’t get in. And he assured me it
was worth coming back. We’re leaving on
Saturday so we’ll see if we have time to try again. It was a nice ride
anyway.
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Saw a high temperature of 93o on our
way back to the camp, which explains why I was so freakin’ hot! We sat in the shade of the trailer when we
got back…shade plus a slight breeze felt good.
Then I felt all salty like after you sweat a ton and it dries as you
cool down. But I didn’t have the energy
to move right away, so there I sat, amused by the bunnies, birds and bugs. Our new site has a big lawn area before the
boundary fence and there is a good deal of activity out on the lawn. If a person sits quietly enough, bunnies will come quite close to the campsite. We were hoping he would come get the crackers
that Kim threw out there for the birds…but he just hopped on by. Then there were the quail…not quite a covey because the dictionary says a
covey generally consists of 12 or more quail and there were only 5 quail
running around like little busy bodies, gossiping as they went. Quite fun to watch…and boy, can they
run! And there were also black birds
that made the most interesting sounds. But the best thing to watch when sitting
there in the shade was the bug. This big
black bug came crawling over the stones near me; I thought Kim would like to
see it but when I
called Kim to come take a look, the bug seemed to strike an
upside down pose. I told Kim what I had
witnessed so when the bug crawled away again, Kim approached it and sure enough,
it goes head down and butt up. When it
sensed the threat had passed it started crawling again, Kim stepped toward it
again, and just that fast it’s head down and it stayed in that position for 5
minutes or more, long after we lost interest in it. That was the funniest thing to watch. So while I’m taking a picture, Kim does the
research to find out what it is…seems we found us a desert stink beetle or I
should say it found us. The site desertusa.com had a picture for identification and
this to say:
 |
| Doing yoga?? |
Beetles in the genus Eleodes are known as
"darkling" or "pinacate beetles," and colloquially as
"stinkbugs" or "clown beetles." Eleodes, derived from the
Greek term for "olivelike" describes the general body shape and jet
black coloration. Darkling is a common name applied to several genera and over
1400 species within the family Tenebrionidae. Pinacate comes from the Aztec
pinacatl, for "black beetle." Stinkbug refers to the malodorous
secretion emitted from the insect’s rear end. Clown beetle alludes to the habit
of these beetles to do a "headstand" when threatened.
They are well known for their comical, yet
effective, defense tactics. When alarmed they stand on their heads by bending
their front legs down and extending their rear legs. Depending upon the
species, they exude an oily, musty secretion, which collects at the tip of the
abdomen or spreads over posterior parts of the body, or they eject the reddish
brown to brown secretion as a spray. Larger desert species, like E. armata and
E. longicollis, can spray 10 to 20 inches. Most species can spray multiple
times, if necessary. The spray is not painful unless you get it in your eyes or
mouth, where it is painful, burning and temporarily blinding. It does not wash
off.
Found another site that said there are impostor stink bugs,
those who do the headstand but don’t spray.
We both think we had an impostor wander into our campsite.
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Between Silver City and Carlsbad, we’ve seen a number of roadkill pigs, which eventually prompted a discussion on wild pigs and javelinas…are they the same thing? Kim knew about wild pigs but neither of us knew much about javelinas, so as we boogied down the road, I did some research on my phone. And the answer is definitively NO!…javelinas and wild pigs are not the same animal. Anna Livia on naturetourism.tamu.edu
seems to have the definitive answer:
QUESTION: Javelina, Feral Hog, Wild Pig, European Wild Hog…
Which one does not belong? A, B. C or D?
ANSWER:
The answer is (A) Javelina.
Javelina is the only one
that does not belong in that list. Why? The Feral Hog is the same thing as a
wild pig (it’s literally a domestic pig gone wild.) And the European
Wild Hog (nick name “Boar”) is a true “wild pig,” native to Europe. One
that has not been domesticated. They are ALL three pigs. A pig and a hog are
the same thing, just domesticated animals from the same family. The Pig Family
(Suidae).
Not the Javelina.
The Javelina is not even in the pig family. It is not a pig. It is not a hog.
It is not a “boar”. It is a Javelina.
That would be the Tayassuidae family. It has its very own family.
You see, Javelina and pigs (hogs) are
such totally different species that they can’t breed at all. They are not just
different species, they are completely different families. A Javelina has no
more in common with a pig than a cow does with a horse, and I mean this
scientifically, not just as an expression. That is how little a Javelina has to
do with a pig. You can’t breed cows and horses. You can’t breed hogs and
Javelinas, they are that unrelated.
Javelinas and wild pigs are NOT the same thing…End of Story!!
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I was sitting outside typing but mosquitos drove me into the
trailer. Mosquitos!! It was hot in the trailer so I thought I’d go
do the wash, figured the mosquitos wouldn’t find me in the laundry room. When I went out to get in the truck....I’m
not walking all the way to the clubhouse with a bag of laundry…there was a
crowd around Kim and the eye scope. Not
only were the brothers from across the road out talking to Kim but about 4
other people were, too. Put a telescope
up and people just want to look through it.
J
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Rode 92 miles today
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