Birding El Paso

This year's spring break destination: El Paso. A group of our local friends make an annual trek to the most western part of Texas to spend time rock climbing at Hueco Tanks State Park. We decided to join them this year! My husband was excited about the amazing climbing and I was excited to search for new species of birds. Hueco Tanks is known to be a popular destination for both activities.

Hueco Tanks State Park is often referred to as an "island in the desert" as its massive piles of rocks, boulders and rock formations protrude from the floor of the Chihuahuan Desert. The park has a truly fascinating historical background. It has been the home of many different cultural groups, some of which date back to over several thousands of years ago. The park contains several archaeological sites and numerous pictographs in various places throughout the park.

While the park does offer daily guided tours, we did all of our exploring on our own. The area known as "North Mountain" is the only portion open to those exploring on their own. There are many marked trails to hike on and, of course, lots of rocks to explore.

Verdin

The park is especially attractive to birds as it contains a desirable mix of habitats and necessities, including various types of trees (oak-juniper woodlands), shrubs, and cacti, large rocks that provide shelter, and water. Typically, water, a hot commodity in this dry climate, collects in the "huecos" (a Spanish word meaning hollow) that have formed in the rocks.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Say's Phoebe

In addition to holding valuable drinking water, the "huecos" also sustain some small aquatic creatures, which some birds (such as the above Say's Phoebe) feed on.

Chipping Sparrow

In addition to looking in the trees and shrubs along the bases of the rocks, we also looked under the them. We located two species of quail, including a Gambel's Quail and a Scaled Quail.

Scaled Quail

Very few "huecos" contained water while we were there, as precipitation had been very limited.  As I made my way across a large boulder, I noticed several species coming and going from a large hueco.

Black-throated Sparrow

As I got closer I noticed the hueco held a small amount of water. As I sat motionless near the popular hueco, I was able to observe many species stopping by for a refreshing sip of cool water.

Dark-eyed Junco (pink sided)

Canyon Towhee

 The birds at the park appeared to be resourceful; they could be seen gathered around water spickets looking for drops of water.

Perhaps one of the most unforgettable experiences was that of hearing the song of the Canyon Wren reverberating through the large rock formations.

Canyon Wren

Given the plethora of rocks, it seemed fitting that we encountered several Rock Wrens.

Rock Wren

There are a quite a few signs throughout the park that warned visitors about the presence of rattle snakes. Luckily I didn't meet up with any snakes, but I did notice this interesting nest that had a long snake skin woven throughout it.

While in El Paso, we also visited Franklin Mountain State Park. There are multiple entrances to the park and we spent time hiking on trails near the Tom Mays entrance. There is a really cool adobe bird blind set up   near a water source and several well stocked feeders. This turned  out to be fun place to watch a variety of species.

Cactus Wren

Curve-billed Thrasher

House Finch

White-crowned Sparrow

Rufous-crowned Sparrow

White-winged Dove

If you ever plan a trip to El Paso, these are two great places to see some birds! Reservations need to be made in advance for entrance into Hueco Tanks, as they only allow a small number of visitors per day.

Tammy Karr
http://iheartfloridabirds.blogspot.com/