El Paso Desert Botanical Gardens

Keystone Heritage Park and the El Paso Desert Botanical Gardens is an archeological site, wetlands, and botanical garden. The wetlands are home to many species of birds and are a migratory stop for even more. Over 206 species of birds have been spotted there. We visited here on a day when conditions weren't good for paragliding.



I barely got the above shot before the Northern Shoveler (I think) took off. I managed to track it and catch it in flight. Even got reflections in both shots :-) Too bad the power pole was also reflected!



Most of the birds were too far away for my regular telephoto. I would have brought the long lens, but I was expecting botanical gardens, not birds.



There were quite a few Killdeer around but it was hard to get close to them.



We were warned it was getting warm enough for the rattlesnakes to come out. We haven't spotted any, but I did notice this shed snake skin which I'm guessing is from a rattlesnake, given what looks like the rattles.



Winter is a slow time in the botanical gardens, even in a warm climate like this. I still enjoy things like the seed pods. (Especially since I recently finished a whole book on Seeing Seeds. The others in the series - Seeing Trees  and Seeing Flowers are also great)  Easy to see why the one below is called Screwbean Mesquite.





And of course, the usual contingent of prickly stuff.



Cactus skeletons always fascinate me. They look a bit like the internal structure of bones. (convergent evolution)



We went to the nearby Magic Bistro (recommended) for lunch. (We'd already been there for supper and really enjoyed it.) It was even warm enough to sit outside, a treat we don't get in the winter in Saskatchewan! The sparrows also enjoy the patio, mostly as a place to scrounge food, but I enjoyed watching them and had to go and get my camera to take a few photos. (nice sharp shot for a change)



See all 17 photos as a slideshow or overview

El Paso Paragliding

We arrived in El Paso on Jan. 31. We had emailed Had Robinson of Southwest Airsports asking about possible flying and he said he was flying that day.  So we headed up to Franklin mountain. We weren't sure where we were going so we left our wings in the car and hiked up the trail. We found a spot that looked like a potential launch, but no one was around. Had soon showed up, followed by a couple of other pilots. So we hiked back down the trail, got our flying gear, and hiked back up (about a 20 minute hike).

By the time the others got launched it was late and the wind was dying. We hadn't flown for three months (since Europe) so we were a little rusty. We'd hoped to at least do some kiting as a warm up but that hadn't worked out. Since we were running out of time Shelley decided not to launch. The launch is new and is still a bit rough and one of the other pilots had a lot of trouble with lines snagging on plants and rocks. Thankfully, I launched cleanly on my first try.

The landing zone next to the cars can be a bit of a stretch but I had a buoyant flight and reached it easily. You can land almost anywhere in the desert, but there are lots of prickly things that I wasn't keen on meeting! The others hadn't found much lift so I didn't bother scratching. The biggest challenge was connecting with Shelley who was driving around trying to find us!

The next day Had was instructing. He uses a stationary tow rig for training. We'd never towed on dry land (only behind a boat for SIV) so it was a good chance for us to try it out.



The sod farm is a perfect site - flat and smooth. Later in the day when there was some wind we practiced reverse launches which we hadn't done with towing before.  As usual my accuracy on landings left something to be desired, but it did improve over the day and my last flight I could have kicked the cone over as I landed.



Tow heights varied - my best tow was 335 m or 1100 ft - pretty good for a stationary tow. There were small thermals kicking off which helped lengthen the flights. On one of my flights I managed to string together a series of small thermals and stay up for 28 min. (apparently the second longest flight from the stationary tow here)

For our next adventure Had took us to Magdalena Rim, about an hour and a half drive north of El Paso. This is primarily a soaring site and we weren't sure there would be enough wind. There was very little wind on the drive there. But ironically, the wind at the site was too strong (over 20 mph). We hung around all afternoon hoping it would drop. Finally, just after the sun dropped below the horizon, it eased off. Had launched and had a nice flight. Shelley and I decided not to fly since it would be a short flight and we weren't sure about landing in the dwindling light.



The next day we had a message from Had that Mag Rim might be flyable that afternoon. I wasn't keen on spending another day parawaiting, but we wanted to fly. We found there was rock climbing close to the flying site so we figured we'd climb in the morning and hope to fly in the afternoon. But when we arrived we decided to check the conditions at the rim. Amazingly they seemed good (about 15mph) so we got ready and launched.

Shelley flew for about 40 minutes. Although the site is good for top landing, we don't have much experience with that and she decided to land at the bottom and hike up.

I kept flying. Although there was light cloud cover there were still some thermals coming up off the desert. I caught one stronger one (about 3 m/s) and went into thermalling mode (maybe not the wisest move), topping out about 3000ft over launch (at 2500 m or 8200 ft). But in the process I'd drifted back behind launch, and the wind had picked up so I had trouble getting back. I wasn't too worried though, because I had the flats to the side that I could escape to if necessary.

I swung wide around the end of the ridge to avoid any potential rotor turbulence and headed back to the front where I could soar again. I missed it by only a few hundred feet and had to turn out to the flats beside the road and land. Luckily a couple of local hang glider pilots (Robin and Bill) were just arriving and they picked me up. It was frustrating not to stay up, but I still had an hour and 40 minute flight which is nothing to complain about.

By this point the wind was too strong for paragliders to launch, but Robin gave it a try on his hang glider.



Unfortunately, he didn't manage to stay up and had a short flight. Again, around sunset the winds mellowed and Had and another pilot (Tom) had nice sunset flights.



We enjoyed the beautiful sunset on the drive out (while dodging the many rabbits that kept running across the road!)



See all 21 photos as a slideshow or overview

Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge

A "bosque" is what they call a forest along a floodplain in the Southwestern USA. (It comes from the Spanish word for "woodland") In this case along the Rio Grande. However, like the migratory wetlands we visited near Klamath Falls, the flooding here is no longer at the whim of nature. The flow of water is controlled by humans these days.

I have a habit of starring locations in Google Maps, either places I've visited and want to remember or places I've seen mentioned and might want to visit in the future. Looking at our route beyond Gallup, NM at first I was looking at the route through the mountains to Silver City. But highway conditions didn't look good. The next option was to head further east to the I25, where I noticed I had a star on the map. It turned out to be Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge. I've seen lots of bird photographs from here so I thought it would be worth a quick visit. We ended up spending a few hours driving around the main loop and walking a few of the shorter trails. I don't think it's the peak season, but there were still lots of snow geese, sandhill cranes, various ducks, and a few bald eagles and hawks.

One of the first birds we saw was this Hooded Merganser. Love that head.



We also saw some Buffleheads, which look similar from a distance, but quite different close up.



One of the advantages of a road trip is that I can bring more photography gear so I broke out the long lens (Sigma 150-600 Contemporary). I had a tripod with me but I ended up using a monopod (and Really Right Stuff monopod head) since it was easier to carry and get in and out of the car. I could even use the monopod inside the car when I was shooting out the window.

There were lots of Snow geese in the fields, mixed in with Sandhill cranes.



I wonder if these two realized they were synchronized?



I love the splash of red on their foreheads (and their odd croaking call)



We also saw a number of hawks and bald eagles, although I didn't get very good photos of them.





See all 16 photos as a slideshow or overview

Zion National Park

After finally escaping the interstate we stopped overnight in Zion National Park. I like to visit during off season when the lodge and trails are empty (relatively) and the white snow contrasts the red cliffs.



When we arrived at the lodge a flock of wild turkeys were out on the front lawn. They ignored us, as did the deer we encountered.



The other birds, however, were not so cooperative. This Common Merganser let me get reasonably close but then panicked and flew away.



Whereas this Ruby-crowned Kinglet didn't seem afraid, it just didn't stop moving! This shot was pure luck, funny to see it perched on an icicle! I've wanted to get a good look at one of these since reading about them in Berndt Heinrich's books.



The cold weather meant frozen waterfalls:



Some of them falling down in the sun:



As usual, I like the details:





The shaded valley and sunlit red rock made for some good reflections.





Sunlit tree and shady cliffs:



Or shaded tree and sunlit cliffs:



See 35 photos as a slideshow or overview

Salt Lake Aquarium

A few photos from the Loveland Aquarium in Draper at the south side of Salt Lake City.











Worth a visit if you're a fan of this sort of thing. It's close to the I-15. Probably crowded in the summer time though.

See all 11 photos as a slideshow or overview

Idaho Falls in the Snow

We made it to Three Forks (near Bozeman) on mostly dry roads with only some fog to contend with. But then the forecast turned into storm warnings with travel not recommended. We thought about staying in Three Forks but it looked like the weather would hold off till Idaho Falls. We were lucky and the heavy wet snow didn't start till just as we arrived.



The storm was supposed to end in the night and we hoped to get moving again in the morning, but the warnings were continued till the afternoon so we decided to stay another night. By noon the snow had stopped and we could get outside to check out the namesake falls.

Hibiscus Closeups

There aren't many add-on lenses for the dual camera iPhone 7 Plus so when I ran across the Kamerar one I thought I'd give it a try. This year Innovation Place has moved the outdoor flowers into the hallways so the hibiscus flowers made perfect test subjects. It didn't hurt that they're also one of my favorites :-)











As always with macro, the shallow depth of focus is a challenge. I didn't think of it this time, but next time I'll have to try using a smaller aperture to get a bit more depth. Trying to hand hold the phone steady and trying not to bump the flower so it moved was a challenge. But if you take lots some turn out reasonably. I'm looking forward to some insect photos (if they'll sit still!)

These were taken with the Lightroom mobile app in Raw with minor processing in Lightroom on the Mac.