Lone Turkey

Quay County, New Mexico

Salty Dog

Birding takes flight as calming pandemic hobby

Roadrunner, Endee, New Mexico (Sixgun Siding)

(Austin American Statesman) ... Although the recent coronavirus pandemic has curtailed group birding excursions, interest in the activity has grown.
 “Business almost doubled, if not tripled,” Wild Birds Unlimited Manager Kyle Johnson said. The 25-year-old shop closed March 17 because of a state mandate and moved to orders being filled curbside or online.
However, Johnson said patronage never dipped; instead the business has had a surge of new customers, including a younger demographic and birders from out of the area. He credits the increase to more people staying at home now, enjoying their backyards and the nature that lies within. Continued

Rath City, Texas

Buffalo Skulls

(Wikipedia) Rath City was a frontier town which existed for fewer than five years and is now a ghost town. The town was located on the Double Mountain Fork Brazos River, 14 miles northwest of Hamlin in southern Stonewall County, Texas, United States. The town was founded in 1876.
Its original establishment was meant to capitalize on the buffalo trade and it was Stonewall County's first settlement. In 1877, the town housed a store, two saloons, a dance hall, and a few tents and dugouts. The town's namesake was Charles Rath, whose store, built in 1875, was the structure around which the village grew. Continued

Want to Adopt a Wild Horse? The Government Will Pay You $1,000

Wild horses (Carol Highsmith/Library of Congress)

(NYTimes) It is like an online matchmaking service. Horse lovers who want to adopt a wild mustang from the western United States can browse dozens of headshots.

From drop-down menus, you can choose gender, color and age: a 4-year-old chestnut mare, for example, or a 9-year-old gray gelding. Some horses have no training, while others might be “gentled,” with experience being handled.

This is Wild Horses Online, part of the federal Bureau of Land Management’s online adoption service. Starting this month, the bureau is trying to make wild mustang adoptions more attractive by paying $1,000 to those who take in the animals, which are gathered up from public land in the western United States as part of efforts to manage the population. Continued

Wanted: More pastures for West’s overpopulated wild horses

(Library of Congress)

(SFNM) If you ever wished to gaze at a stomping, snorting, neighing panorama of Western heritage from your living room window, now could be your chance.

A classic image of the American West — wild horses stampeding across the landscape — not only has endured through the years but has multiplied past the point of range damage.

Through May 3, the U.S. government is seeking more private pastures for an overpopulation of wild horses. Continued

Origins of Groundhog Day

(Wikipedia) An early American reference to Groundhog Day can be found in a diary entry, dated February 4, 1841, of Berks County, Pennsylvania storekeeper James Morris:

Last Tuesday, the 2nd, was Candlemas day, the day on which, according to the Germans, the Groundhog peeps out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he pops back for another six weeks nap, but if the day be cloudy he remains out, as the weather is to be moderate."

In the United States the tradition may also derive from a Scottish poem:

As the light grows longer The cold grows stronger If Candlemas be fair and bright Winter will have another flight If Candlemas be cloud and snow Winter will be gone and not come again A farmer should on Candlemas day Have half his corn and half his hay On Candlemas day if thorns hang a drop You can be sure of a good pea crop

This tradition also stems from similar beliefs associated with Candlemas Day and Groundhog Day. Candlemas, also known as the Purification of the Virgin or the Presentation, coincides with the earlier pagan observance Imbolc. Continued

Photo: Marumari/Wikipedia, some rights reserved.

First commercial buffalo hunt in Texas

 

(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1874, Joseph McComb led a party out from Fort Griffin on the first commercial buffalo hunt in Texas.
The party consisted of McComb; two assistants, John Jacobs and John W. Poe; and teamsters, skinners, and an ox-drawn wagon.
The season's kill brought 2,000 hides, which were marketed at Fort Griffin at $1.50 and $2.00 each. Continued

It's a good day to be a coyote

Street sign, San Jon, New Mexico.

Loved by a few, looked down on by the rest, coyotes are the perfect mascot for the tiny town of San Jon, New Mexico. Proud, persistent, and loud, Coyote does not care about your opinion.

Free fishing day in New Mexico Today

Fishing Calaveras by Jose Pulido

(Santa Fe New Mexican) You can fish for free in New Mexico on Saturday without a license as part of Celebrate National Hunting and Fishing Day.

Residents and nonresidents can fish public waters statewide, but all other fishing rules apply, said the state Department of Game and Fish. Continued

"The NM Game & Fish Prairie Chicken Seafood Restaurant"

Somebody made a joke on the Google.

Bat bomb!

(Wikipedia) Bat bombs were an experimental World War II weapon developed by the United States. The bomb consisted of a bomb-shaped casing with over a thousand compartments, each containing a hibernating Mexican free-tailed bat with a small, timed incendiary bomb attached. Dropped from a bomber at dawn, the casings would deploy a parachute in mid-flight and open to release the bats, which would then roost in eaves and attics in a 20–40 mile radius. The incendiaries would start fires in inaccessible places in the largely wood and paper constructions of the Japanese cities that were the weapon's intended target. Continued

Old House 120 (Now with cattle!)

Ranchvale, New Mexico, more or less.

526

526 didn't think much of me at all

Mussel in southeast New Mexico listed as endangered, tasty

If you want to try some mussels, and being New Mexican, I doubt you do,
but if you really do want to try them, I suggest ordering from Bertha's in Baltimore.

(Albuquerque Journal) Another animal with habitat in New Mexico was added to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s endangered species list on Friday.
The Texas hornshell mussel is the last remaining native freshwater mussel in New Mexico and has a small area of habitat in southeast New Mexico in the Black River, a tributary of the Pecos River, in addition to populations in Texas and Mexico. Continued

Groundhog Day

(Wikipedia) An early American reference to Groundhog Day can be found in a diary entry, dated February 4, 1841, of Berks County, Pennsylvania storekeeper James Morris:

Last Tuesday, the 2nd, was Candlemas day, the day on which, according to the Germans, the Groundhog peeps out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he pops back for another six weeks nap, but if the day be cloudy he remains out, as the weather is to be moderate."

In the United States the tradition may also derive from a Scottish poem:

As the light grows longer The cold grows stronger If Candlemas be fair and bright Winter will have another flight If Candlemas be cloud and snow Winter will be gone and not come again A farmer should on Candlemas day Have half his corn and half his hay On Candlemas day if thorns hang a drop You can be sure of a good pea crop

This tradition also stems from similar beliefs associated with Candlemas Day and Groundhog Day. Candlemas, also known as the Purification of the Virgin or the Presentation, coincides with the earlier pagan observance Imbolc. Continued

Photo: Marumari/Wikipedia, some rights reserved.

Smokey the Sheep?

(Santa Fe New Mexican) ... In the 19th century, livestock interrupted the cycle of frequent, cooler fires. “Historically the fires were just burning grass, so when the sheep came in and ate all the grass, there was nothing to burn,” Margolis said.
“We see fires actually stopped in this area in the late 1800s because that’s when the railroad brought a lot of livestock in.”
Then, starting in the 1940s, Smokey Bear’s mission to suppress all forest fires resulted in the buildup of brush and dead tree material that served as explosive fuel when big fires did occur. Continued

Ice Age Woolly Mammoth bones found in Lubbock County

Probably not

(KCBD) While analysis is ongoing, TxDOT officials Thursday tentatively identified bones discovered along the future route of Loop 88 as those of the now extinct Woolly Mammoth.
The discovery was made at the end of November in a field just east of the FM 179 and 130th Street or the FM 1585 intersection.
Crews were conducting an environmental impact study for the future Loop. Officials say the crews target areas such as old playa lakes because animal and people of the past would gather in those areas. Continued

Lone Longhorn

We found this beautiful creature hanging around Nara Visa, New Mexico.

Trains and Cattle

 

Bovina, Texas