Bottomless and Bitter Lakes!

After the movie I was ready for dinner and a rest so I headed to Bottomless Lakes State Park and my campsite for the night..

.I neglected to get a photo of my site I got there at dark anyway and headed for the shower house.  After that I had a sandwich and worked to upload a few photos to Flickr. They had free WiFi there.  Another storm hit in the night but it too was in the distance we got the wind but not the rain.   In the morning I took some photos of the park on my way out..

                                                    The swimming area in the park

There is a tower that birds find handy...

                     

                                              an English House Sparrow had a nest in there somewhere..

nearby white crowned sparrows vied for a good perching spot...

There's a brackish hint to the Lazy Lagoon, it reminds me of Salt Lake...not as big but the way it smelled...

Other pools in the park are like this the Devil's Ink Well.  These were created by volcanic forces, when sink holes opened up and water filled them...original measurements done with cowboy ropes so even tho they determined no bottom, the Ink Well is actually 50 ft in depth.  

Devils Ink Well

I noticed the beautiful work of the CCC in these buildings...

After a quick trip around the park I headed back toward Roswell to visit Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

 Just a few miles away from town and back toward the direction of my travel.  This hawk had me pull over to take his photo of this Swainson's Hawk. 

the Visitors Center is nice it was staffed with volunteers...when I asked what was around he told me people had reported some dragonflies, I don't think he understood my question.  He and his wife were extremely nice people. 

Barn swallows had a nest under the porch there and I spotted a yellow warbler in a tree out back and more scaled quail on the back overlook 

barely got this quail as he zoomed out of sight...

There is an approximately 8 mile auto tour around the lakes so after a quick visit to the VC I got a stamp in my passport book, then headed around the loop drive.  

...the lakes level is down but still vast!

I spotted a greater roadrunner in a tree...

and another western kingbird...

and lots of western meadowlarks and lark sparrows...

and on the water, I saw all sorts of ducks...Northern Shovelers 

n shoveler 

lots of coots,  blue winged teals, american avocets, wilson's phalaropes, black necked stilts, and ruddy ducks.  

ruddy duck

I took a Boardwalk...

white faced Ibis and black necked stilts 

AND finally a new bird for me showed up and in great numbers the Cinnamon Teal.  Here is a pair with a B N Stilt in the background. 

here is another pair...

Many Blue Winged Teal were present also...

I have waited a long time to see this DUCK! Finally..another shot of the cinnamon teal pair..

And on the way out of the Refuge 2 Mississippi Kites  up in the tree.  

As I headed north toward Ft Sumner, A storm was brewing...

The last ebird list of this trip Bitter Lake

Next my stop in Ft Sumner, NM 

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.

The Truth is OUT THERE!!

Is it a sin to nap even when you are not feeling too bad? Actually feeling quite well? I've been such a hard worker get up and go type my whole life I never nap without feeling guilty!  I just had a check on the Rio Grande Birding Facebook page and MAN seeing all those warblers make me want to catch a plane and just go back! Missed soooo much, but happy with what I did see!!  They have been helpful with helping me on some of the ID of a few birds...I have made some corrections to my sightings, but nothing majorly offending and no change in life list count they all count 1 no matter if you don't know what you saw!  Still a few are up in the air...Leaving Dog Canyon, I wanted to stay longer!  But I pulled out early Sunday morning with new friends waving "bye" as I headed on down the road...On the way out I stopped to see a couple of scaled quail run across the road. and hide behind some scrub.  

A really lovely ground bird that I had been hearing!  I pulled over for this red-tailed hawk too...

  Very precariously perched on this narrow fence post...then off I went North..in search of the Aliens!! 

                                HEY there they are now.... greeting me as I arrive...

Roswell, NM is the Alien capitol of the World!  They claim that the army covered up a flying saucer crash here back in 1947.  Of course the whole thing was covered up with a weather balloon story.  To get to the bottom of  it I went first to the Visitors Center.  

Where they gave me some info on what to look for...the Art Museum was not open till 3 hrs later, got the scoop on a State Park, a Wildlife Refuge, and more. My first stop was to the International UFO Museum and Research Center, after posing with little green men...

Who have very big heads and feet and were completely nude!  

This museum has all sorts of stuff inside including a real life research center chock full of UFO materials!!  It's $5 to get in and they had a PENNY TURNER!  I was thrilled.  

it was sitting right next to this Really cool Steam Punked Alien Life Form Incubator

very creative...

You either believe or you don't...I believe.  There is a movie shown of witness accounts of the events of that time the Crash at Roswell...all these people couldn't have made this stuff up! And if it was a weather balloon, then why did they need the services of a coroner? They shipped pieces of the wreckage with airmen guarding it...so why the secrecy if it was only a weather balloon, if DT sees the report maybe he will blurt it out on Twitter!

Dogs are welcome inside the building! And each time this Alien Spaceship landed, the dogs barked at it...so funny!  But this I find serious....there was a display about the Palenque Astronaut.  If you have seen Ancient Aliens you know about this found in Myan Temples in Mexico.  It is a very detailed relief of a man riding a very alien looking craft...there is a copy of the relief here in the museum. 

if you rotate the relief you can clearly see he is riding on something like a motorcycle, he is using his left hand for some sort of control, as well as he is adjusting some controls with this right hand and he is using some type of device at his nose possibly for breathing? Here I rotated it for you to study...I find it fascinating!!  He is located in the center yet the entire relief seems to be machinery of some type...now I don't know what history books you read but the ones I read did not mention people of the 600 AD era as having any type machinery!! SO what gives?

 

there is alot of unexplained...this museum has the most extensive library of UFO reports and sightings in the world...so you can access the library and do  your own research. 

I also enjoyed the exhibits of Alien Themed Art that is all around in the Museum.   This was one of my favs...

and outside I found some cool murals 

The day grew hot so I found a theater outside of town behind the mall, well Wilma found it but I kept going in circles...I could not find the theater.  I parked and went inside the mall, no theater...asked the security guy he said its behind the mall...OOOhhhhh Okay Wilma sorry I called  you a stupid clueless machine. 

inside the ufo museum

I wanted to see Guardians of the Galaxy II but it was sold out..I stood inside the door and watch the last 30 mins of it.  I think it was probably a fun movie I didn't even see Galaxy I will have to see if it's on DVD I don't have a DVD player since I blew mine up last fall while charging it with the 12 volt.  Anyways I bought a ticket for "the Circle" Tom Hanks   It was also a science fiction but I could surely see this happening in our society TODAY...I did enjoy the film...but what really impressed me was this:  I do not as a rule go to movies...when I lived in NYC I used to go every single week.  Because I lived in a tiny studio apt. no work to be done could clean it in like 15 mins, no yard to tend, and I had no cable tv so I went to movies. 

Since I've moved back to SC I bet I've been in the theater 4 times...Anyways so I was surprised they have assigned seating!  You can pick your seat from a screen they turn around, you hit it with your finger....amazing right?  Then when I went in I was the first ticket sold so he put me right smack in the middle of the theater...the best seat in the house.  And much to my surprise, each and every seat is a full recliner with a remote on the arm rest, your feet go up your head leans back and there is still room for people to get past your feet without you having to move....Although the movie was good I had a hard time staying awake!!

After the movie I drove about 10 miles out of town to the Bottomless Lakes State Park for camping. Notice the street light in the above photo...lol

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.