New Mexico: Highway 9: Bathing Birds

Ibis on Highway 9, east of Columbus, New Mexico. September 2016.

September 2016

Brother 4 came to visit and we pondered what to do with an entire day. So many ideas to consider:

1. Go for a hike in the Franklin Mountains? 
2. Take a grand tour up to Cloudcroft, New Mexico, and nearby sweet spots, then swing over to White Sands National Monument, maybe even stopping en route at one of the natural areas that hug the Organ Mountains? 
3. Or just focus on one of the grand tour destinations? 
4. Step into Mexico at one of the various border crossings close by? 
5. Hit up some El Paso museums? 

We decided to go simple and low-key --> a lil' road trip to Columbus, New Mexico, and Palomas, Chihuahua, Mexico.

Ibis on Highway 9, east of Columbus, New Mexico. September 2016.

More on some of that later. The focus of this post is on the birds we saw at a watery stretch along Highway 9 just east of Columbus.

One of three shaky videos I took here:

Best I can tell, these were white-faced ibis. At first, the wing spreading made me think of anhinga, but the bills here are longer and curved. I'm not at confident about my identification.

Ibis on Highway 9, east of Columbus, New Mexico. September 2016.

There's never a bad time to look at and appreciate birds, but it felt especially nice for me on this day because it took me back in spirit to South Louisiana.