Monday, April 1, 2013

Angry Birds

We're at Elephant Butte Lake State Park in Elephant Butte, New Mexico, about 150 miles south of Albuquerque. More about that later.

Last night Jim heard a rattling noise and thought someone in a nearby campsite was making some sort of weird repetitive sound.  This morning I was in the bathroom and heard a rapping, whacking on the window.  I opened the blinds and saw a bird going "nutso."  The bird was pounding the window with his beak while furiously flapping his wings.

Later today the gray and red bird was sitting in a nearby tree.  Jim tapped the back driver's side rig window.  The bird flew right at him and went nutso again for minutes.  Before and after that he attacked the window unprovoked.

Later we saw also Mrs. Nutso in the tree.  We're thinking Mr. Nutso is telling his reflection to "get away from my woman." 

Our angry bird is pyrrhuloxia grosbeak, sometimes called the "Desert Cardinal." In this photo he's looking at our rig.
Jim tapped the window and the bird flew right at him. 
Lots of wing action is involved. 
Another shot of our tenacious neighborThe pyrrhuloxia grosbeak is found in Arizona, southern New Mexico, southern Texas, and south to Mexico. They like deserts with mesquite and thorny bushes. And motorhomes.

3 comments:

  1. There is a comeback that I dying to unleash based on that last caption, but decorum tells me not to go there. Please note that Steve showed considerable restraint on this day.

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  2. Perhaps running off a perceived rival, or maybe even more likely, just really ticked off about having such an unspellable/unpronouncable name.

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  3. Carl: I think the bird's name sounds like a dental disease. Little: I'm always thankful for your restraint, whenever it occurs :) Isn't he a cool-looking bird, though?

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