Along the Lakeshore in Northern New Mexico

We recently explored along the shores of a local lake. We spotted lots of wildlife including gulls, cottontail rabbits, lizards, raccoon tracks, and many birds on the lake we have yet to identify. There are also many plants we need help to identify. We are slowly looking them up in our guidebooks but this time of year can be a difficult time to identify plant life as they are bare of leaves, flowers, and other markers which make ID easier. 

Below we have numbered photographs of some of the things we saw. Please feel free to correct our identification or help us ID those things yet known.

 1. Juniper

 2. Cedar

 3. Raccoon Tracks

 4. Cottonwood leaves in the water

 5. Evidence of Gull. We were a bit surprised to see a flock along the shoreline of the lake.

We found other groups of feathers about and wondered what could have eaten it and if it died of natural causes or was caught. 

 6. Cottonwood leaves from last season

 7. Tree lined paths along the lake

 8. Shrub areas are common. We want to identify these tall red stemmed shrubs.

 9. Seed pods

 10. Unidentified dried flower head on long green stem

 11. Unidentified pineapple shaped seed head on bush

 12. Galls on unidentified bush

 13. Pinon Pine cones

 14. Pinon Pine open to reveal seeds

 15. Tiny unidentified cacti under pine

 16. Thorny bush

 17. Spiky seed heads

 18. Dried seed heads on low bush

19. Lesser Earless Lizard or Side-bloched Lizard who had lost its tail and grown it back

As we ID things we will comeback and add what we have learned.

Thanks for any help you can give!