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| Arroyo with a permanent water source |
Although we live in the inner city, just a few blocks from downtown El Paso, there are several wild corridors that connect our neighborhood with the Franklin Mountains. These mountains run like a spine through our city. The South Franklins adjacent to us are rather barren, but the North Franklins, though still technically desert, really green up after the monsoon rains. These wild corridors mean that a huge variety of wildlife can be found in the undeveloped portions of our neighborhood connected to these corridors. Along with the resident foxes, coyotes, ground and grey squirrels, packrats, quail, roadrunners, turkey vultures, kestrels and hawks, the recent drought has increased the number of transitory wildlife visitors, which include mule deer, bobcats, ringtails, and (maybe) a puma or two as well (one was controversially shot by police in our neighborhood a few years ago). There are sources of water and lots of greenery which attract them, especially a tiny stream created by runoff from a storage reservoir that is surrounded by a lush arroyo on undeveloped, city-owned land. It’s quite wonderful to see groups of large, healthy deer casually wandering through the little strip of wild desert that divides our neighborhood from the more upscale Kern Place district. Fortunately, this little reserve is pretty secluded and undiscovered—although it’s just blocks from our house and others houses and apartments—and the people who use it to walk their dogs (the only people I’ve ever seen up there besides water company employees and kids on their way to the nearby baseball and softball fields) seem mostly considerate and supportive of the visiting and resident wildlife, both large and small.
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| My wife, Libby, took this picture of a doe with two fawns on her phone |
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