Birding Travels
In North America

Ocotillo - Fouquieria splendens 
East of Hillsboro
New Mexico, USA
Photo immediately above and below: July 2014

In July 2014 I found an Ocotillo east of Hillsboro which was past its bloom time.  I had never seen this, never.  How is that possible?  I have looked at a good many Ocotillo in my life and photographed several of them.  I have studied them when they are dormant and marveled at how beautiful the stems are.  After the rains, I have studied the stems as they leafed out and marveled at how beautiful they are.  I have photographed, and photographed, and photographed Ocotillo in bloom - always trying to get the right backdrop.  I have studied a lot of Ocotillo.

But I had never noticed this stage of their life cycle.  How is that possible?  I kept asking myself that question as I looked at the Ocotillos east of town.  I surmise that by the time Ocotillos get to this stage of their bloom cycle I am through with Ocotillos.  By the time they look like this I have studied hundreds of them and seeing them from afar, I never thought to check and see if there were more blooms (which I had seen a thousand times) or something else.  Inept is the term which is properly used for my observational skills in this case.  It is an object lesson in the need to focus on even the most mundane.