Tomorrow, Saturday the 25th beginning at 8 AM, you can join urban biologist, Lois Balin, and learn about the Wildlife of Resler Canyon.
Desert USA has this to say about Franklin Mountain wildlife:
"In their rocky foothills, talus slopes and canyons, the Franklins host a plant community dominated by desert shrubs such as honey mesquite, acacia, creosote bush, four-wing saltbush and (in the drainages) desert willow; cacti such as prickly pears, chollas, hedgehogs and (uniquely for Texas) the Southwest barrel cactus; yuccas such as various narrow- and broad-leaf species; agaves such as the parryi and the wickedly thorned lecheguilla; and the more exotic plants such as the ocotillo, sotol, Mormon tea and the crucifixion thorn. In the spring and early summer – given timely thunderstorms and lengthening days – you can find dazzling blooms decorating the cacti, yuccas, agaves, ocotillo and sotol. With exceptional luck you will be treated, especially on the eastern slopes near Transmountain Road, to a landscape blanketed in yellow, courtesy of the Mexican poppies.
"From late afternoon, through the night, into the early morning, the Franklins introduce their full cast of wildlife, including the smaller mammals such as rodents, various bats, blacktail jackrabbits, desert cottontail rabbits, possums, skunks, badgers and raccoons and the larger ones such as coyotes, gray foxes, mule deer and, possibly, even a mountain lion. They offer up those living symbols of the Chihuahuan Desert—the roadrunner (paisano, or “countryman,” in Spanish); various hummingbirds (summer residents from Mexico); the golden eagle (a year round resident with a great fondness for desert cottontails); the horned lizard (“horny toads,” we called them back when I was a boy in the Texas Panhandle); the non-poisonous glossy snake and the poisonous black-tail and banded rock rattlers (the latter a comparatively small but particularly venomous species that, in Texas, occurs only in the far western corner of the state); and the usual tarantulas, scorpions, centipedes and an occasional vinegaroon (a giant scorpion-looking creature that cannot sting but can pinch and can raise a vinegar-smelling stink)."
If birding is your thing, go to Leasburg Dam State Park also tomorrow beginning at 8 AM for their monthly guided bird tour. The park is 59 miles north of El Paso off of I-25 so give yourself a bit more than an hour to get there. Hueco Tanks also has a birding tour tomorrow but you must make a reservation. Go HERE to learn more. The tour begins at 7:30 AM.
Also tomorrow at Hueco Tanks, you can learn how Native Peoples used plants to survive in the Chihuahuan Desert. Again, reservations are necessary. Check it out.
Wyler Aerial Tramway has their Last Sunday Hike on Sunday beginning at 7 AM.
Finally, on Sunday the 26th beginning at 8 PM. take a full moon hike in the Franklin Mountains State Park. Explore the vibrant night life.
Speaking about night life, be sure to put Dr. Paul Hyder's Who's Running around the Desert at Night on your calendars for September 8th.