A Moment with Nature

From the Western Heritage Nature Trail System

David Hooten,

RMEF Life Member (Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation)

National Wildlife Federation Member

Featuring:  Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)

The Red-tailed hawk is one of the most common hawks seen in southeastern New Mexico and can be found throughout North America. It is one of the largest hawks, weighing between 2 to 4 pounds. The females are a third larger than the males, and having a wing span of 56 inches.

When travelling local highways, dusty oil field roads, ranch and farm roads you will usually see several of these magnificent birds. They soar above open fields, in circular flight patterns. They are common birds seen sitting atop wooden power poles. Red-tailed hawks perch high up, they are watchers; their eyes are attentive to any ground movement meaning a possible meal.

Red-tailed hawks have broad, rounded wings and a short wide tail. The females are larger and sometimes are mistaken for a Bald Eagle in the distance.  Their general color pattern is a rich brown above and pale below, with streaks to blotches on their belly and wing underside feathers. The tail has a pale color below and cinnamon red above on mature hawks, which identifies this bird easily. The young immature hawks are brown and banded on the tail’s end.

Red-tailed hawks are carnivores (meat eaters) and they belong to a category of birds known as raptors—birds of prey. Raptors have strong, hooked beaks for tearing flesh; their feet have three toes pointing forward and one toe turned back. These toes function as claws, and they are called ‘talons’, which are long, curved and very sharp for clutching prey. The long talons kill the prey, and if too large to swallow whole, the Red-tailed hawk holds onto the prey with its talons and tears the prey apart with its beak into bite sized morsels.

Red-tailed hawks are common in our region of the country all year. They are not migratory birds, and fly south for the winter. Hawks that reside in Alaska and Canada will fly into the northern tier of states during winter, but this is to find plentiful food sources and then return to their normal ranges in spring. Red-tailed hawks love open country. Look for them along fields, meadows in forested areas, prairie groves and wide spread plains.

Located on the Western Heritage Nature Trail south side is a bronzed replica of a mature Red-tailed hawk that you can view up close. Per chance walking around the Nature Trail’s system you might actually see a Red-tailed hawk perched on the oil rig tower, flying overhead in circles, making a 2 to 3 second screeching sound and giving you the eye from above.

Bird Facts:

·       Red-tailed hawks along with other hawk species are ALL carnivores (meat eaters) and known as raptors.

·       The Red-tailed hawk is the most common bird of the buzzard hawk family.

·       Red-tailed hawk’s eyesight is 8 times as powerful as a human eye.

·       Talons are its main weapons, clutching and killing.

·       Up to 90% of the Red-tailed hawks diet consist of small rodents (not chickens, as this hawk is also known as the chicken hawk, an erroneous title).

·       Federal and State laws protect ALL RAPTORS (hawks, eagles, buzzards) with hefty fines and maybe even some jail time for convicted offenses.

Valerie Martinez Shoes

Story about my Fluevog Boots

I love my red boots.  They have been many, many places and weathered every kind of heat, cold, dust, water, brush, meadow, each and pavement.  They have felt the rumblings of fellow feet.  They have heard the voices of babies, adolescents, teenagers, adults and elders in my many years of travel and in my home state of New Mexico.  As a poet, I am a gatherer of stories that lead to daydreams, night dreams, reflections and fancies.  These, eventually, become poems.

"We cannot explain our love of mountains,
clay-red, demoted with piñon, chamois, yucca.
Perhaps it is the expanse between them,
the sky which fills the space, immense,
the breath opened up like a holy book
blank and ever-blue, on and on."
From "New Mexico Fragments," And They Called It Horizon (Sunstone Press, 2010)

My boots are sturdy - built-to-last.  I wear them down then clean and polish them up.  I care for them like I do my beloved dogs; they are beloved.  In my closet they rest near pairs of shoes utterly unlike themselves - fancy flats, sandals, sneakers and high heels.  They are like no other pair.  They have tongues; they speak volumes.

Stephanie Huerta Branch

Stephanie Huerta Branch Stephanie Huerta was born and raised in West Nyack, New York. She relocated to Sarasota, Florida where she graduated from the Ringling School of Art and Design, majoring in Sculpture, Painting and Printmaking. Upon graduating in 1989 she received the “Best of Ringling” Presidents award. In Florida, Stephanie freelanced with Universal Studios and Nickelodeon Studios as a sculptor and Chief Scenic Artist. She was commissioned by the “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” museum to sculpt a bust of Kevin Costner. She worked for the Nassal Company sculpting a maquette for a 25 foot tall installation of King Neptune at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas and a life-sized coral reef and Greek village for the Journey to Atlantis exhibit at Sea World. She has been living and working as an artist in Santa Fe, New Mexico and has done commissioned sculptures for the Highlands University in Las Vegas, NM and a life-sized sculpture at the Pioneers Museum of the first ex-slave to sit on a jury in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Her work ranges from bas relief portraits for the College Football hall of fame to life-sized horses for the Witte Museum of Texas. She was awarded a commission from the Art in Public Places of New Mexico to create a permanent sculpture at the entrance of the Tingley Coliseum at the New Mexico State Fairgrounds.

Stephanie’s fine art work ranges from large scale oil paintings to figurative and expressionistic sculptures in bronze, steel, and plaster/cement. Her work is driven by her social consciousness towards environmental issues and her love of harmony in nature. Animals, being the central theme of her work, carry many layers of meaning, both symbolically and historically; ultimately sharing with the viewers the endless beauty of life and the miracle of anatomy; always capturing a unique spirit as if the pieces were alive with soul and something to share. Her love of life exudes each piece and captures the eye of all walks of life.

Joshua Tobey

Joshua Tobey is the son of renowned western sculptor Gene Tobey, who instilled in Josh an innate desire to pursue a career as an artist. “One of the greatest assets I’ve had in my career is growing up in an artist’s studio and knowing that you can be an artist – that it’s a reality,” Josh has stated. Josh began molding his first sculptures at five or six years old while sitting in the back of his father’s classrooms in Corvallis, Oregon, where Tobey worked as a college art professor before he began his full-time art career in Santa Fe. Joshua eventually went on to earn a fine art degree at Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado he returned to Santa Fe as apprentice to his father and quickly began producing his own body of work. A distinct feature of Josh’s art is his original and contemporary patina work, which he has continued to develop over time to incorporate a visual texture onto the surface of each bronze. The artist views the patina as its own artistic composition, a notion that sets him apart in the world of sculpture, “My patinas have developed to the point where every new piece is the cutting edge in my studio,” says Josh.  Josh has received significant recognition for his artwork in the western art world - from national sculptor society awards to museum awards. But his most honored achievement to date is being recognized as the featured artist at the 2014 Fall Arts Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Josh is the first sculptor to ever receive this award. 

Art in Public Places

Art in Public Places

The Western Heritage Museum and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame and New Mexico Junior College have two new pieces of art thanks to New Mexico Arts and the Art in Public Places Program (AIPP).  Over the next two weeks we will introduce you to both the artwork and the artists.  But first what exactly is AIPP?

Since its inception nearly 25 years ago, AIPP has placed more than 2,500 works of art in all of New Mexico's 33 counties. The goal is to reflect the diversity of the arts in New Mexico, the Southwest, and the nation while building a dynamic public art collection for the State of New Mexico.

Through a fair and open public process, committees made up of local and regional representatives work with New Mexico Arts staff to select artwork for their communities.  The Art in Public Places program then commissions large-scale projects that are designed for integration directly into the architecture of a building, or the program purchases existing original artwork to be placed in public buildings permanently or on loan.

The new artwork at the Museum was purchased through the Acclaimed Artists Series, which features artworks from well known established artists and galleries in the region working in all media. The Acclaimed Artists Series provides is an opportunity for regional artists and galleries from New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah to submit their work. New Mexico Junior College's Public Art Selection Committee reviewed artwork that had been submitted to NM Arts.

For more information on the legislation and general proceedings of AIPP, please visit their website.