These are Sandhill Cranes. In the background, to the left, if I'm not mistaken, is the peak that's shown on my map as Cerro Colorado. It's about a hundred miles to the east, and I'm not sure if it's on the White Sands Missile Range (military reservation) or not - if not, then it's just north of it. According to a book called Roadside Geology of New Mexico, "Mountains visible across the Rio Grande Valley are fault block ranges consisting primarily of tilted Pennsylvanian and Permian sedimentary rocks; in some of them Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks are exposed also." Look for the stripes that indicate sedimentary rock.