The RV park isn't very much -- on a dry gravel parking lot and definitely not crowded. It'll serve our purpose - we're here for the wildlife refuge.
The Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is 5 miles down the road and is one of the most popular in the country. It is over 57,000 acres and is wintering grounds for thousands and thousands of Bald Eagles, Sandhill Cranes, and Snow Geese. We went there yesterday and twice again today. Yesterday afternoon it was very hot (80's), but this morning was nice - 47 degrees early and up into the 60's as we did the morning tour. This afternoon was hot again! They have a very nice Visitor's Center which we went to a couple of times.
In the Visitor's Center is a nice Nature Gift Shop and a glass wall with viewing benches looking out on a birdfeeding station. There were lots of birds - several White-Crowned Sparrows, Gambel's Quail, and a Bullock's Oriole (that I got a half picture of)
There are about 15 miles of Auto Tour divided into a North Loop and South Loop. Both loops pass through a lot of wooded areas, open fields, and by a lot of big ponds. As you are driving along real slow, there's no telling who might want to pass you. Also, we'll be on the lookout for the mountain lions!
Although all Bald Eagles and Sandhill Cranes that winter here have been long gone, there's still lots of ducks and other birds.
Here are some of the individual ducks and other birds that we saw:
Northern Shoveler
Gadwall
Blue-winged Teal
Great Egret
White Pelicans
Greater Roadrunner
Swainson's Hawk
Snow Geese
Ruddy Duck
Mallard
Wild Turkey
Red-winged Blackbird.
At our campsite, LaVerne put out a water pan and spread bird seed all on the ground. We had several customers for that:
White-crowned Sparrow
White-winged Dove
Pyrrhuloxia (strange cousin of our Cardinal)
Ground Squirrel
We've enjoyed our stay here, but it's time to move on and tomorrow (Friday) is moving day. We're headed for the City of Rocks State Park near Deming, NM. Will be there over the weekend.
Really enjoyed the last two camps! Pretty yellow and black birds and the other's were nice too. My ex I and our 2 boys once slept in our van overnight in Truth or Consequences, NM as the only motel was grungy! We ate supper from vending machines outside of a gas station. We went to a diner and the Chef came out from the kitchen and asked us what the hell is a chef salad... while we'd been sitting there on ripped booth seats and curtains hanging crooked and broken, saw some of those nasty little water roaches crawling around and had about decided to leave. When the chef came out looing like a dirt bag asking what a chef salad was, we left. Never want to go back there again. That was about 40 years ago so I hope it's a bigger and better town. Loved the rocks and the sunsets in both camp grounds. continue on and have fun. Send more photos! diane
ReplyDeleteGood to see the Rio Grande and Mexico. We've never seen either before! Nice camp sites. Actually, we've not seen too much of Texas either. It's just a way to get to Colorado to us! Y'all continue to have fun; hope you get to see birds at the coastal area. Diane
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