Our bladders braved it

Today was dedicated to birding. We took a longish (100 miles) trip south to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. On the way there, we we pulled into a rest area with the rattler sign on the left. I love snake signage. You just wonder, though, if they could have put the rest area somewhere else. Bosque is one of the big birding hotspots in New Mexico, mostly, I think, because it has so much water. People here get excited about birds that are common up north, and they’re especially proud of their Sandhill Cranes. But for us, the big draw was the local birds. If we want cranes, we can just drive a few hours to Indiana and see literally thousands. So whenever anyone here got excited about some crane sighting, we just thought, meh.

As soon as we drove into the refuge, we saw a lifer: a WESTERN MEADOWLARK. This was a good omen. The next stop was the visitor’s center, where we wandered around the grounds and spotted one of the birds we were hoping to see: a GAMBEL’S QUAIL, a double lifer. While I was inside, Pole also had a quick look at a Cooper’s Hawk. This was frustrating for me because it would have been a lifer. I got over it, though, because after driving around the refuge all day, we had a nice haul of lifers:

BLACK PHOEBE
CLARK’S GREBE
VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW
MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD
BREWER’S BLACKBIRD

We saw plenty of typical Illinois waterfowl like shovelers, teal,  gadwalls, etc. Who knows, maybe they flew down with us. But were also treated to southern specialties like a Greater Roadrunner and some Neotropic Cormorants. Finally, we saw two species variants that don’t count as lifers: a Mexican Mallard and a Red-shafted Northern Flicker. The grebe, with its long, elegant neck might have been the highlight, but the phoebe and the bluebird were also a treat.

After leaving, we had some green chile cheeseburgers at the Owl Bar Cafe. It’s a famous local spot, apparently, and though a little bit of a dive, it was fun. Then we drove back north to Albuquerque.