Blue Goose ~ Day 306

March 29, 2015 ~ Socorro, NM to Lordsburg, NM

Since we were driving south anyway and the old route goes through right Bosque, we headed there again. I wanted to show her the VC feeders which is where I once saw a Virginia's Warbler. But on the way, DHC caught a glimpse of something in the roadside ditch and wanted to check it out....a heavy yellow clay pot, a bit worn but intact and just sitting there forlornly waiting for her to come by. Into the trunk....

We also spotted a Curve-billed Thrasher and a Say's Phoebe hanging around a flatbed truck in someone's front yard.

Say's Phoebe - near Bosque del Apache NWR - NM

The phoebe was new for DHC; she was adding several birds a day to her list which was almost as much fun for me. We got to the VC just after 8:00 when it opened. The grounds were lovely with cottonwoods just starting to leaf out, smaller bushes and trees, numerous cacti, small gravel trails, impossibly blue skies, reddish earth and distant blue-grey mountains. Of course the sunshine embellished all of this....

A gentleman volunteer talked with DHC about meadowlark ID and had helpful hints. He then went to fill the feeders for the day. Since the birds literally "wait" outside for this to happen every morning, the staff also waits until the first human visitors show up so as to make the most of their bird feed which is greedily and quickly gobbled up. He told us that a Green-tailed Towhee was especially eager and would be close enough to touch (or nearly), and so it happened as we watched from inside. (Another life bird for DHC). A Spotted Towhee also showed up pecking around the brush pile. He threw some seed on the windowsills which attracted White-winged Doves for extreme closeups as they tried to perch on the narrow ledge, competing with numerous House Finches.

White-winged Dove - Bosque del Apache NWR- NM

One of Deborah's target birds (at this point the main one) was a Vermilion Flycatcher, and the volunteer marked three areas on the refuge map for us. We went off on a successful search, seeing a pair, the male exquisitely scarlet and black, perched high in a tree. And then we had the delight of a pair of Bushtits obviously engaged in nest building as they both had big pieces of white fluff in their mouths and were frenetically flying about. These birds eventually flew across the road and we reluctantly moved on.

DHC wanted a photos of Truth or Consequences so we stopped at the post office there briefly and then drove on to Lordsburg, NM, for the night. Dining options were nearly non-existent, but we found a small shabby restaurant by the RR tracks and had pretty awful Tex-Mex. It was really a dreary place but our motel (Comfort Inn) was fine. We were always glad to get off the road by late afternoon...out of the bright sunshine (which DHC really noticed and was slightly bothered by) and out of traffic. We had to drive hard the first few days to get to SE Arizona where everything became very reasonable as far as miles to go each day.

Deborah at Bosque del Apache NWR - NM