Bosque del Apache NWR just south of San Antonio, NM

Monday, September 24, 2018

Today we leave the Los Alamos area after visiting our daughter and family after 2+ months. We will miss all of them.

We are headed to Socorro, NM for the night. We plan to arrive by noon.

We are parked in Socorro at the Socorro Rodeo Grounds RV park.

We are the only RV in the park. This is looking from behind the coach. Below is looking from the front of the coach. Nothing special, but only $25 with full hookups.

We are going to meet our friends, Bob and Kathi Hailey for lunch then head to the NWR. The Haileys are volunteering for 2+ months at Bosque del Apache NWR. We are blessed to have them give us a private guided tour of the refuge. This is basically a bird refuge. In October the crane start arriving for the winter.  Unfortunately we are a few weeks too early to see the cranes. However we did get to see other types of birds etc.

 Some of the pelicans had arrived.

 It was a nice warm day and there were lots of turtles enjoying the sun. 

 Based on my bird app on my phone I think this is a black phoebe.  It was small.

 Tic even got this close-up of this dragonfly. Pretty cool!

We thought it was funny to see this turtle stretching.

 This little doe was out grazing in the middle of the afternoon.

From this road in the park, we had beautiful views of the mountains.

 I believe Kathi and Bob called these a Night Crane.

 There are several ponds in the refuge. We got some great pictures!

This blue heron just landed near the pelicans. Beautiful birds!

 Another beautiful pond area. This is early evening in Bosque del Apache.

This bird was sitting posed like this.

In the evening we saw these killdeers.

Isn't this blue heron magnificent?

There were a few large white herons also.

You can't tell the legs are yellow but they are. These birds above and below are named Yellowlegs.

The sun came out briefly and highlighted the pelicans.

Above and below are some pretty sunset pictures Tic got at the refuge.

Bob and Tic are taking pictures as I watch.  Kathi took both the above and below pictures.

It was a wonderful afternoon and evening.  We can't thank Kathi and Bob enough! We are going to have to plan a trip to Bosque del Apache in late October sometime.  Tomorrow we head to Pie Town, NM.