Bosque del Apache, October 30

 Today we had an expedition to Bosque del Apache which is about 150 miles north of Las Cruces. It was a sunny day, but rather chilly (50s) and windy. Mark and I were not bothered as the light was beautiful with bright blue skies, but Jan said it was not the best weather for the area.

    We were excited to go there as the sandhill cranes are starting to arrive for winter quarters and also because Jecca and Willy worked there when they were newly married and we have never been there.
    We arrived there around 2:30 and went to the visitor center where we bought a few items (Jec, Willy, some cards, a Raven Lunatic t-shirt for Mark, and a Western Bird book for Jan) and read the information.            . 
     Then Jan drove us on the loop.
      We saw hundreds (thousands?) of sandhill cranes, thousands of snow geese and Ross's geese. We also saw western grebes, pie-billed grebes, coot, pintail ducks, some redheads and others we did not identify, but will once we have some help with the photos we took.
    The birds of prey were incredible: a bald eagle in a snag that was attacked by brave crows, a golden eagle, northern harriers, red tails and a kestrel, or maybe it was a merlin.
    We also saw other wildlife including a small group of javalina, a wild "pig" that is native to the Southwest, and herds of mule deer. We had never seen javalina before. A bobcat had been sighted earlier, but we did not see it.

      We stayed in the park until the sunset to see the sandhill cranes coming in. We were very impressed as the formations landed. (Jan said that in another week there will be thousands and thousands.)
      We got home around 8:30 and had some spiced avocados that Jan made - yum. We also caught the last inning of the last game of the World Series. The Washington Nationals beat the Houston Astros. It was the Nationals first World Series ever.
        It was a spectacular and memorable day.