November 7-8, 2022 San Antonio, New Mexico

 74 and partly cloudy.

I am making progress on the masterpiece. We are now at the Bosque Birdwatchers RV Park on the border of the Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife refuge. Sandhill cranes, snow geese and many other birds winter here. It is in the middle of nowhere, so it is very quiet (except for the occasional train) and dark- or would be without the full moon. 

At the Bosque Del Apache Wildlife refuge today. Sandhill cranes. Sandhill cranes and snow geese landing. 

Beautiful clouds and fall cottonwoods. Snow Geese. 

Sandhill Cranes and thistle seed pods in the sunset. Sandhill cranes and snow geese in sunset. 

Sunset and sandhill cranes. Silhouetted sandhill cranes at the pull out near  our RV park. 

The full moon rising over the RV park through the clouds.  My photo of the total eclipse came out pretty grainy, but it was cool to see. It is so dark here that the stars were incredible during the eclipse. 

We spent the day at the Refuge. Our first hike was on the boardwalk in the marsh. There were pelicans on the lake. 

Then we hiked the Sparrow loop out into the desert. We are in the Chihuahua desert here, it has different plants that the Mohave and the Sonoran deserts we are used to. Great colors of the blue green bushes, red willows and blue lake and sky. At first I thought there was a swarm on tiny insects around the lake. But it was the cattail spikes disintegrating and releasing their cottony mass of wind dispersed seeds. The sign says "Humans are guests here. Maintain a respectful distance from the animals that call this place home. Rattlesnakes, coyotes, javelinas, elk, mountain lions and bobcats. Stay alert to avoid biting and stinging insects. Mosquito repellent is strongly recommended spring through fall.' We are here late enough that the insects are not around. But I did see a bobcat cross the road. We stopped at the Dabbler and diver deck. Dabblers and divers are the two main divisions among waterfowl. We saw neither at the deck. There are a lot of screwbean mesquite trees here, a good source of food for the animals. Down here they call them tornillos which is Spanish for screw. 

We drove around the scenic loops and found more birds. It was very windy so most of the birds were in this sheltered location on the south loop. We hiked the Rio Viejo trail that is along the old route of the Rio Grande River. The river has moved a little east to it's current bed. They removed all the invasive tamarisk trees and replanted native cottonwoods. The trail guide said it was 'must' hike for the fall, so we hiked it.  John in the cottonwoods. 

Golden cottonwoods along the Rio Viejo trail.

This deer watched us walk by. We returned to the Flight deck to watch the sandhill cranes come in for the night. There were not as many as last night, likely due to the wind. They are still amazing to watch. 

View from the Flight Deck. 

Sunset. The full moon rising in the RV park. 

We had dinner at the famous Owl Cafe. It is has world famous green chili cheese burgers. The cafe has been in this same building, run by 4 generations of the same family since 1945. The scientists that developed the first atomic bomb that was detonated just 40 miles from here at the Trinity site used to eat here. We ran into Billy who owns the RV park we are camped at. He is quite a character.