Texas and New Mexico Day 3

The morning began early with breakfast at the motel around 6:30am and some birding in the parking lot with my first ticks of the trip, Great-Tailed Grackles (we would see many hundreds of these over the coming days) and White-Winged Doves. I also saw a Mourning Dove which was the first bird I saw last year.
We then headed south to the Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, stopping on the way to 'bird' a wetland area just off the roadside, where we saw our first Sandhill Cranes of the trip.

Sandhill Cranes in Flight

Arriving at the refuge we saw a huge mixed group of Lesser Snow and Ross' geese. The Snow geese included a few of the Greater and 'Blue morph' forms of the race and the Ross' were easily picked out by their size and the grey growth that covers their bill.

Snow and Ross' Geeese

Snow Geese (Inc. Blue Morph)

Snow Goose (Back) Ross' Goose (Front)

 We ate lunch at a roadside cafe called the Owl Bar where my request for something 'veggie' was received with bemused looks.
In the afternoon we headed back into the refuge where we saw many more Sandhill Cranes, with a few of the Lesser forms amongst them.
We then made our way to the reserve centre to check the feeders for Sparrows and chanced upon a covey of Gambel's Quail by the side of the road.

Gambel's Quail

At the centre, with James' guidance we were lucky enough to see a few of the rarer Scaled Quail, as well as Canyon Towhee and Pyrrhuloxia. We also had one of our few views of America's iconic national bird, the Bald Eagle, albeit distantly.

The scrub around the visitor centre was very productive with Yellow-rumped Warbler, Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon Race) and Western Bluebird.

The journey back to the motel provided lots more Sandhill Cranes.

After a quick shower we ate at a local restaurant and updated the bird list with the days sightings before turning in for the night.