Texas and New Mexico Day 6

We began the day by heading to the Chiricahua Mountains in Arizona. It was an early start as it was a long drive. As usual we stopped if we saw anything interesting and at one of our halts we saw White-Throated Swifts flying around the rocky outcrops.
We spent the whole day birding the mountains with good views of some of our target species such as Mexican Chicadee and Mexican Jay. We also saw our only Yellow-Eyed Junco's of the trip, a separate species from the usual Dark-Eyed variety.
                             

We also chanced upon a large covey of Wild Turkey's , again our only sightings of the trip. We ate our lunch in a woodland clearing where we were lucky enough to have flock of Red Crossbills fly in.
On our way back down the mountains James suddenly brought the van to a halt and we were delighted to see several Montezuma's Quail, This was a species high on our target list for the area and we thought that we had 'dipped'. This sighting was a first for a Birdfinders winter tour.

Easy to miss

Montezuma's Quail

Whilst here we took the opportunity to 'bird' the area and James succeeded in getting an Arizona Woodpecker to respond to his taped calls and show right in front of us, another of our targets in 'the bag'.
We then started the long drive back to New Mexico and were speeding along the highway when there came a cry of 'OWL' 'OWL' 'OWL' as first Sue, then Adam then me let out a cry. Stopping rapidly and then reversing we were all delighted to see two Great-Horned Owls in a tree on the roadside.
We watched them for some time before they both flew off into the gathering gloom and leaving us to continue on our way.

Great-Horned Owl