If you decide to make the trip to Bosque, plan on paying at least $50 a night for accommodations for two, if you stay in Socorro. If your pets travel with you, only the Motel 6, Super 8, and Days Inn accept pets and all of them charge extra for them.

There are two bed and breakfasts and an RV park in San Antonio, NM. I’m discovering most RV parks do not allow tent campers – and it was pretty chilly for sleeping in the tent anyway. I admit I didn’t even bother checking the B&Bs, as I expected them to be out of our budget range.

We stayed in Socorro at the Days Inn and found it to be very nice. Clean, with a good sized refrigerator, microwave, even an ironing board and hair dryer, as well as a real bathtub (instead of just a shower stall). The high-speed Internet gave us a good connection, once we figured out where to place the computer in the room (by the window).

The refuge is eighteen miles or so from Socorro. Go south nine miles on I-25 to San Antonio (exit #139). East ¼ mile on State Route 380, then right (south) onto old State Route 1 and 9 miles to the Visitor Center for the refuge.

As a quick side note – if you go on down Route 1 you will find Fort Craig – a Civil War ruin, as well as the new Camino del Real museum. We didn’t make it to Fort Craig, as the dirt road leading to the ruins was too rough for our little car. I’ve been told the museum is well worth a visit, but we spent the entire day at the refuge and didn’t have time – this time.

There is no charge to visit the Visitors Center at the refuge, and the 12-mile motor loop costs only $3 per car per day. You can purchase an audiotape tour for the motor loop at the Visitors Center. I believe some of the hiking trails into the refuge may be free. All in all, it is a very inexpensive destination – so spend a few bucks in their gift shop while you’re there!

We set out early to the refuge. Before we left, a Raven stalking the Days Inn parking lot supervised our packing and squawked his approval.

Before we even entered the refuge we began seeing birds. Two Kingfishers sat on a power line as a Sandhill Crane grazed the field below. A Swainson’s Hawk hovered low over the tall grass hunting his breakfast.

A pond right inside the gates was full of ducks. At the time, the sun was low and behind them, so all I could see were silhouettes. On our way out later in the day, I was able to identify them as Northern Pintails, Northern Shovelers, and Gadwalls.

We chose to skip the Visitors Center and go right into the motor loop, paying our fee at the kiosk there. As we filled out the envelope, a Zone Tailed Hawk floated over the marsh grasses barely a hundred feet from us, intent on his hunting.

Taking the Marsh Loop first, we passed a long wetland full of sandpipers. The sun was still behind them, but we think they were Wilson’s Snipe and I know I heard the familiar calls of Killdeer.

I had noted a couple of hikes I particularly wanted to take, taking into consideration the terrain and length. One of them was the Marsh Walk, an easy 1.2 mile hike. We took the boardwalk over the marsh lake to join up with the trail.

I could have spent all day on the board walk watching the double-crested Cormorants, American Coots, and my first ever Clark’s Grebes, fishing in the lake. But even better, as we were standing there in the cold wind admiring the water birds, flocks of black birds began streaming overhead and landing in the marsh reeds, filling them with sound. Red-Winged Blackbirds, and another first for me – one bird I have longed to see for years – Yellow-Headed Blackbirds. By now you could have just dipped me into that cold water and never phased my enthusiasm one bit!

We headed on down the sandy trail, admiring the desert scenery and backdrop of blue mountains with mist at their feet. Sandhill Cranes circled high overhead. (img 2)
The air was full of bird song. The hubby and I decided we definitely need to work harder on learning to identify the various songs. A pair of hawks hovered over the marsh, and snow geese flew overhead in flocks to their feeding grounds.

Crows flew cawing over, and tiny birds teased us flitting through the underbrush. We passed a set of deer tracks that were so large my entire hand fit into one. Several times we passed canine scat. During our stay in Arizona, I got familiar with coyote scat, but this looked different. It may be they eat something different here – or perhaps it was a different canine.

Raccoon tracks preceded us down the trail as we came near the road again. I made one last trip up the boardwalk while the hubby visited the porta-potty at the trailhead. (That was some porta-potty – handicapped accessible, a seat that automatically flips up, and a dispenser for waterless hand disinfectant).

In spite of the cold and wind, I felt like I was in heaven standing in the center of the boardwalk – Cormorants on a snag on my left soaking up the morning sun on spread wings, Clark’s Grebe’s fishing right in front of me, American Coots paddling around on my right. The reeds surrounding the pond were bursting with bird song, with the occasional soloist Red-Winged or Yellow-Headed Blackbird taking a place on the tallest reed and singing their hearts out.

Climbing back into the car, we returned to creeping slowly down the loop. A hawk caught our eye and although because of the light we never saw him well enough to identify him – James got a great photo as he took off.




As we slowly passed the next wet area and the light improved we were able to identify Northern Pintails, Mallard Ducks, our old pals Canadian Geese, Sandhill Cranes, and a murder of Crows. In a dryer spot, a Southern Flicker posed on a tree stump just long enough to be identified, and flew away flashing his coral wing linings so we could be sure.

The landscape in November is all gold and green on buff, backed by hills decorated with green fuzz. Purple mountains provide a backdrop below an azure blue sky, brushed with a few strokes of white clouds.

We pass a group of three Sandhill Cranes standing near the road. One played watchdog while the other two grazed.





A Roadrunner dashed past, and the first of several large dragonflies zoomed past the windshield, seeming to pause and stare inside at the people – as if they were as curious about us as we were about them. We made a mental note to come back near the end of summer to see dragonflies – it seems with this environment, there should be nearly as many (and different) dragonflies here as in Bitter Water Wildlife Refuge near Roswell, at about the same time as their Dragonfly Festival.

It was nearly lunchtime, so we turned onto the exit road to discover a huge wetland covered with snow geese like a rumpled white sheet tossed over a blue silk mattress.







This is the Bosque sight everyone comes to see. Snow geese, with a few Sandhill Cranes, Ravens, Northern Pintails, and Canadian Geese gathered around the edges of the great white and gray flock. No photo or words can do the sight justice – although many have tried. You’ve really got to come down here and see it yourself!

On our way on out of the refuge to stop at the Visitors Center and have lunch we passed a solitary Great Blue Heron. They seem to follow me like crows follow the husband. A Gadwall paddled hurriedly down the irrigation canal beside us.

Stay tuned for part 2…

BTW - I've uploaded a bunch of the hubby's bird photos to Fre-eCards.com so you can send them as ecards.

Good birding!