Day Four of the DVOC Field Trip to New Mexico – Today we had an early start (6:00AM) to be at Bosque Del Apache for the morning fly out. For the first time on this trip, we did not have snow. In fact, it was a clear and wonderful morning. The temperature was about freezing with prospects of no precipitation and a mostly sunny day. We left right on time and arrived at the flight deck just as the first glow of the sunrise was coming over the mountains.

We had timed it perfectly as most of the Snow and Ross’ Geese were still on the pool and the cranes were still asleep. Slowly the geese became more and more active and started flying off in small groups. Then just as the sun was peaking over the mesa, the entire flock took to the air in a cacophony of wings whirring and geese honking. It was a tremendous explosion of sight and sound and truly the type of moment many of us had hoped to see and would never forget. Several 1000 geese flew off to feed in the nearby fields why several 1000 circled back to the pool to wait for a later departure time. This flock “christened” Adrian as he tried to capture the splendor of the moment in a picture. We waited as the sun rose higher and higher in the sky and did not leave this area until the sun was up; the cranes were awake and beginning to depart.

We then took a quick drive along part of the autoroute finding several Hooded Mergansers and a good size flock of Redheads. We made a quick stop at the Nature Center for a pit stop and we were on our way back to the motel to pickup anything we needed for the rest of the day. We also stopped at a supermarket to pick up lunch for our visit to Water Canyon. The road to Water Canyon was still somewhat snow covered and above the campground was closed but this was not a problem as the campground was our turnaround point anyway. We birded our way up the road to the canyon picking up Red-naped Sapsucker, Western Scrub Jay, Juniper Titmouse and Bushtits. A stop about half way from the turnoff to the canyon road and the campground we stopped at an Acorn Woodpecker larder tree and had a group of four Acorn Woodpeckers. In this area, we also had Western Bluebirds, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Pine Siskins and at least 2 more sapsuckers. We made it to the campground a little before noon and had a picnic lunch there. A walk around the area in hopes of Western Screech-owl turned into a nice post-lunch walk, as we could not coax out an owl. We worked our way back down the road, picking up the titmouse for the people who missed it on the way up and then headed to the “ponds” at the New Mexico Tech.

While the only waterfowl we had at the ponds was American Wigeon, we did have White-winged Doves, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Brown Creeper and more Red-breasted Nuthatches. From here, we returned to Bosque to again see was in the area and catch the fly in and hopefully a sunset as spectacular as sunrise had been. A brief incident in the lead vehicle resulted in the back-up van taking the point out of San Antonio. The less said about the incident the better but had we been playing “Survivor” we would be in need of a new navigator. Rumor has it the vote would have been unanimous on whose torch was extinguished this day. Apparently, his sense of humor was less than overwhelmingly received. Anyway, as we drove towards the refuge, a Harlan’s Hawk flew and perched in the fields east of the road. This bird was very dark and had a white tail with a terminal black band. It is a striking bird and the first or second viewing of this phase of a Red-tail that most of the group had ever seen. Along with the blue Ross’ Goose, we were beginning to develop a trend to finding these dark western specialties.

Our drive around the autoroute again was rewarded with a few Bald Eagles, several Say’s and one Black Phoebe, a group of 13 White-fronted Geese, a Lesser Yellowlegs and another fly in spectacle. While watching the geese and cranes we had a Coyote feeding on some misfortunate duck. Again, the mix of sight and sound was wonderful and the only thing missing was a wonderful sunset to serve as a backdrop. The day ended on a cloudy note so we headed straight back to Socorro rather than waiting for sunset. On the way back we had a Great Horned Owl perched on one of the telephone poles. Because some of us wanted to return to the Socorro Springs Brew Pub and others wanted to go back to Frank and Lupe’s we decided to split up for dinner. After all what is the point of having two vehicles if you cannot make such a simple thing work. Anyway, we met for our checklist in the lobby at 6:30 and then headed off to dinner. Tomorrow we would again visit Bosque Del Apache before heading south. In the afternoon, we would be birding Elephant Butte Reservoir and the riparian region of Percha Dam before settling in to Truth or Consequences for the first of two nights.