Day Five of the DVOC field trip to New Mexico – Today we again returned to Bosque for the fly out and while we timed it again perfectly and again the geese performed wonderfully, the day started off cloudy so the Kodak moments were not as striking. As we were loading up the vans, a White-faced Ibis flew overhead. Our quick spin around the autoroute yielded another Black Phoebe, lots of ducks, Bald Eagles and a calling Eastern Phoebe and calling Marsh Wren. A quick visit back at the visitor center provided us with some last minute shopping opportunities and finally Gambel’s Quail. We had the first one perched up on the shrubs just outside the center’s front door and then had a covey of about ten at the feeders around back. The Green-tailed Towhee made a quick visit and a White-throated Sparrow popped into view briefly in the garden. From the refuge, we made a move south to bird Elephant Butte State Park and Anamas River. We stole some time here and there so we would not get to Percha State Park today as we had thought.

Anyway, a quick stop at the southern end of the Canyon trail gave us an opportunity for Crissal Thrasher, Black-throated Sparrow and Black-tailed Gnatcatcher. While scanning the tops of the bushes in the area, we stumbled upon two Crissal Thrasher and even though they were a bit distant, most of us managed to get them in the scopes. We also scared up the gnatcatcher although he proved very, very elusive and only a few people managed to get a good look and some people did not get a look at all. We gave it a really good try as he popped into view twice as we were about to board the vans and prolonged our stay here. Our next stop was Elephant Butte and a walk amongst the Creosote bushes produced a quick look for some at a Black-throated Sparrow and good looks for everyone at two different Sage Sparrows. From here, we returned into town for lunch at Hodge’s Corner Restaurant. After lunch, we went to scan the lake and see if we could find several species of grebes, Neotropic Cormorants, both Brown and American White Pelicans, a Common Loon and an Osprey. This list represents a list of expected and recently seen rarities.

From our first overview, we were able to find quite a few Clark’s Grebes, 1 Eared Grebe and 2 or 3 Western Grebes. We also had some Neotropic and Double-crested Cormorants. We decided to go to the end of the boat ramp in hopes of a better view of the lake. We were successful in that we had much closed looks a one Western Grebe and were able to scan the roosting gulls from a much closer position.
Several Herring Gulls were easily picked out from the numerous Ring-billed Gulls and after several scans, an adult California Gull was picked out and everyone was able to see it and pick out the differences in bill and leg color. We still had a few target species here at the lake so we went in search of another viewpoint. We came to a rather distant viewing point and almost did not scan the lake but fortunately made the correct executive decision to take peak. While scanning a group of approximately a dozen American White Pelicans, Nancy picked up the juvenile Brown Pelican, shortly thereafter; the Osprey flew in and landed on the mudflats. We then picked up a Spotted Sandpiper and a Greater Yellowlegs. As we retraced our steps we came across at least 5 Sage Thrashers, lots more Gambel’s Quail and some White-winged Doves.

We then headed south on Route 25 to get to the Anamas River area. Our targets here were riparian species and Western Screech-Owl. Here amongst the Cottonwoods and Arizona Sycamore trees we had a few Acorn Woodpeckers, Red-naped Sapsuckers, Dark-eyed Juncos, a Phainopepla and a pair of Bridled Titmouse. We then went to work on coaxing the owl into view. For a while it seemed as if we would have to again be content with just hearing the owl but just a dark was settling in it flew into the trees just above our heads. Everyone was very satisfied and happy with this great close to a long day. A very tired and quiet group checked into the Best Western Inn in Truth or Consequences before having dinner. Tomorrow we get to sleep in, as breakfast will be at seven before some local birding in the T or C area.