Bosque del Apache Critters

Our last blog mentioned that we were near Bosque del Apache NWR, and we took the opportunity to check out some of the critters on the refuge. The first thing that we noted was how green and lush the refuge was. We were told by several folks that New Mexico was enjoying an unusually wet summer.

The first thing we saw was this pair of Raccoons fishing around in the shallow muddy water of a pond. We never saw them catch anything, but they certainly kept at it.

Raccoons looking for a snack.

There was a small flock of White Pelicans on the same pond, with a Great Blue Heron patrolling the mudflat.

White Pelicans

We also saw a few American Avocets sweeping the water with their unique upturned bills. They are already out of their colorful breeding plumage and into their more subtle winter feathers. 

American Avocets

Back at the campground we were treated to this Gambel's Quail sentry calling over and over again from the top of a fencepost. 

Gambel's Quail

About a dozen more were on the ground, but they were doing a good job of hiding. I managed to snap this one male before he disappeared into the bushes. 

Onward to the Ruidoso area!!

Mark

Have You Ever Been To Bosque del Apache?

Seems like any time we mention we’re going to be in New Mexico someone asks if we've ever been to Bosque. 

We’ve been here several times but never as a volunteer.  Many, many, many years ago we came here during Thanksgiving to see the cranes and geese fly out.

If you've never seen it, it is well worth getting up while it’s still dark and braving the chilly weather!

We usually stop in the Visitor Center to see if we know the volunteers that are working.  We’ve worked with some of these volunteers at other refuges.  This trip, we’ll probably be in and out before the VC opens.

Since then we’ve come this direction several times.  We always stay at the Birdwatchers RV park, right down the road from the refuge.  It’s nothing special, a little run down.  But, it’s the closest RV park to the refuge and is just fine for a night or two.

We crossed into New Mexico this morning and are only going to stay at this park one night. We’re only driving about 85 miles tomorrow.  We’ll stay a few days in the Ruidoso area.

Cooling off in Arizona

We’ve been spending a few days in Heber-Overgaard, Arizona.  We’re just relaxing and visiting with friends.

We staying at a wonderful RV park called Elk Pines.  We stayed here in 2010 (see blog from May 15-21, 2010) and really enjoyed the area.  It’s also a Passport America park so the site is half off for us.

At 6627 feet elevation, it’s nice and cool.  We’re having afternoon showers.  Even had a little soft hail yesterday.

We’ve been visiting with friends Bill and Karen that we volunteered with at Inks Lake State Park (Texas) this past Winter.  They have a super cute cabin up here and we’ve spent some time playing disc golf.

Our other friends that are here are John and Karen, who were camp hosts at Rocky Mountain National Park when we were there in 2010.  You might remember the blog I posted about the beautiful sign John made for us (see blog June 21, 2011).  He also sells these wonderful (and very sharp!) knives and surprised us with these two: 

I have 3 knives that I got a couple of years ago when we met up with John and Karen and use them all the time (and, they’re made in the USA - yea!).

Mark has been doing some work while we’re here.  He bought this snazzy headset so he can talk and type at the same time: 

There are three 18-hole disc golf courses in the area and he’s played all of them (more than once):

I’m still crocheting:

We’ve been doing a little reading, in our spare time.  I have a Kindle, Mark is still old school - actual books.

And, we found our 100th geocache:

We’re leaving tomorrow for Bosque del Apache, New Mexico.  Eventually, we will get to Texas.

Teri

Arizona

We’ve been traveling for 12 days and have just crossed the Arizona state line. 

The red sandstone mountains are beautiful. 

We’re staying (only one night) at a campground just down the road from Lake Powell.

Heading out tomorrow to Show Low, Arizona.  We were in Show Low in 2010 and really enjoyed the area.  We’re looking forward to visiting with friends and enjoying some cooler mountain air.

Teri

Utah

After disc-golfing our way through Idaho, we’ve crossed over into Utah.  

Mark will be playing disc golf, we might look for a couple of geocaches, and we’ll be visiting family while we’re here.

Not much to blog about (unless you would like to see pictures of lots of disc golf courses!).

When I showed the picture of Mark’s disc collection a couple of blogs ago, I forgot to mention that he won a lot of those discs in competitions.  Some of them are souvenir disc from the various competitions. 

He either won or received 15 disc just from his last competition!

He’s also started collecting the mini disc (they have the name of the course or state printed on them).  When you live most of your time in an RV, there is not a lot of space for collections!

I also finished my 29th afghan of the year: 

After Utah we’ll be heading to Arizona where we will be visiting with friends and playing more disc golf.

Teri

World Center for Birds of Prey

Teri and I have spent the last couple of day in the Boise, Idaho area. While much dryer and browner than northern Idaho is is still an interesting place to see.

One of the places that we visited was the World Center for Birds of Prey, which is the headquarters for The Peregrine Fund. They started out as an organization to save the Peregrine Falcon, but have since gone on to conserve many other species including the Aplomado Falcon and California Condor.

During the two winters that we volunteered at Laguna Atascosa NWR we saw many of the re-introduced Aplomado Falcons and knew of the Peregrine Fund's work down there, but we never had direct contact with any of their biologists.

We arrived just in time to catch their last presentation of the afternoon. Their biologist explained the history of the Peregrine Fund and showed us a male Peregrine Falcon that they used for education.

We talked with him a bit afterwards and mentioned our time down in the Valley seeing the Aplomado Falcons. That got the two of us a "secret" tour of the back areas here he showed us a recently arrived Aplomado from Laguna that had a broken leg. We also got to look at other falcons, hawks, and owls in the back. 

Once back out into the public areas we viewed an Ornate Hawk-Eagle which is a species that we've seen in the wild in Belize and Panama.

We finally headed back outside where we viewed a captive breeding pair of California Condors in a large flight cage. Faces only a mother could love!!

These folks are doing some good things, and we were pleased to make the visit. 

Mark

A Nice Surprise

We spoke to Ranger Errin about our plans to visit 3 Idaho state parks on our way out of Idaho.  She told us to let her know which parks and what day we planned on arriving and she would call ahead to get us one free night at each park! 

But wait - It gets even better.

Our first stop is at Hells Gate State Park in Lewiston, Idaho.  We walked into the Visitor Center, told them who we were.  Not only were they ready for us, they knew we wanted to stay two nights and told us they would both be free.  And, they put us in a premium site, right by the Snake River.

Now that is a nice way to treat your volunteers!