One of the big draws for the Bosque del Apache NWR is the large number of Sandhill cranes that spend the winter on the refuge. Our trip was in late October/early November and the Sandhill cranes had already arrived in great numbers… as well as Snow geese, Canada geese and all other species of waterfowl, including ducks.

As I think I said in a post regarding the Bosque last year, I think I’ve found where any White-crowned sparrows that leave the PacNW go to winter. The Bosque has hundreds of the White-crowned sparrows and they seemed to be spread across the entire refuge.

There are lots of meadowlarks both on the refuge and in surrounding farm fields. I never take the time to try to sort them out since both species can be in that area and the only apparent way to identify them is by their vocalization. I’m too busy taking photos to try to identify calls from individual birds.

The common quail on the refuge is the Gambol’s quail, and they are very numerous in the vicinity of the headquarters complex.

There are always a number of raptors in and around the refuge and this year was no exception. Here is a female American kestrel I located just off the refuge.

To illustrate a point… I keep far too many images. The photos of the female American kestrel shown above are three of eight I took, and kept, of this same bird on the same perch. Which would YOU discard?