Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge can be visited in a few hours; however, I chose to spend two days. My second day I drove the south loop for a couple of hours. Less activity seemed to be happening on this loop compared to my previous day, yet I saw almost the same number of different bird species as the previous day. Also, 10 javelina were within my sight and I have a new bird for my life list: tundra swan! 

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I had only seen one bufflehead, but on this day I saw 15! Here is a male bufflehead:

I happened to notice this sharp-shinned hawk as I was walking toward a boardwalk hike I planned to take. Also saw this great blue heron in a roadside ditch and a bald eagle in the middle of the body of water!

My new bird though was a tundra swan. There were two of them on the water! These birds breed in the northern parts of Alaska and Canada, rarely seen this far south at anytime. How exciting to see them!

Just when I think I have seen it all, I see the tundra swans. It’s important to keep your eyes open since a bird may have just flown in or resurface from their dive. I was happy to take two days viewing wildlife at the national wildlife refuge. We are so fortunate to have these areas. Help protect them anyway you can, so you can visit and future generations of people can visit too! Thanks for doing your part.