We had chosen our route through the United States to check out some birding sites. We had read that the sandhill cranes migrate from their summer home in northern Alberta to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge to spend the winter. So we decided to find them along their path.
We started in the Maxwell National Wildlife Refuge just over the border from Colorado. We actually saw hundreds of sandhill cranes there. We were so excited to see the big birds eating, flying, and enjoying the water.
We also saw several hawks along the way.
The beautiful red-tailed hawks were hunting along the roads in Maxwell and we spotted a rough-legged hawk near the sandhill cranes. In Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge we saw another one looking down at us. We did not see many sandhill cranes in Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge but did see this one pair.