We circled up the wagons with the rest of the birders last night in Whitewater’s little camping area. When we woke up this morning, the tens of thousands of Sandhill cranes were down to hundreds, and the temperature was down to 23 degrees. Our coldest night ever in VanGo. The heater worked like a champ. It must have been cold enough to push the cranes farther South, because we must have counted 50+ lines of 50 to 100 cranes each in the sky flying South. We did hear coyotes last night and a cacophony of crane calls. We don’t know if the cranes would fly off their roost in the dark or not. DR braved the frigid air to take a couple snapshots with the big 600 mm lens.
We planned for today to be a travel day and drive all day. We cut across the Southwest corner of New Mexico and finally made it into Texas. We went through Nogales and saw “the Wall” there, and drove past the point that DR remembered seeing the shanties on the Mexican side during his train trip to Aransas in 1996.
Today’s only other wildlife sightings were antelope and raptors. Sorry no pictures.
Laura’s about the same and dialing in her coping mechanisms.DR may be catching her cold/cough.
Tonight, after dining sumptuously (for vegans) at the local Subway, we are parked behind the McDonalds in Van Horn, Texas in a huge parking area that truckers use. Tomorrow we are off to Big Bend NP.
VanGo.blog 
We found the drive on TX Hwy 170 (junction in Presidio) paralleling the Rio Grande to Big Bend NP to be particularly remote & both interesting & beautiful. Once in the NP, we found the drives to both Santa Elena Cyn & Boquillas Cyn (both have campgrounds) well worth while. There also is a campground @ Chisos Mtn Lodge (quite high in altitude) with a campground as well as restaurant. Deer, black bear are often seen (not so much for cougars). A very large park, and not visited very much . . . I’m sure you are in for a treat.
Dave
P.S. – It’s more fun if you don’t have colds, so I suggest you get over them!
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