April 16. We continued on our way to Big Bend, turning south at Sonora. It was cool, and threatened rain. We saw rows and rows of wind turbines on the hills to the north of us. We crossed a river with many interesting ducks, but they all flushed before we could scope them. We saw a white-breasted hawk in a cactus, but were unable to identify it. The closest we could come is a Short-tailed Hawk.



As we got closer to Big Bend, the hills and then mountains started to appear. At one point we thought we were entering the land of the Lord of the Rings.

We stopped at the visitor centre at Panther Junction, and watched several Cactus Wrens flit about the parking lot. This is the symbol of Big Bend, so we thought we would get plenty of good photos later. Wrong!



We drove up 1000’ to Chisos Mountain Lodge via several switchbacks amid spectacular scenery. We got our lodge room, and saw another Cactus Wren perched on the car while unloading luggage. Once again no camera ready. But an obliging Say’s Phoebe did perch for us. We had a nice meal in the dining room and watched a spectacular sunset through a break in the mountains called The Window.