Well we’re on the official day one of the mini-vacation. We made it into Roswell NM around noon, and then decided to go to the UFO museum.

There were several different large dioramas that included:

This diorama was cool–it actually came alive briefly (video is on instagram and will be uploaded to the facebook page, and once I set up an youtube channel, the video will be there as well).

Here is another diorama, that is showing an alien in clear glass container–it looks like it is sleeping.

So there were numerous different categories of things that can be assumed to be UFOs (nocturnal lights, daylight discs, radar/visual and then there are three different kinds of “close encounters–1st, 2nd, & 3rd).

There were numerous different things also posted from the history of the UFO crash outside of Roswell in ’47 all the way through different things that can be thought to be UFOs (including different nocturnal lights and the different ways that they are pictured that can be confused as UFOs).

The final diorama:

This was an actual prop from the 1994 Showtime movie Roswell.

They also had a library of UFO books:

This is just showing one of the large bookcases that is filled with books on UFOs, aliens, and all related things.

After the museum, we grabbed lunch at a local Mexican restaurant. After lunch, we then went to drive through the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Since it’s late May, there weren’t a lot of migratory birds around, but we did see a few birds. Also managed to hear a rattlesnake (but luckily didn’t see it; which I don’t know if that was lucky or not).

View of the Bitter Lake with the mesas in the background. On the other side of the mesas is the Pecos River (though that didn’t have that much water going through it this time of the year).

Barely managed to get a picture of the quail after the pair ran across the road. One went straight into the brush, and the second one stayed out for awhile, before heading into the brush itself.

Hadn’t seen any ibises since we’d been to South Padre Island several years ago. Managed to see this one wade through and feed for several minutes. The White face Ibis is listed as a species that is seen occasionally within the refuge, but when you google the bird–glossy also looks similar, so that is why I’m not 100% certain that which one it is.

Saw several of these stilts wading through the water as well. This was the first time that I’d seen these birds (though there may have also been some down at South Padre Island, but I don’t remember seeing them).

And then finally saw:

There was an actual overlook called: Dragonfly Overlook. I saw this one at a different overlook (I think it was the sandhill crane overlook).

This would be a great place to come back to during one of the migratory periods and see different bird species as they move through. Even showing up closer to dusk would be interesting to see what type of mammals could be moving around as well (I think it would be cool to see a bobcat in the wild).