Today we see only our second new US tick of the trip. We took Highway 118 north, heading for the Texas New Mexico border, with our first stop at the Lawrence E Wood picnic area just 20 miles or so from our overnight stop at Fort Davis. This excellent wooded valley produced Hepatic Tanager, Western Bluebird and White-breasted Nuthatch – all new for the trip list. It was then a long drive to El Paso and lunch. It was on this stretch of road, before we joined the 10, that I glanced a couple of familiar birds out of the window. They were meadowlark – but which one? I executed a quick u-turn and we got grab shots from the car. Jane was running Merlin as the birds helpfully called. Chihuahuan Meadowlark conclusively identified – our second US tick of the trip. In truth we’ve probably seen it before but as a recent split, which is difficult to identify on plumage alone, it’s the first time of being conscious we’d seen it. A city park in El Paso at lunch added a couple more trip ticks before we crossed the State line and arrived at our motel in Las Cruces. We ended our birding day with a visit to Mesilia Valley Bosque SP which was unfortunately closed for the night but did see some lovely birds along this stretch of the Rio Grande.