All year: Pied-billed Grebe, Red-winged Blackbird.
Summer: Cinnamon Teal.
Winter: Long-tailed Duck (rare).
Migrant: Baird’s Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, White-faced Ibis.

Laguna Madre and Stubblefield Lake are on private property that is open to the public thanks to an Open Gate agreement with New Mexico Game and Fish. The property includes Stubblefield Lake, Laguna Madre, and some surrounding prairie. The property is estimated to be 2300 acres in total. Stubblefield Lake is approximately 950 acres when full, and Laguna Madre can fill to at least 300 surface acres. During dry years the lakes can shrink to puddles, then refill quickly during monsoon rains.

There are no facilities other than a boat ramp on Stubblefield Lake. The ramp is high-and-dry when the lake levels are low.

Few people visit Laguna Madre, a more shallow and intermittent body of water. Stubblefield is popular with local anglers, and the lake is stocked by New Mexico Game and Fish.

Regulations for this property are that for visitors not to be considered trespassing, they or someone they are with must have a valid New Mexico hunting or fishing license. Each properly licensed hunter or angler is allowed to be accompanied by no more than two guests.

The area attracts large numbers of bald eagles during winter. A spotting scope is a necessity, helping to view distant shorebirds and waterfowl.

To get to either Stubblefield Lake or Laguna Madre from I-25, take the Maxwell Exit 426. At the stop sign, turn right and travel north on NM-445 for 0.8 miles. At NM-505, turn left. The most direct manner of accessing Stubblefield Lake is to travel west for 7 miles, then turn right onto a dirt track (unmarked), where you will quickly see the NMGFD sign. The dirt road will take you northeast along the eastern shores of both Stubblefield Lake and Laguna Madre. After about 4.25 miles, at approximately the midpoint of the eastern shore of Laguna Madre, there is a dirt road going west. This shortly becomes County Road A-1 (also called Laguna Madre Road), where at the entrance to the Open Gate area is located a sign identical to the one at the southern (Stubblefield Lake) entrance off NM-505. Alternatively, 2 miles before reaching that southern entrance after you've turned on to NM-505 from NM-445, you can take CR-A1 north to the northern (Laguna Madre) entrance. All directions involving CR-A1 are confusing because it travels both north-south and east-west.