At the Bosque Friday Evening

This is one of the videos we shot as the cranes returned to the North Pond at Bosque del Apache NWR  from foraging during the day. They are magnificent birds, thrilling to watch and hear. Mesmerizing, really.

The sunset wasn't bad, either!

Sunset at Bosque del Apache NWR, 11/16/12

Goin' to the Bosque

2012 Festival of the Cranes, Bosque del Apache NWR, NM

Last week I mentioned the multitude of birds we see around here, including sandhill cranes which fly in formations over our place daily and feed in the recently plowed farm fields nearby.

They -- and many other birds -- winter in the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge out of San Antionio, about 60 miles south and west along the banks of the Rio Grande. Every year the Friends of the Bosque (Anglos say "Boss-key," everyone else says "Bohz-kay") hosts the week-long Festival of the Cranes, one of the most elaborate international gatherings of bird-watchers and naturalists and citizens I've ever imagined. There are so many activities and events through the week that it's easy to get exhausted just reading the list (pdf). The brochure (pdf) is 44 pages long.

So we're going to do some of the events today -- heading out to the Bosque this morning to see the birds (though most if not all of the cranes will already be gone by the time we get there -- many will be feeding nearby our home to the north -- there should still be a good many other birds on the waters) then out to the Very Large Array west of Socorro (a destination we've failed to reach several times previously), then back to the Bosque in the afternoon when some of the cranes should be returning, then in the evening, we're planning to head to a star party at the observatories at New Mexico Tech in Socorro.

I suspect it will be a very full day.

The first outfit we joined after we moved here was Friends of the Bosque, something we've been intending to do in any case, but once we saw the hundreds and hundreds of cranes flying over this place, it seemed like a sign to get with it. They are magnificent birds in flight or on the ground, and all the other bird-life in these parts is amazing. People around here adore the birds, and even though there are lots of feral cats and other predators about, the birds seem to flourish in great numbers. The grackles are some of our favorites, especially when they're dancing! (Most people consider them pests, but we like their constant cheery attitudes... and of course their songs!)

There is also a prairie dog village next to the community center up the road from our place; it is quite extensive and seems to be expanding into another field across the road. That would be something because in many places prairie dogs (aka: "American Meerkats") are in decline.While I used to see the creatures when I passed by, I haven't seen any since we got here in October, and I need to find out what's happened. I hope it wasn't eradicated.

We're still unpacking, of course, and we're still in the midst of the outrages of The Saga of Refinancing Our Home. This has been going on since June, and the latest word we got was "we hope to close your loan by the end of November! Isn't that wonderful?!" Yeah, right. How many times have I heard something like that? I have hesitated to write about it for the simple reason that it is off topic, but the upshot has more than a little to do with why the People's Economy, as opposed to that of the corporate and financial sector, is in such desperate straits.

In a word: Incompetence. But there's also a great deal of... well, let's let it marinate for a bit longer.

The stories I could tell.

But that's for another time.

The Birds

 
Sandhill Cranes and snow geese at Bosque del Apache NWR, Michael Mauro/Mauromedia

One thing we've noticed since we've been here in New Mexico is the abundance of bird life. We've had swallows nesting in the eaves of the front porch forever, and we've noticed lots of grackles, doves, sparrows, larks and other birds proliferating in the area and on our trees, but over the week or so that we've been here permanently, we've discovered that we're under the flyway for sandhill cranes.

We knew about the snow geese and other geese that use this flyway, and we knew there were cranes on the other side of the Manzanos and Sandias, but we didn't realize they were local here, too. They don't just fly by in great flocks, they feed in the plowed or harvested fields not far away, sometimes by the many dozens, they apparently use the saline lakes in the region, and they are a nearly constant presence. I can hear them outside now.

The Festival of the Cranes at the Bosque del Apache NWR near Socorro is November 13-18, so we may have to take a little time to visit. The count of sandhill cranes stands at 300 as of a couple of days ago. I think we've seen -- and heard -- close to that many overhead at our place quite a few miles north.

I've seen lots of raptors in the area as well, including one huge golden eagle sitting placidly on a fencepost down the road and a whole bunch of Cooper's and red-tailed hawks among others.

Of course the ravens and the crows are common; they love to follow the horses around in the field nearby. Woodpeckers love our trees. I'm not surprised, the droughts having left a lot of dead branches which we have not had the opportunity to clear and may not do in any case unless we need branches for more coyote fencing.