Friday Foto

You might want to enlarge this picture to really see it.

Take it on the Road part II

Bosque del Apache is Spanish for "woods of the Apache," and comes from the Spanish who saw Apaches regularly camped in the riverside forests. Now, the name has come to mean one of the most spectacular National Wildlife Refuges in North America. Tens of thousands of birds: sandhill cranes, Arctic geese, and many kinds of ducks, fly here in the fall and stay through the winter. At dawn and dusk there is a mass exodus of geese and cranes coming and going from their roosting in the marshes.

The area is divided into a figure eight driving loop. One half of the loop is woodsy and I've never seen any cranes around. This trip was no exception. In fact, except for different kinds of ducks and some beautiful scenery it was downright boring. I imagine my SIL and MIL were wondering why they even came.

Notice the branches along the banks (to stop erosion?) There were some really pretty views of the Chupadera Mountains.
I was able to practice my zooming skills on the distant ducks and geese.

The red plants are Salt Cedar, an invasive species, but aren't they pretty? There wasn't much wildlife activity unless you really looked. At one of the viewing decks, we happened to talk with some people of a car we had passed along the road. They had been pulled off along one of the side roads looking at something. It turns out, they were looking at a pair of bobcats in the distance. She showed me some excellent photos as proof. Too bad we missed it.

We were hoping to miss these guys, however.
Across the lake, the trees held a national treasure. On the very left is an adult Bald Eagle and there are two young eagles near him. If you look closely, you can see at least three or four other young eagles in the tree on the right. Notice the geese and cranes in front. We'd finally found the waterfowl we were looking for.

Here's a closer view of the Eagles.

Although the numbers of cranes and geese were down this year from other years, I think I managed to get some lucky shots.

Raptor looking at me!

Here's my SIL and a stranger looking at the birds in the distance.
Dance of the Sandhill Cranes
Solo flight


Here's Sally.





Take it on the Road - song: Always Crashing in the Same Car, artist: David Bowie, album: Low

Take it on the Road

Although the snow is coming down hard this morning, yesterday was a beautiful day. I called my SIL and asked her if she wanted to go on an impromptu road trip. She readily agreed with my plan: go to the Bosque Del Apache bird refuge and then grab a world famous green chili cheeseburger at the Owl Bar and Grill on the way back. Round trip- about 240 miles.

I picked up both my SIL and my MIL in my little car and we headed south. We tricked my MIL into going by telling her we were taking a short trip down south, otherwise she never wants to go anywhere. The day was gorgeous, sunny and warm, typical February weather for New Mexico. The scenery on the way down was very pretty with the snowy mountains in the distance.

Before arriving at Bosque Del Apache, we drove through the little town of Socorro and explored the downtown plaza. I liked how the tiled information signs showed 'then' and you could see the 'now' buildings behind.

This sculpture was really neat, showing the history of Socorro.

Here's an old church of some sort, maybe Presbyterian?

This old bar must have been THE 'hopping' place in town at one time. I liked the punctuation on the sign; check out the crooked dash and the period behind 'BAR.' Their little town square has a beautiful gazebo. We scared away the goth teens when we walked up to take some photos. lol. Here's my SIL.

As with all small towns there is usually a little bit of military nostalgia in town square. I had to check it out. However, how many towns can boast this?

My SIL and I both agreed that we might have to venture to the Trinity Site some time in the future.

When we got back to the parking lot, I was surprised to find the only two cars in the parking lot were actually both cars I owned! I had driven my little Hyundai and left the Infiniti at home, but here it was! I actually had to walk around behind the car to check that it was an FX35 and not my FX45. LOL!! What are the odds of that? I mean, Infiniti FXs are not the most common cars and to see one, the color of mine, in a little hodunk town is amazing. Also the fact that the ONLY two cars in the area are a Hyundai (mine) and the Infiniti (like mine) is completely wild, isn't it? We stopped for some drinks and a pit stop and then headed on, further south. We saw trains and graineries.

We had just a few miles to go before we would reach the bird refuge, Bosque Del Apache.

To be continued...

Take it on the Road - song: Always Crashing in the Same Car, artist: David Bowie, album:

Sunday (Sillouettes 6-7-09)

Today's subject is sillouettes.

These photographers are bird watching at Bosque del Apache. Here, Coronado points the way from Kansas.
I liked these metal art sillouettes too.

For more Sunday Stills, please visit here.

Sunday - song: Sunday, artist: David Bowie, album: Heathen

Look at that sky

More about Bosque Del Apache as promised.

Our main reason for going was to letterbox. And get that Owl Cafe burger! But we also went for the birds!

BDA is a winter habitat for mass quantities of snow geese, sandhill cranes, and other waterfowl. Years ago, we used to see the Whooping Cranes which was very exciting. At the time, there were less than a dozen or so.

We wanted to get there at sunset to experience the mass flyover as the birds settle in for the night. However, we ran a little overlong on the letterboxing and missed the biggest part of the flyover. We still did get to see a lot of birds flying in AND we heard the wings over our heads which was a rush!

Here's the road into Bosque Del Apache.

We stopped at the visitor's center. Here's Lisa spreading her wings! Her arm span is just a little longer than a Canada Goose but not nearly as long as a whooping crane!

This is a veiw of the Wetlands sans birds.

This was from our letterboxing hike.

And now, it's time for the birds >>> >>

The light was getting really bad for my camera although the sunset was very pretty.

Here's my first attempt at video. This was a blue heron in the twilight.

Look at that sky - song: Golden Years, artist: David Bowie, album: Stationtostation