Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

Late last Fall a buddy of mine, Mike Cohen (an amazing bird photographer), and I met up in Albuquerque, NM., to photograph sandhill cranes.  The location we photographed was in and around Bosque del Apache during the Festival of the Cranes.  In Bosque dirt roads run through the refuge and you can drive these roads in search of cranes and other wildlife.  One morning we were driving the perimeter and drove past this sweet scene.  We came back a few times hopefully to capture it with some mist on the water along with the morning sunrise lighting up the trees and shrubs.  

This was my first encounter with Sandhill Cranes as I had never seen one before this.  At Bosque Del Apache there is no shortage of cranes to see.  They roost at night in the ponds and then relocate at sunrise to the fields where the eat and squabble with each other durning the day.  In the image above the are relocating in the morning light.

As night is falling the Sandhill Cranes return to the ponds after being in the fields all day.  As they come in to land they glide through the air in formation forming silhouettes against the sky.  For some reason seeing them like this takes me back to that scene in the Wizard of Oz with the flying monkeys.  When I was a little boy that scene scared the dickens out of me.  Now reminders of it hold a certain nostalgia.

Some late comers.  Is pretty amazing how many of them there are.  One morning we were at one of the ponds before sunrise and all of a sudden they all took off at the same time.  It was quite a sight and lots of sound as they all seemed to be yelling at the same time.  I was taken by surprised and so mesmerized I didn't get a picture of them.  If I ever return to an area with Sandhill Cranes I would want to have a video of he takeoff, sound and all.

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