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.

If you would like to follow my blog and have it delivered to your email, please follow this link:

https://follow.it/notes-to-my-mother?leanpub

Subscribe to my blog by Email

Get new posts by email: Enter your email address in the box and click subscribe to be notified when a new post is published. Subscribe Powered by

Urban Grey Foxes, Santa Rosa, CA

Have you ever awakened in the night to strange sounds outside your bedroom window? I have and I investigated. We live in the city limits of Santa Rosa so I was surprised to discover how much animal night-life goes on in our yard in the wee hours. On one occasion it was a family of raccoons in our fig tree. I thought they only came for the figs once a year, but as it turns out they seem to make nightly excursions through our yard. Likewise with the skunk who only occasionally will nearly drive us out of the house with its odiferous discharge. Much less noticeable are the possums who are seemingly frequent but not particularly regular visitors and no apparent trouble at all. My favorites though are the grey foxes. I like to call them urban foxes as they have definitely adjusted to city life. You might wonder how I know of these visitations. Well, a few years ago we had an outdoor cat. Outdoor cats are fed outside. Having my curiosity peeked by the raccoons in the fig tree, I d

Smoky Mountain National Park In The Fall

There are many places to find fall color and one very special such place is the Smoky Mountains National Park. It is the most visited national park and I would guess the bulk of the visitors come during fall color. When you are driving the Blue Ridge Parkway and the traffic comes to a stop you can be sure there is an excellent viewing location just ahead of you. The waterfall in this picture is Looking Glass Falls and it is viewable from the road, but absolutely worth getting out of the car to really experience it. It is not often that you find a good waterfall with fall colors surrounding it like this. In another part of the park is an area called Tremont. It is a gold mine of scenes like the one above with cascading creeks deep in the forest. A wonderful place to spend contemplative time, alone with nature. Sunrises are special in the Blue Ridge Mountains with the lingering ground mist, gorgeous skies and the awakening of the forest beauty. One of the things I love about sunris

Notes To My Mother

Search This Blog