The Sandhill Cranes at Bosque were what initially attracted me to New Mexico in early December. That and learning from a master photographer, Russ Burden.
Russ’s tour led me and three other photographers first to White Sands National Monument. In five days at White Sands I took only 630 photos. But in the four days at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge near Socorro I made 2,604 shots. Selecting my favorites took a little time.
Bosque has lots of Sandhill Cranes. It is one of their few wintering areas. But I was surprised to see even more Snow Geese than Sandhill Cranes.
Snow Geese Blast Off in the Morning
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They make a lot of noise even when they sit around and eat. You can see and hear them in this short movie that I posted on YouTube here:
Five Snow Geese Fly into the Sunset
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Three Sandhill Cranes in the Field
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This Sandhill Crane Was Digging in the Mud
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This Sandhill Crane Comes in to Land at Bosque del Apache
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These weren’t the first Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese that I ever saw. But until I went to Bosque I had seen them only in one’s and two’s. Never before in the thousands.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Bob Guetzlaff // Dec 31, 2011 at 11:09 am
Reminds me of hunting in No.Dak. where we’d see as many or more snows. Easy hunting, good eating (all that corn/grain). We could also shoot cranes there, but never did. Some hunters do. I suppose they could taste OK too, considering their diet. I was there once when the HUGE “northern flight” occurred. I probably saw more than a million geese and ducks that day. Continuous V’s all day from dawn to sunset. Few were interested in coming to earth. A sight I’ll never forget! And, it’s not like that at all anymore. Man has really ruined this beautiful planet!!!
2 Patricia Canty // Jan 2, 2012 at 8:57 am
Here in North Florida we have cranes every winter. Wish I had a better camera and lens to take as good a picture as did you!!