
In the middle of New Mexico, surrounded by Mountains and dessert, lies an oasis that is one of the top birding locations in the United States, the
Bosque del Apache.

The
Bosque is a 57,000 acre National Wildlife Refuge that
straddles the Rio
Grande River in Central New Mexico. It is comprised of 3,800 acres of active flood plane from the Rio
Grande as well as 9,100 acres of wetlands,
farm land and riparian forest which was created through a system of water management. These wetlands are surrounded by arid foothills, mesas and dessert.

Because it is the only extensive wetlands in an arid region the
Bosque attracts many different types of birds, over 340 species, through out the year. However many people choose to bird the
Bosque during the winter months when large flocks of water fowl descend on the wetlands making it their winter home.

My last visit to the
Bosque was in January of 2007, which is when I took all of the pictures in this post. It was great to be there during the peak waterfowl season.

There were a lot of ducks out on the lakes and pools when I was there. A lot of them are pretty common back home in Minnesota during the warmer months, like coots and mallards, but there were other ducks that I rarely get to see back home. In Minnesota we do not see northern
pintails all that often, at least not in the eastern portions of the state, so it was a treat to get many very close views of them down at the
Bosque.

There were also a few northern
shovelers swimming around.
Shovelers are another duck that tends to spend their time more in the western portions of the continent.

I also got a chance to see a small group of greater white-fronted geese. This was a life bird for me. These birds breed up near the arctic circle and then spend their winters down in the southern US and Mexico.

The greater white-fronted geese were on the outskirts of a large flock of snow geese. Although snow geese where not a lifer for me on this trip, we sometimes see snow geese as they migrate south plus I had seen them on a previous trip to the
Bosque, they are still a bird that I have only seen a couple of times. The
Bosque is usually home to over 30,000 snow and
Ross geese each winter.

The snow geese are not the only things that winter at the
Bosque in large numbers. Approximately 14,000
sandhill cranes spend the winter on the refuge.
Sandhill cranes nest in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin so these are birds that I have seen and photographed often but we do not usually see them in as great of numbers as is possible down at the
Bosque.

The big spectacle, during the winter, are the "fly in" at dusk and the "fly out" at dawn. Each day large flocks of birds spend their day out in the fields and farmland looking for food, but at night they come back to roost on the shallow pools of the
Bosque. The times when the birds are coming in "fly in" or leaving "fly out" attract large crowds of spectators.

The
Bosque has many different types of habitat, besides the wetlands, to explore. The arid hilly regions were habitat that was different then anything that I have near home.

Some of the birds
preferred the habitat of these dry open hills. Many raptors could be found circling these areas looking for prey. The raptors that I saw at the B
osque were eagles, red-tailed hawks, coopers hawks, American kestrel and mostly northern harrier, like pictured above.

There were also quite a few
passerines and other small birds that were birds that I do not
often see like roadrunners, spotted towhee and red shafted northern flickers, the northern flickers that we see in Minnesota or typically yellow-shafted.
25 comments:
Another wonderful blog that I read, Mary C at
"Mary's Corner of the World"
http://medlibber.blogspot.com/
did a post about this same place today.
Fantastic post today! Loved to see so many I've never had the pleasure of photographing like the pintail, red-shafted (the forked tail was a surprise!)and the amazing grassy shot with the sandhills!
An absolutely fantastic post! I'll come back to inspect even more closely, its 2 o'clock in the morning and time for bed now.
Another great set of pictures. My favorite was the pintails.
Another beautiful place - love that shoveler!
Beautiful shots, love tnose ducks.
EB: What a neat amount of birds you found in NM.
Really is a bird lover and bird's paradise. You got in much of the lovely scenery, like the pink sky and the large mountains.
This is a Disneyland for birders. I am sure you had a hell of a good time as evidenced by these great photos.
The waterfowl are exquisite. What a great place to go birding!
I just adore your world. As a twitching photographer this is my kind of , but we just don't get the variety.
What a truly great post! I love the birds! and your photos are gorgeous! Thank you so much for sharing! Have a Happy New Year!
Love seeing all the waterfowl that I don't see here..fantastic post..
Looks like a really great place to visit. Your photos are wonderful!
Wow! these are fantastic photos, thanks for sharing. If ever in that area i will certainly visit
Excellent post and photos! Happy new year.
One of my favorite places in the world. I used to live two hours away. Always rapturous anytime of the year.
Great tour and awesome captures. Thanks for sharing.
Also like the Harlequins, they are so colorful. Remember seeing them in WA.
Happy New Year!
Gus and I were here on Dec. 27, 2008 right after Christmas and one of the coldest days around! It was in the single digits when we left Santa Fe that morning but warmed up to above 30 by the time we got to the Bosque. It was my first time being here and though I did not get any lifers, it was a marvelous experience. If I had seen any Greater White-fronted geese, those would have been lifers for me. Photos of our trip there will probably show up on my My World Tuesday very soon! Lovely photos and you did a great job of describing the area. This was a very good and informative post!
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