Bosque del Apache

The Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico is an oasis for wintering sand hill cranes and snow geese. The refuge sits in the Albuquerque basin near the Rio Grande River. The habitat supports an average of approximately 10,000 sand hill cranes and almost twice as many snow geese each winter. The cranes and geese are drawn to the shallow wetlands that dot the refuge. The birds roost in these pools over night, the water offering some protection from nocturnal ground based predators. When the sun rises the birds take off and fly to neighboring fields where they forage for left over grain and insects.

Bosque del Apache

Last fall we went down to Colorado to visit some of my wife's family and take some nature pics in some of the parks in that part of the country. Our original plan was to travel to Arches National Park in eastern Utah to photograph the beautiful scenery there for the first time. Unfortunately snow storms can come early in the mountains and one was predicted to hit just about the time that we would need to cross back over to fly out of Denver. So we decided to rearrange our trip and go to the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado and the Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico.We still had to fight the snow as we left Sand Dunes and Colorado but the further into New Mexico that we got the warmer and more beautiful the weather got.

 The Bosque is located adjacent to the Rio Grande River in central New Mexico. The refuge was established in 1939 to protect critical habitat for migrating birds, particularly waterfowl. The 57,000 acre refuge is comprised of a variety of habitats including Rio Grande flood plain, wetlands, arid grasslands, the foot hills of the Chupadera and San Pascual Mountains, irrigated farm land and a cultivated cactus garden.There have been 377 different species spotted on the refuge. Over 10,000 sandhill cranes and a combination of 20,000 Ross' and snow geese migrate down to spend the winter on the refuge. Refuge farmlands help to provide these wintering flocks with food while the shallow wetlands provide them a place where they can safely spend the night. Although this was not my first trip to The Bosque it was Michelle's first time and even though she is not as crazy about getting into nature as I am she was definitely impressed.

Snow Geese at Dawn

The Bosque del Apache is the wintering home of approximately 30,000 plus snow geese. Snow geese breed up in the arctic tundra of Alaska and Canada. Most snow geese migrate to coastal wetlands along the Atlantic, Pacific or Gulf Coasts however habitat like that which is found at the Bosque also attracts pockets of the snow goose population. Like the sand hill cranes, that also winter at the Bosque in large numbers, the snow geese spend their days out feeding in the fields and the nights on the relative safety of the shallow pools and wetlands. Watching the spectacle of the geese and cranes fly out in the dawn light or fly in at dusk attracts people from all over the world.

Quail

Approaching the end of the year Michelle and I both had some vacation time that we had accrued that we had to use otherwise we would lose it. Since we had never taken a vacation at the beginning of November we were not quite sure where to go. We decided to fly down to Colorado. Michelle has some family down there that we planned to stop and visit and then we were going to go to the Great Sand Dunes National Park in CO. and Arches National Park in Utah. Unfortunately a early fall snow storm decided to hit the mountains on one of the days that we were supposed to be traveling to Utah so we changed our plans and skipped Arches and headed down to the Bosque del Apache in Utah instead. I have been to the Bosque on two other occasions but this was the first time that I had been there in November and there was plenty there to see and photograph including several new species to add to my photographic life list.One of the new species was the Gambel's quail. We spotted one on the first day we arrived at the Bosque but unfortunately it flushed before I could get any decent pictures. It wasn't until the morning of the day that we were driving back to Denver to fly home that I had another opportunity and this time I got a few shots. A small flock of the birds were at the feeders by the visitors center when I stopped to pick up some souvenirs for family and friends back home. Most of the flock were down in the brush making it difficult to photograph them but one was in a tree looking like he was standing guard for the rest. The light was not great because I was shooting east into the rising sun but I did take a few shots like the first photo above. I then attempted to move around them so that I would be in a better position in respect to the light. Unfortunately they were quite wary and they flushed but I was able to get one shot with better light before the watch quail took off into the brush, photo two. These birds are common in the southwest United States, especially Arizona and New Mexico, but these were my first photos of these species so I was kind of excited.

My World: Bosque del Apache

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 Bosque 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.

Skywatch Friday

Welcome to Skywatch Friday.

This is the view just before sunrise at the Bosque del Apache in New Mexico. The photo was taken on my visit there in February of 2007. Many people gather in the morning to wait for the sandhill cranes to take off, in large groups, and leave the pools that they roost in over night to venture out into the neighboring fields to forage.