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More cranes, ducks, and other birds

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

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Have been in the Socorro area for three weeks now. Had planned to stay in the area a few more days to avoid some of the Thanksgiving crowds, but it has gotten cold here again. Weather Underground is saying it could get down to 19 degrees tomorrow night, while weather.com has it 10 degrees warmer. Who to believe? I’ve had a single propane tank filled three times since I’ve been here. That’s more than I’ve done in the last six months! Went out and got a ceramic heater today. The furnace needs to be kept on to keep the pipes from freezing, but the portable heater can be useful to quickly heat an area. The downside is the ceramic heater draws a lot of power.

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Have seen a number of sandhill cranes sitting down this visit (to the right of the standing one). Maybe the ground provides some warmth and/or they are really tired after a long flight.

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A “ball” of black birds above cranes eating in a corn field.

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Mallards surrounded by geese.

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Lesser scaup (top) and Northern pintail (bottom).

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A male (upper) and female (lower) Gambel’s quail.

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Kestral

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Posted in American kestrel, Northern pintail, Socorro, hawk, quail, sandhill crane, scaup, snow geese, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

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Heading into my third week in Socorro, New Mexico. Had a cold spell this past week with it getting into the 20′s at night. Had to get out the long underwear. It’s warming back up now, in time for the Festival of the Cranes at the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge. A lot of work has gone into spiffing up the refuge. For one, they watered down the dirt auto tour route, so you can ride a bike on it without getting covered in dust from passing cars.

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Sandhill crane with a mouse. He didn’t seem to know what to do with it. Another crane eventually took it from him.

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Northern harrier

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Poor owl was trying to sleep, but was surrounded by people taking its’ picture.

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Mallard ducks taking flight.

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Posted in Northern harrier, Socorro, geese, mallard, owl, sandhill crane, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Cranes coming in to roost

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

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At Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge people gather at locations where they can see sandhill cranes and/or geese either come in for the night or fly out in the morning to find food.

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The first thing the cranes do on landing is to get a drink of water (they hold their heads up to swallow). Water is scarce, that’s why the refuge is important. They then walk or fly to where they want to roost. Some take a short nap before doing anything else (it’s been a long day).

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Posted in Socorro, sandhill crane, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Cranes, Sandhill

Friday, November 13th, 2009

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Socorro, New Mexico is a nice small town between Albuquerque and Las Cruces. The reason I come here, however, is to see the sandhill cranes that winter here.

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There are also thousands of geese.

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Need to have a heads-up when thousands of geese fly over you.

Below, a northern harrier.

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Posted in Northern harrier, Socorro, geese, sandhill crane | No Comments »

Socorro, New Mexico

Monday, November 9th, 2009

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I have returned to the Socorro, New Mexico area to see the sandhill cranes. A little dismayed that I arrived a little early. The Bernardo Waterfowl Management Area that I visit prior to moving on to the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge has some cranes, but nothing like I saw last year. They flood some fields with water around November 15th and that brings in a lot of cranes and geese. I am moving on to Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge in a few days. I’ll have one week, then the Festival of the Cranes starts with the attendant crowds. So being early getting to the area has complicated things. Oh well.

When I left Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, Arizona, had planned on stopping at Homolovi Ruins State Park near Winslow, Arizona. Found that they have closed the camping area there and just have it as a day use park certain days of the week. At my next planned stop, Bluewater Lake State Park in New Mexico, found it closed for the season. While many rest areas in Arizona have been closed due to budget cuts, the ones in New Mexico are open. Ended up staying one night at the New Mexico Visitor Center in Gallup.

Have stayed close to a week at the Kiva RV Park and Horse Motel that I have stayed at in the past. They rescue horses, donkeys and other animals. Last year when I fed carrots and apples to some of the donkeys, the brown horse in the top picture bit me on the shoulder. The two horses looked so robust and healthy I hadn’t given them any of the treats. Didn’t make that mistake this time. Both horses followed me around the corral wanting more.

The “largest donkey in the world” is still there and doing well (second picture).

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A Eurasian collared-dove on a fountain at the rv park.

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A coyote watching for movement in some brush at Bernardo Waterfowl Management Area. There are sandhill cranes in the background at the top of the picture.

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Posted in Bernardo, Socorro, coyote, donkey, hawk, horse, sandhill crane | 2 Comments »

More from Bosque del Apache

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

Love watching the sandhill cranes. Saw one eagle, but it was to far away to get a good picture. Did not see as many grebes this visit, which was disappointing.

The Socorro area is so nice. Would like to try and stay 4 or 5 weeks next year.

You often see two cranes have a beak-to-beak face off, with their wings up…probably a territory issue. One usually ends up walking strutting away.

I stopped at a pond mid-day where there were initially a few geese. Then wave upon wave of geese flew in until the pond was packed. It was like a call was sent out for all the geese in the refuge to go to this one pond. When I drove by later in the day, they were all gone.

Above, geese settle into a cornfield at Bosque del Apache. They are not eating, but rather packed in like they were in the pond.

Posted in San Antonio, Socorro, sandhill crane, snow geese, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Bernardo, New Mexico

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

From Winslow, I drove the almost 300 miles to Bernardo, New Mexico. It is a spot on the map around 25 miles north of Socorro, New Mexico. A Passport America rv park is here and right across from it is the Bernardo Waterfowl Management Area. It is lesser known and less crowded than the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge that is south of Socorro.

When I arrived here a movie crew from a tv series called In Plain Sight was using the rv park as their base station. The rv park is on old route 66 and they were shooting scenes on a bridge a short distance from the park. They worked through the night and left the next morning.

Geese flying in to line up along the corn. The sandhill cranes like to hunt in areas where the corn stalks have recently been cleared, but geese line up along the corn stalks.

Below are short clips of the geese and sandhill cranes.


The people who own the Kiva RV Park & Horse Hotel that I am staying at rescue animals, lots of animals. Most all the animals that I saw when I stayed here in October 2007 are still here and doing well.

The owner of the park is pictured above with a huge donkey he recently rescued. The young brown donkey in the second picture was hand raised after its mother rejected it. He walked up to me as soon as I went over to the horse area. The young white donkey was put in with him to help teach him how to be a donkey.

I was surprised to learn that a lot of donkey’s will try to stomp and kill dogs. This is from instincts learned in dealing with coyotes.

Posted in Bernardo, Socorro, donkey, sandhill crane, snow geese, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Two short bird movies

Wednesday, November 7th, 2007

I have moved on to Elephant Butte State Park. Miss the volume of birds and the sound of sandhill cranes in the distance at Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge. The movies are from the refuge. The first one is just of some cranes coming in for the night. The second one shows a family of American grebes. You can tell the “baby” by the way it paddles its’ feet above the water at times, looking like it’s wagging a tail.

YouTube has some great grebe movies. On one you can see underwater when they dive. They are really strong swimmers

Posted in New Mexico, Socorro, grebe, sandhill crane | No Comments »

Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico, more

Sunday, November 4th, 2007

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The snow geese have arrived at the refuge. Ducks have been here all along, but in the past week the number of snow geese has increased daily.

heron2.jpgThe only blue heron I have seen at the refuge. He has been at the same spot twice.

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Think this is a ring-necked pheasant. Seen him and a female pheasant at the same spot almost daily.

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Posted in Socorro, grebe, heron, ring-necked pheasant, snow geese, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico, continued

Thursday, November 1st, 2007

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One cormorant and lots of turtles.

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Lots of cormorants and one turtle.

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Think this is a northern harrier. There are two of them that fly over the marsh area.

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Western grebe, the one on top with a fish. They can dive and stay under a long time, just like the cormorants. They go under water and you don’t know where they will surface. Their black and white markings give the illusion of their having a triangular shaped head.

burning field

The cyclic clearing, burning, and flooding of fields.

Posted in New Mexico, Northern harrier, Socorro, cormorants, ducks, grebe, turtle | No Comments »

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