I've been reviewing some of my images from the past and came across one of my trips to Bosque del Apache.  It is a National Wildlife Refuge located between Las Cruces, NM and Albuquerque, NM. The nearest town of any size is Socorro,  NM.

The Refuge is the winter home of thousands of Snow Geese and Sand Hill Cranes. Depending upon the weather, they usually arrive by Thanksgiving and stay through the winter.

I've visited there 5 times during the last 15 years. Each visit has been unique in some way; and each has been spectacular.

This first image was taken as a thousand (or more) snow geese took flight in mass:

The geese usually spend the night in water ponds. They station guards around the various groups to stay alert to marauding predators (Coyotes). This is one of the largest ponds. Most of the geese had already left this pond when this shot was taken.

Here's a closeup of two geese gliding in for a landing:

The surrounding are quite stunning at this time of year. The fields are golden from the corn that's grown ... it's what attracts the birds. And there's a backdrop of hills to the West. The Rio Grande flows southward to the East.

One of my favorite landscapes of Bosque. It was taken on my last visit:

A single Snow Goose quietly resting:

A group leaving one of the ponds in the early morning. I've seen the ponds freeze over. It makes for an interesting take off!

And, here's what thousands of birds looks like as they all take to the air. It's a spectacular sight and sound show:

An hour or two away to the West, is the Very Large Array radio telescope used to probe deep space. There are a bunch of these large dishes on rails spread across 6 miles or so of space. And, at the moment I took this picture, rays from the Sun broke through the cloud shining down on this one dish. Another ET Phone home!

I hope you enjoyed this look back at some of my many Bosque images. I might throw in some Sandhill Crane images next Thursday.

As always, thanks for looking!

Adam

P.S. Did you remember to click on the images to see them displayed in a much larger format?