2024 Festival of the Cranes Last Hurrah

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This is the last post about our road trip to the2024 Festival of the Cranes in New Mexico in December! It is mainly about our trip home. My husband was driving again so I could take pictures!

We left after the morning with the falconer (peregrines and Harris’s Hawks) so the sun was almost overhead when we passed through Albuquerque NM. I hadn’t noticed the big pots between the two directions of the interstate when we can through in the other direction. I did remember the big aloe/yucca sculpture perched on a ledge above the highway – and was pleased that I managed to photograph it.

Santa Rosa NM was our stop again for the night and we left early the next morning for the long drive back to Missouri. We were near Tucumcari for the sunrise. The clouds and the vegetation along the highway made for a great photographic opportunity.

We were lucky that the clouds were thick when the sun popped above the horizon – no painfully bright sunshine in our eyes!

We saw the wind turbines in the panhandle of Texas again and a Route 66 mosaic in the rest stop bathroom.

Later in the day, there was Tulsa highway art.

We were glad to be home again but are still savoring our December time in New Mexico.

Previous Festival of the Cranes posts

Ten Little Celebrations – December 2024

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December has so many big celebrations. My little ones ended up not being as associated as usual with the big ones. Half the celebrations were at Festival of the Cranes…perhaps because my husband and I were so glad to be there again after a long hiatus beginning with the COVID years.

First frost. I celebrated noticing frost crystals on a car next to mine in the parking lot of the clinic where I go for physical therapy….and photographing them!

Warm drinks on cold days. Hot chocolate is my favorite, and I celebrated figuring out that the cocoa will dissolve better in a small amount of hot water before adding the other ingredients. I enjoy a cup every morning. Hot cider is my other hot drink on cold days.

PT exercises for the Road. I anticipated asking my therapist for some exercises I could do during our road trip to New Mexico…and celebrated that they worked!

Easier drive than expected to New Mexico. My husband I celebrated that there was no heavy traffic or construction along our route during the long day of driving from Missouri to New Mexico. It was a great beginning for our Festival of the Cranes experience.

Cranes at Sunset. We celebrated two great sunsets photographing cranes. The first one was my favorite because we thought the clouds were going to block too much of the sun at first…and then a hole appeared at the perfect time.

Bluebirds and green heron. Campuses are quiet places in the early morning…great places to see some birds – at least in the case of New Mexico Tech in Socorro. We also saw a great horned owl!

Harris’s hawk. These are probably my favorite raptors because they hunt in groups…are beautiful birds. I celebrated seeing two of them at close range with their falconer.

Sunrise in Tucumcari. As we headed back toward Missouri in the early morning, the sun was rising as we neared Tucumcari, NM. The clouds were in perfect position to keep the sun from shining directly in our eyes and the color (and reflection of color) spectacular.

Red velvet cake. Celebrating just the cake – no icing!

Joplin Mineral and History Museum. A day trip with my daughter…celebrated the time to talk, the museum (interesting display of minerals along with galena which was mined in Joplin), and the Mexican food for lunch.

Raptors and Photography

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Our last session at the Festival of the Cranes was titled “Deadly Beauty Photography” with falconer and wildlife rehabilitator Matt Mitchell. We saw three different trained raptors. The falconer had raised all the birds from their birth.

The first was a hybrid gyrfalcon and several different peregrine subspecies. It was a challenge to follow in flight, so I was thrilled to get even one good picture. The others are portraits which are still better photos of raptor sightings in the wild. My favorite image is the one with the falconer and the bird…obviously a bond there.

The native peregrine was the second bird and I didn’t manage an image of it in flight. The one of the peregrine on the ground shows how it hides its meal from prying eyes!

My favorite raptors were the pair of Harris’s hawks (sisters). The species hunts in groups. We moved to a location with more shrubs to give the birds places to perch. The two responded to prompts (and treats) flying around the area…plenty of opportunity to get them in flight.

One of the birds discovered at a young age that she got a treat very quickly if she perched on a person’s head…so she has done it since. I took a picture of my shadow when she was on my head. We had been instructed to wear a hat to the session…for just this situation!

It was a great finale to our Festival of the Cranes 2024 experience.

Previous Festival of the Cranes posts

Mission churches around Socorro NM

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We signed up for a tour of mission churches while we were in Socorro, New Mexico for Festival of the Cranes. These are small historic Catholic churches that served small communities. The first one was the church in San Antonio NM which we had driven by on our way to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge; its foundation is so unstable that it cannot be visited or restored. At some point it will be demolished. Fortunately, the others were in better shape and arrangements had been made for the caretakers to be there to open the building and talk about it. Vandalism has caused the security precautions of locking the buildings otherwise…unlike earlier in their history when they were open to all. None of them offer mass more than once a month…and only one had bathrooms.

The first one we were able to go inside was the San Jose Mission. The community has recently completed a renovation…putting tile on the floor and repairing the walls. There was an old organ with foot pedals; the caretaker said it had not been played anytime recently; a historian that was with our group was familiar with the type of instrument and was able to demonstrate that it was still functional…probably worth refurbishing and playing!

The second mission, La Sagrada Familia, was recently rebuilt. It was being renovated when one of the walls collapsed – making the project a rebuild rather than a renovation. They reused as much as they could from the original building – balcony railing, beams, wood doors, some of the windows. The new building is not as long or tall as the previous one.

The third mission we visited was San Lorenzo. It has a bell near the parking lot. The light through the stain glass windows were making patterns on the window ledges.

All the mission churches were built by the communities they served and often the original artwork was carved my regional artists that specialized in religious art. Many of those original carvings are gone either replaced when high quality plaster sculptures were available or lost to vandalism. The mission churches were originally staffed with priests…open to the community all the time – before it was feasible for people to travel to a larger church for services. There are cemeteries associated with the mission churches as well.

The tour was a good way to experience a slice of history of the area…and learn about the challenge to preserve these places…keep them relevant to the communities now.

Previous Festival of the Cranes posts

Sandhill Cranes at Sunset

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The winter sunrise and sunset with sandhill cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge are always good photography challenges. We had two sunset opportunities during our trip in early December for the Festival of the Cranes. The first day was cloudy but there was a ‘hole’ in the clouds at just the right time to light up a group of cranes. The problem was the cranes were grouped together…and chowing down rather than settling for the night. The birds were in one of the flooded ‘wet soil’ farming units that had plenty of small invertebrates and seeds in the shallow water for them to eat. The cranes were up and own…focused on feeding…and the stubble made for a messy water surface.

I didn’t ever find a solitary crane free of stubble. The image below was a closest as I got…but I still like the silhouette of the bird…balance on one leg…surrounded by the orange glint of sunset on the water.

The next opportunity was on a different pond, and we arrived well before sunset. I got a zoomed shot of a female Northern Shoveler than I liked…and turned around to get a picture of the moon. The idea was to use the color of sunset and then – perhaps – do some photography with the light of the moon.

The sun went down, and I realized that the water was shallow enough that the surface was not going to be a smooth in this location either.

I opted to try to photograph cranes as they flew in to roost…backlit by the waning sunset. I didn’t get good enough at it until the color was mostly gone. The moon was bright behind me.

The cranes were moving about their roost pond but not so intent on feeding as the previous day/location. My favorite picture was one of the last that I took….with two cranes moving through silver water.

Other Birds at Bosque del Apache

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There are birds other than cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge too. They didn’t seem quite as numerous as when we were there pre-Covid…but we didn’t spend as much time looking for them either.

In a trip around the wildlife loop, we saw Northern Pintails, Buffleheads, Northern Shovellers, American Wigeon, White-crowned Sparrows, Sandhill Cranes, Snow Geese, and Ruddy Ducks.

Winter plants/landscapes are also abundant…water, mountains, cottonwoods, cattails….knobby ice on the surface of shallow ponds.

There are two bird feeder areas near the refuge visitor center. Sparrows (white crowned and house), Gambel’s quail, starlings, Red-Winged blackbirds, Curved Bill Thrasher, Spotted Towhee, and White-winged Dove were frequent visitors either on or under the feeders!

My favorite non-crane sighting was the Spotted Towhee.

Previous Festival of the Cranes posts

Bosque del Apache Fly Out

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Arriving at the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge in the early morning when it is still dark…quiet…the birds just beginning to wake up. The sandhill cranes are dark ovoid silhouettes on the water that shimmers with the pre-sunrise light.

Ribbons of snow geese begin flying in. They seem to be up and about before the cranes in the cold (temperature in the 20s and ice on the ponds). The water begins to look like gold foil. Something startles the geese and they rise up from the water…before settling down again. The cranes sleep on although they might be beginning to stir. The noise of the geese overwhelms their noises.

We moved to the other roost pond and the cranes there are already beginning to “talk” – stepping up onto the ice from the water where they stood – close together – overnight. They begin to line up for flying out to find breakfast…leaving in small groups.

Some of the cranes sleep on while others stretch their wings…and head out.

The cottonwood tree on the other side of the pond looks like it has lost some central limbs since the last time I was here (pre-Covid).

And still there are sleepy heads.

I maximize the zoom on my camera…and photograph a sparrow on the other side the pond…feathers fluffed against the cold.

The cranes stretch out their necks before they fly out….and sometimes slip a bit on the ice as they try to take off from the slippery surface. It is not always a graceful lift-off.

I took some vegetation pictures…the remnants from last summer.

A few mornings later…we were back for another fly out. It was in the 20s again and we couldn’t stay as long. All the cranes in the group seemed more awake and vocal….maybe more anxious to leave the pond!

New Mexico Tech Morning

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Our second morning in New Mexico started at the New Mexico Tech campus for an early morning look for birds. Before it was light enough for photography we heard, then saw, a great horned owl perched on a roof of a building. There were robins in the exotic pines.

As it got a little brighter, we headed to a pond and immediately saw western bluebirds!

There were ring neck ducks there as well…and American wigeons.

I took a couple of non-bird images – art and a pinecone among leaves. The campus has more trees that the general area around Socorro (they must water more).

There was a lone pied grebe.

A juvenile green heron was a surprise since it was in the 20s; most of the species has migrated further south already.

The most numerous birds were the interbreed mallards/domestic ducks. One had a tuft of feathers on its head that looked like a toupee!

Macro Photography in Bosque del Apache Desert Arboretum

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The Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge’s Desert Arboretum is near the visitor center…and was the location of our first formal activity of the Festival of the Cranes last week: macro photography.

I started out with my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) and a tripod. I learned very quickly that the tripod was too heavy and unwieldy for me. I struggled to get myself positioned without stepping into the beds to get close enough to the plants. The macro lens that I’d added to the camera did not work well enough for me either,  so I reverted to hand held and using the zoom from just far enough away to allow the camera to focus. I photographed cactus spines, screwbean mesquite…white crowned sparrows.

I had the best results with my phone (iPhone 15 Pro Max). Cactus fruits and spines dominated but I also managed to photograph some creosote bush seed pods and some bark. I challenged myself to pay closer attention to focus and background along with overall composition.

The session would have been more enjoyable had a opted to bring my collapsible stool so I would not have been standing the whole time (my back was painful by the end)….a lesson learned that I will (hopefully) remember for next time.  

Previous Festival of the Cranes posts

Road trip from Missouri to New Mexico

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My husband and I were excited to get to the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge last week. This was our third time to attend…the first since the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the first time we drove rather than fly since we had moved to Missouri – a bit closer that where we lived previously (in Maryland). We made the drive over 2 days.

The first day was a 10-hour drive. We left the house at 6 AM and drove in the dark at first…and then it was foggy for most of the route through Oklahoma although I did spot a harrier (hawk) flying near the road in western Oklahoma). I didn’t take any pictures.

By the time we got to the Texas panhandle, the sun was shining. The rest stop building had a berm on two sides and dramatic white walls with a star cut out. It was very windy and cold – we were walking fast to and from the car!  The mosaic in the bathroom was a lot like the scene outside; the old Texas rest stops all had mosaics and I am glad that they have continued the idea in the new ones.

The panhandle of Texas has a lot of wind turbines. They were almost all in motion!

As we crossed into New Mexico, there was a welcome center. I took a picture of the front and back of the sign…but it was still very cold.

We stopped for the night at Santa Rosa NM…about 2.5 hours from our destination.

I observed the changes in vegetation as we drove on toward Albuquerque. The interstate curves around through the mountains just before getting to the city…a very scenic stretch of highway. Since I wasn’t driving, I took some pictures. There is a lot of rock – but vegetation too…and highway art.

We got to Socorro NM, ate lunch, made a reconnoiter drive around the Bosque del Apache wildlife loop, checked into the hotel, and then my husband headed out to a nighttime photoshoot at the Very Large Array; maybe he’ll share his photos with me, and I’ll post the best ones. I appreciated an evening on my own to unpack and get ready for the flurry of Festival of the Cranes events.

My Blog’s 10th Anniversary

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I started my blog 10 years ago this month. It was part of my transition from being career focused for more than 40 years. And I’ve kept it going – it’s an enjoyable daily rhythm for me. I’m savoring my history of the past decade in this post.

The blog posts from 2011 included a trip to Longwood Gardens and a long road trip to Tucson, Arizona (with photos of rest stops along the way) where my daughter was in graduate school. I stated the gleanings of the week and enjoyed posting recipes and photographs of places I was visiting. The new technology was a Kindle Fire; I was making the transition from physical to digital books…it would take several more years to complete the transition and I’d graduated from the Kindle Fire to an iPad, Smartphone (and laptop) for reading. Some of my favorite posts form 2011 include: Recipe of the Week: Homemade Soup for a Cold Day, Water Lily Pictures, and 10 Cosmetics from the Kitchen.

In 2012, I started the monthly ‘10 days of little celebrations’ and experienced the trauma of my parents getting older…beginning to experience substantial health problems. We added a bird feeder on our deck – visible from my office window and I started enjoying birdwatching through the window. Some of my favorite posts include: Birds from my Office Window, Gray Day Reflections, Yucca Seed Pods, and Ten Days of Little Celebrations - November 2012.

The next year I started the zooming and free eBooks posts. Over the years my camera’s optical zoom capabilities have improved dramatically and I enjoy using it to get better images. By this time, I was almost completely transitioned to digital books too. We made a road trip to Florida for a satellite launch at Cape Canaveral and I got my first close view of Sandhill Cranes in the Orlando airport cell phone lot waiting for my daughter to arrive. Some of my favorite posts close to that anniversary include: 3 Free eBooks - December 2013, Sandhill Cranes in Florida - November 2013, Herons in Florida - November 2013, and Zooming - December 2013.

In 2014, I started my effort to reduce the ‘stuff’ we had accumulated from living for more than 25 years in our house. My volunteer work has gradually increased…and would be easily sustained until the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of my favorite posts from the end of 2014 include: The Grand Cleanout - December 2014, December Sunrise, and Fall Field Trips.

The big event at the end of 2015 was our travel to the big island of Hawaii…including a day trip to the top of Maunakea. It was an wonderful experience but I find myself wondering if I ever want to take a long flight like that again.

2016 was our first birding festival – the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache. We also discovered the Bald Eagles at Conowingo Dam, closer to home. I started my monthly Zentangle posts. Here are some sample posts: Highlights of 2016, Conowingo - December 2016, Zentangle® – November 2016, and First Day at Bosque del Apache.

I started the monthly eBotantical Prints posts in November 2017. I’d been browsing historical botanical books in the last decade of my career and was beginning to figure out a way to share my list. At the time I thought that I had about exhausted the supply, but I’ve continued to add 20 or so books every month until there are now over 2,200 books on the list!

In 2018 we attended our second Festival of the Cranes in New Mexico then enjoyed the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival early in 2019.

In the last few months of 2019, there was a last road trip with my parents at Thanksgiving. We enjoyed the Christmas lights near home and planned for a birding festival in Laredo, TX in the early part of 2020.

As we were coming back from the Laredo birding festival, COVID-19 was in the news and soon we were ‘staying at home as much as possible’. By November 2020, we were anticipating that a vaccine was going to become available and the pandemic would end. We were doing virtual birding festivals and otherwise keeping ourselves happy at or close to home.

And here I am in November 2021, still not like I was pre-pandemic. I enjoy many of the same things I have in the past 10 years, but I am not out venturing into crowds…not flying. I am facing a health challenge of my own (cancer). My parents are home bound in Texas, and I have made visiting them my rationale for 3 road trips since the spring when I became fully vaccinated. At this point, it is not the pandemic that causes most of my anxiety, but the changed behavior (sometimes abrasive and violent) of people under stress that has become so apparent over the past year.

The blog continues…it’s a way to document my present….and notice the subtle changes in the way I am ‘living well.’

Festival of the Cranes – part 12

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This is last post about our trip to New Mexico and Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge (unless my husband eventually wades through his photos and provides me some good owl pictures…or photos from when he went to the Very Large Array). Our last field trip of the festival was with a refuge biologist…to talk about endangered species they are providing habitat for. We spent the most time on the New Mexico Meadow Jumping Mouse which are already hibernating in November. Winter is the time of year when the refuge managers tweak the habitats to help the endangered species; for the mouse they provide areas for day nests, maternal nests, food (the mice like seeds on stalks), saturated soils. The mice can swim the irrigation canals but have problems climbing up steep banks…and avoiding the bull frogs there that can eat them!

We saw a Great Blue Heron in an area that will be reworked with the mouse in mind and it will be better for other wildlife as well.

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The refuge has milkweed….and supports monarchs in season. The pods looked a little different than the common milkweed we have in Maryland…but I knew it was a milkweed relative as soon as I saw it.

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The Southwest Willow Flycatcher is also a species they manage for. The bird will nest in salt cedar but the invasive plant is a fire hazard (burns very hot and fast); the refuge is removing it and encourages the native willows to return. That is the natural progression from grassy meadows in the area so there is some balance to helping the mouse (that needs meadow) and having good stands of willows for the flycatcher.

We went back to a part of the refuge not on the wildlife loop and saw turkeys.

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One jumped over an irrigation ditch….the others went down into the ditch and back up rather than making the jump!

This field trip was the most detailed discussion of the festival about the behind the scenes work done on the refuge for the wildlife that makes this place home – for the whole year or just for part of the year.

Festival of the Cranes – part 11

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After the fly out, we spent the rest of the morning driving slowly around the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge wildlife loop. We used our car as a blind since it was still cold, and we were seeing quite a lot right along the road. A meadowlark with plumped feathers posed for a portrait.

A coyote crossed the road and continued to follow its nose. We never did see what the animal smelled.

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A lesser goldfinch was eating seeds. The refuge leaves a lot of standing seed plants for birds like these.

A pair of white crowned sparrows watched us from a snag.

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The sandhill cranes were in the fields – enjoying the bounty of the refuge provides. Historically more of the cranes continued to Mexico but the Bosque’s management program provides reliable food for them through the winter…and the cranes stay.

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We found our way back around to the flight deck ponds and got out to watch the birds on the water. We watched the mergansers, other ducks and snow geese. Something startled the snow geese and they all flew away except for one that was struggling in the water. At first, I thought it was somehow stuck in the mud because the bird seemed to be trying to take off. Then it had a muscle spasm and moved its head to point to the sky in an awkward way. Within a minute the bird was still. Later in the afternoon I found out that the bird had probably died of avian cholera. The snow geese on the refuge are plagued by this disease and the refuge managers collect carcasses as quickly as possible to control the infection, but it’s a challenge with the birds being in such proximity to each other on the ponds. There are instances where birds have died in flight.

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It was a rather sad end to the drive around the wildlife loop but thought provoking. Refuges are not safe havens from disease and they are limited enough in size that congregations of birds are larger than they might have been before the diversion of the Rio Grande for other uses.

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Festival of the Cranes – part 10

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We got up early for the last day of the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge to see the flyout. There were more clouds on the east horizon than in previous days. They made for deeper color of the sunrise.

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The water around the sandhill cranes that were just beginning to move around was tinged pink.

A few begin flying away but most of them stayed put.

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It was a cold morning and a thin layer of ice had formed on the water. I took a series of pictures of a crane carefully walking and breaking through the ice.

The morning light began to fade as the clouds blocked the sun. A juvenile sandhill crane seemed to pose for my camera. The redhead feathers of adulthood are still to come for this bird.

I finally managed to capture the drama of the flock of snow geese leaving the pond. They swirl up into the air. Sometimes they come back to the same pond; other times they go somewhere else. I guess it depends on what caused them to fly up and out.

As cranes take off from the water – the legs are still down but they ‘point their toes,’ becoming more aerodynamic. I’m always in awe of how close together they can be and not get their wings tangled as they take off.

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Finally – I took some pictures of a single crane surrounded by snow geese – head pointed up and vocalizing, flapping wings. Was the bird celebrating the morning, calling other cranes to join him, or just starting a normal crane day?

It was a good conclusion to the last fly out of this festival.

Festival of the Cranes – part 9

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After the Raptor ID tour, we had lunch then rested at our hotel until time for the ‘fly in’ at sunset. It was the only day we managed to be available at that time.  We decided to observe from the ponds along the refuge’s wildlife loop. There were other people that had the same idea but not enough to make it crowded. There was a crowd of snow geese already on the water and feeding on shore as well. I find myself drawn to the blue morphs…just to see something other than white mounds.

By the time the sandhill cranes started coming in it was too dark to get good pictures at the water level. I took a few images with the evening light…birds – cliffs – trees.

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Some Canadian geese were seeking their evening roost as well.

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Right before we left – I too a picture of the moon…pretty good shot for a bridge camera on a monopod!

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Zooming – November 2018

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The last day of November. The month has been a busy one and I enjoyed selecting 13 images from when I enjoyed the zoom feature of my camera the most. The picks include fall leaves, a sunset, cranes grooming/snoozing/waking up, screwbean mesquite seeds, agave, a pruned prickly pear stem, barrel cactus thorns, cranes in the early morning, cranes in golden light with snow geese, northern mergansers in action, the moon, a snow goose feather, and some milkweed seeds.

And now we forge ahead into December and another month with a lot of the calendar.

Festival of the Cranes – part 8

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After the fly out, we headed to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge visitor center to meet the bus for a Raptor ID tour.

The refuge is home to many red-tailed hawks…several different morphs. The basic ‘football’ shape is what we were looking for in the trees.

The bald eagle was in the snag in the middle of the flight deck pond. Nothing happened when the eagle opened its wings and moved all little (just as I snapped a picture…good enough to identify it as a bald eagle but not much else).

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Later the bird suddenly flew away….and caused a cloud of snow geese to rise all at one time from the water’s surface.

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There are a lot of northern harriers this year too. Every time we drove the wildlife loop, we saw a few. They fly low over the fields looking for their prey.

There were other birds that were not raptors that we saw too. The ravens seemed to pose of us.

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My favorite birds to watch were the hooded mergansers. At first there was just one pair interacting…then another male came along and then another female. They were almost beyond the range of my camera without the monopod. The first pair was acting a lot like is was time to breed but New Mexico is far from their breeding grounds.

The tour was an enjoyable 3 hours around the refuge wildlife loop.

Festival of the Cranes – part 7

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The third fly out of our visit to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge was back at the ponds along the road rather than the flight deck.  The thermometer said it was not as cold as our first morning…but it was still very cold. The pink morning light on the ponds gave the crane groups other world looks.

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Ribbons of snow geese flew in.

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A northern shoveller was feeding among the legs of the cranes. I managed to catch a picture when it swam into an open patch of water.

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There was an intermingling of the snow geese and cranes. I noticed when I looked at this picture more closely that there are white snow geese and the darker morph of the snow geese (all with a dark grin patch – always reminds me of a streak of dark ‘lipstick’) plus some Ross’s geese that are smaller and without the dark grin patch.

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But my photographic objective for the morning was to photograph cranes in flight. I picked two series for this blog post. I like to look at the wings….how the cranes change the configurations of their wings. It is obvious that is takes a lot more effort for them to land and take off (previous blog posts) than it does to stay aloft. 

When it’s two or three birds, it’s likely to be a family group. The group of five could a family group too since the birds have clutch sizes of 1-3 eggs. This could be a very successful breeding pair!

Festival of the Cranes – part 6

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After the Point and Shoot Photography field session, I headed to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge's Desert Arboretum. The entrance was hidden by the large tents put up for the festival expo and a classroom, but I managed to find it. There was already a larger group than I expected for the tour. The garden has been developed over many years by botanists and horticulturalists from seeds. I didn’t take many pictures during the tour since there were so many people --- waiting until the area was quiet again afterward. Most of the plants were cacti and agave; I took two pictures that were other types….the legume type plant for the color of the flowers and the other for the fibrous tendrils.

Now to the cactus. There were several kinds of prickly pear – many that still had fruits. The horticulturist talked about the various kinds of spines and that some were so fast growing that they had to be pruned. I noticed one that had been pruned and that spines had grown on the cut surface – probably to keep animals from borrowing into the soft flesh of the rest of the plant.

The barrel cacti are colorful – fruits and spines. One specimen had yellow spines and fruits. Barrel cactus have been collected by so many people as whole plants rather than just the seeds which has caused some to become almost extinct in the wild…but prevalent in gardens. They evidently grow easy enough from seeds…with patience.

There were several kinds of cholla. My favorite had red fruits.

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The agaves have prickles on their edges and a sharp point on the end. There was a century plant that had bloomed two years ago but didn’t produce any seed since there was not another century plant nearby to cross pollinate it. The parent plant died after it bloomed but there is a ‘pup’ coming up under the dried parts of the parent plant…a little clone that will maybe grow up to bloom.

The garden also is popular with birds because of the feeders and the plants. There are white-crowned sparrows,

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The birds were not around during the tour….but came back as soon as the crowd of people were gone.

As I left the arboretum, I saw the sculpture of the crane nearby. Once the expo tent is gone – it will be easier to spot.

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Festival of the Cranes – part 5

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On the third day in New Mexico, I had signed up for a morning of Point and Shoot Photography at Bosque del Apache. It was a 6 AM start so the sun was just beginning to come up.

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The snow geese were spooked before sunrise and took off. I took a video but otherwise just enjoyed the drama of a lot of birds taking flight at the same time.

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It was a time of color and silhouettes.

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The light got warmer as the sunrise progressed. There were cranes overhead and I like the silhouettes against the brightening sky.  I was experimenting with the ‘sports’ setting on my camera – good for bodies in motion…including birds.

A little later but still early enough to have great morning light, we saw a small group of cranes and I took multiple series as parts of the group took flight.  It’s interesting to see how they move their wings to life themselves from the water; the powerful first strokes are different than the way the wings move once they are aloft. I’ve included 5 sequences with this post. This experience was probably the highpoint of the morning for photography.

Continuing around the wild life loop we spotted a killdeer near the edge of a pond…enjoying a bath and the looking around the debris for breakfast.

The highpoint for birding was the snipe that I finally managed to see. They blend in with their surroundings!