"...you will hear a rustling and then wave after wave of cranes..."
Hint:
If you ever have the opportunity -- you have got to go back to ____________ in February. Stay over-night in San Antonio, (NM) so you can arrive in the preserve just before dawn. As the sky begins to light, you will hear a rustling and then wave after wave of cranes, snow geese and duck take wing. It is still one of the most amazing days I have ever experienced. We intended to take photos -- but the sheer magnitude of the bird flight is so overwhelming --- you just have to stand there and marvel. Sunset is pretty special too.
Mark
Another Bingo for the Bosque!
Mark, as I recall, it was you who suggested that I include the Bosque del Apache in the book. I had never heard of the place before I went there, and it proved to be one of my favorites. I had a ball taking pictures of those wonderful birds, and I had almost as much fun writing about them afterwards.
For anyone who hasn't seen the book, each chapter includes at least one "sidebar," a boxed segment where I'd get to pick a topic to highlight in greater depth. In Scenic Side Trip #19, my sidebar focused on Sandhill Cranes:
Cranes are big birds with long legs, long necks, and a wingspan that’s the avian equivalent of a Boeing 747. Of the 15 species of cranes in the world, only two are found in North America: the whooping crane, famous for being rare and endangered, and the sandhill crane, the stars of the show at Bosque del Apache. You can’t miss ’em: gray plumage, white feathers on the head and neck, and a characteristic red spot on the forehead and around the eyes. Birds in this Rocky Mountain population of Greater Sandhill Cranes stand 4 feet tall and have a wingspan of more than 6 feet. They nest in the vicinity of Yellowstone National Park, and every fall, 30,000 of them fly 1,000 miles south to spend the winter here in central New Mexico along the Rio Grande, arriving around mid-November and flying home again by March. When migrating, they can soar 500 miles in a 12-hour day, flying in a V formation at an altitude of 12,000 feet.
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When you observe these birds at Bosque, you’ll see the whole wild range of crane behavior, including their courtship displays, when they dance to attract a mate: bobbing and bowing, spreading their wings, squawking, and flipping things into the air. Sometimes that mood is so infectious you’ll see a whole big group of cranes doing the do-si-do to a fiddler that only they can hear. Serious birders from all over the world come to this place. It’s a grand and wonderful spectacle.
Rick
