Sandhill Crane Behavior - part 2

Following our sunrise visit to the pond, we all climbed back into the vans and headed back to the Bosque for a nice warm breakfast, New Mexican style. While eating we also saw some film on the various behavior and communication styles of Sandhill cranes. Shortly afterwards we headed out to one of the cornfields on the Bosque, and we were to watch the cranes to see how they reacted to possible threats or how they communicated with each other. This was really fun, because we saw how the male and female were always together. While one would eat, the other would stand guard as the photo below indicates.

Notice in this next photo one of the cranes is standing guard while the other three are eating. If you can enlarge this photo (by clicking on it), you will also notice the same behavior in the cranes farther out in the field.

This crane is in a very alert stance, and notice the red coloring on the front part of his head. We were told that this is a featherless part of their heads. And when these birds feel threatened in any way the red coloring deepens and possibly gets larger. This is a part of the cranes' behavior that is still being studied. But the "experts" realize that their heads turn quite red when they feel threatened.

Here's another view as the crane turned toward us.

Here is another photo of a group eating corn in the field. Notice there are four standing alert out of the dozen or so we see here.

I couldn't resist to add a couple more photos here.

While in the field I also took other photos that were not of cranes which I'll share in my next post.

Bird Photography Weekly # 21

One of the most fun things I look forward to each year is my vacation in New Mexico. And it always includes the Festival of the Cranes at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. It's always held the week before Thanksgiving, and the attendance has been increasing every year. Appropriate for this Bird Photography Weekly # 21, I present to you some of my best photos of sandhill cranes taken during the 21st anniversary of the Festival of the Cranes. Be sure to click on any or all of the photos to see a larger image.

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Skywatch Friday #27

We had a beautiful sunset one evening during the Festival of the Cranes at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. Actually, New Mexico has many beautiful sunsets throughout the year. So to see this beautiful sunset while on the refuge was an added bonus to what we had already seen earlier in the evening.

Amazingly enough, I took these photos within a few minutes of each other. But the big difference, as you can see, is in the coloring. The first photo was taken with my Canon Rebel Xsi, and the second photo was taken with my Kodak point and shoot.

Take the time to go visit other posts for Skywatch # 27. You won't be disappointed.

Skywatch Friday # 26

Under a beautiful blue sky in New Mexico you can see snow geese in flight. This was taken at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in November during the Festival of the Cranes.

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Festival of the Cranes - Sunday's hike

Sunday was the final day for the Festival of the Cranes. The festival always runs from Tuesday through Sunday. Last year, our Sunday trip was the Mountain Birding Tour led by Mary Alice Root of the New Mexico Ornithological Society, and Bill Thompson and Julie Zickefoose. This year we took the Canyon Trail Hike, a 2-1/2 mile round trip through Solitude Arroyo and canyon. The trailhead is located about 1-1/2 miles south of the visitor center. Bob Merkel, a Bosque volunteer, was our leader. We walked/hiked through quite a bit of sandy soil at first, and then we climbed higher into the canyon and the trail became rockier. Below are the photos I took of the trip. All of these photos were taken with my Kodak point and shoot. I was too lazy to bring my Canon and two lenses. Besides, I think I got good quality shots with the Kodak. My biggest problem is trying to identify all of the plants. Again, another form of laziness - I failed to write down the names of the plants our leader pointed out to us. And now, I regret that I didn't take notes. So bear with me, and if anyone notices my plant IDs are incorrect, please let me know.

If you want to see a larger image click on the photo. These are ripe gooseberries. I think birds and other animals will eat them.

I think this is a creosote bush.

I think this is rabbitbrush.

Prickly pear. I don't know why its coloring is different. Most cacti stay green all year long. I'm just wondering if this plant is sunburned or does it get this color after a frost.

I think we were told this is chamisa, a form of rabbitbrush.

By now we have reached a higher point and the rockier part of the trail. Below is the visitor center. The tent was extra for the Festival of the Cranes. This was probably the tent where the exhibits and vendors were.

This is looking east from the top of the trail. Center, right, is a lagoon, still part of the Bosque del Apache, although I don't think there is public access to this area. At least not by car. It's possible there is another foot trail around the lagoon.

This is looking north from the trail. I think the mountain on the left is Chupadera Peak (~ 6200' high), the most recent addition to the Refuge. There's also a hiking trail going up to the top that was created just this year.

These next two photos are pack rat nests. I found these to be very interesting. We didn't see any pack rats around, just their nests. These animals are nocturnal. They are also plant eaters and love "collecting" shiny objects to add to their nests. Click here for more info on desert pack rats.

Ok, now here is where my memory really fails me. I just asked my husband and his recollection is totally different from mine. He thinks these holes in the wall(s) were a result of "mother nature." My recollection is these holes were created by mud daubers (wasps). If anyone else has a suggestion I'd be more than happy to hear it. Nonetheless, this was quite fascinating to see while hiking through the canyon.

And here is a much larger "hole in the wall." And you can see the "white drippings" very clearly. Knowing the size of this hole I'm assuming it was a nest site for either an owl or a hawk. I think owls are known to use these holes. Last year's Mountain Birding trip provided a similar sight where there was a "hole" in a mountain wall and Bill Thompson found a great-horned owl perched in it. Click here to see the last picture of my post from last year.

Festival of the Cranes - Saturday Workshop

Saturday's workshop was another photography class I chose to take. This one was an introduction to digital photography. It was held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and included lunch. Not bad for $30.00. This class focused on the casual photographer, those who use point and shoots or consumer oriented DSLRs. The workshop was held at New Mexico Tech and the entire morning covered the basics of learning to use one's camera and its settings. Of course, I had both my cameras with me (as usual) - my Kodak point and shoot, and my Canon Rebel Xsi. It was helpful to have the basics presented as a refresher. Some of the points covered that interested me were knowing when to use a faster or slower shutter speed or a higher or lower ISO, or even a higher or lower f-stop, etc. After lunch, we returned to the classroom for one more thing to focus on, and that was composition. We were then asked to take photos out and around the campus, especially around the pond. We were then to return to the classroom and critique everyone's photos. The first photo below was my "composition" photo. I used the trees on each side of the pond as frames while focusing on the water spray in the pond with the mountain in the background.

Another form of composition was to photgraph some of the birds in the pond. This was one of my better shots of a couple of "goofy" geese. It was a bright sunny day, and the water was clear so most everything we took photos of had good reflections of the birds.

During our workshop we had the opportunity to meet one of the best local photographers. Jerry Goffe is a professional nature photographer and lives either in Socorro or near the Bosque. Click on the link to learn more about him. He has had many of his photos published in national magazines. Jerry brought a bunch of his Canon equipment to allow all of us to "play with" the various large lenses. Below is a photo of an American Wigeon that was taken with a 600mm lens attached to my camera, and was set up on a very nice tripod. Those large lenses sure are nice, but to carry one of them around with a tripod seems a bit much for me. And let's not talk about what these lenses cost, or even the tripods. I don't plan on being a professional photographer.

This photo is (I think) the same American Wigeon that I took with my Kodak point and shoot with a 10x zoom. When I compare these two photos I feel content in having a close enough and in focus photo with a camera that is quite inexpensive in comparison.

Festival of the Cranes - Thursday Workshops

There were two workshops I attended on Thursday at the Festival of the Cranes. The morning workshop was given by Jeff Bouton on Digiscoping - the art of photography through a spotting scope. It was a 3-hour workshop where Jeff could do his one-hour presentation in the classroom and then have everyone move outdoors to try what they had learned in the classroom, such as coupling cameras with scopes via adapters. Many of us did not have all the equipment necessary, but it was fun "sharing" with each other. Jeff also had some extra equipment with him some of us could borrow. Now, if only the weather would have cooperated. ;o) We started out at the big pond near the entrance to Bosque del Apache NWR. There were thousands of snow geese there, and digiscoping would have been a dream. But the wind was blowing quite strongly, and even though the sun was shining, the wind chill factor was less than what all of us were dressed for. After about half an hour at the pond, and those who wanted to stick around had a chance to at least look through some scopes, it was a consensus to try another spot on the refuge, possibly where it may be a bit more protected from the wind. We then went to an area where there was tall grasses to help break the wind a bit, but there were no birds! The birds possibly wanted to get out of the wind, too. The few birds we saw (mostly ducks) were quite far away and seemed to be hunkered down out of the windy areas.

This photo below obviously is not a digiscoped picture, but instead an overall view of what we saw on the big pond. There were snow geese as far as the eye could see. Actually, this photo was taken on a different day, when it wasn't windy.
Our afternoon workshop was about cave swallows. The presenter was Steve West who has been studying and banding cave swallows since 1980 at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Click on the link to learn more about this interesting topic. There's even a photo of cave swallows if you've never seen one. The reason Steve West wanted to band the birds was to collect and record data regarding their migrating patterns. He was curious to know where these birds headed in winter. You can learn more about cave swallows by clicking here and here.

Festival of the Cranes, Friday, Nov 16, 2007

All of Friday was spent in the town of Socorro. All three presentations were held at the Macey Center of New Mexico Tech. Our first event was "Birds of New Mexico" presented by Mary Alice Root, former president of the New Mexico Ornithologists' Society. Mary Alice's presentation was very good; she is so knowledgeable about birds as well as where one can find specific birds and the seasons when the birds can be located. Mary Alice was also one of the tour leaders for the Mountain Birding Tour that was also led by Julie Zickefoose and Bill Thompson. When the event was over, we had about half an hour before the next event began. So I went downstairs to take a couple of pictures of some artwork I think was done by some NM Tech students that I found so fascinating. These two pieces of artwork were in glass cases, so I tried to eliminate the glare by taking the pix without a flash. These art pieces were created with several different types of fabric. Everything you see (including the banjo) were all made from fabric. Click on the photos to get a larger view.

The next event was called "The Night Shift." It was presented by Matt Mitchell, a local resident (living in San Antonio, New Mexico), who is a falconer and wildlife rehabilitator. Matt's talk was specifically focused on owls of New Mexico; and he brought along some friends who are used for educational purposes - a saw-whet, burrowing, great horned, and a barn owl. This was another very informative presentation and enjoyed by all who attended. Afterwards we had time in between again. So this time I went outside to see what I could find. First of all, so many of the cottonwood trees both here on the campus and at the Rufuge were so brilliant, but I kept forgetting to get a photo or two of the best and most brilliant ones. So here is at least one photo which really doesn't do justice for the vibrancy or intensity of the yellow on the trees. In the past when we have attended the Festival, all of the trees were bare. But this year the area has experienced an autumn that has been quite mild in temps. So it was rewarding to be able to see the fall foliage this year at its peak.

As I walked around the campus I came across a children's playground. I guess there is child care for those students who need it. Anyway, I stood around watching some activity going on in the bushes behind the playground equipment. Birds were flitting in and out and all around. I had to keep my distance because when I would try to approach the birds to better identify them they would fly back into the bushes. I'm glad I had my binocs handy along with my camera. While looking at the birds through my binoculars I finally realized they must be juncos. These juncos looked a little different from the ones I see in my back yard at home. They seemed to be a little bigger and more colorful, rosier on their sides and more chestnut on their backs. You can click on the photo to see a closer view of them. They sure were cute to watch.

Festival of the Cranes, Thursday, Nov 15, 2007

As mentioned in a previous post, our first event for Thursday was the Raptors presentation held at the Refuge. This was a Power Point slide presentation along with several live education birds. These birds have been brought to The Wildlife Center for rehabilitation and it had been found that they could not be released back into the wild. So they are used for educational purposes. It was so exciting to see so many raptors "up close and personal." After the presentation and showing of the captive birds, along with time for questions and answers, we were then grouped to go over to the Refuge's observation decks. This is the field trip where Jeff Bouton and Julie Zickefoose accompanied the group and added so much more to the day's event. This is also where the Peregrine Falcon was released, and where Jeff Bouton found a Harlan's red-tailed hawk flying over us.

This event went from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Our next event we had signed up for was for 1:30 p.m. at the Macey Center (another 20-25 minutes away). So we hustled to get to our next event which was about Cave Swallows. It was presented by Steve West who is a cave swallow bird bander, and does much of his banding at Carlsbad Caverns. My husband and I were there to watch the bats at Carlsbad about ten years ago. That's another exciting thing to watch how the bats exit the caves enmasse. After the presentation we went over to the pond behind the Macey Center to see what birds (mostly ducks, etc) were there. Here are a few photos of what I saw there. So many of these species of ducks seem to interbreed, thus many strange looking hybrid mallards.

These are one of my favorites - the American Wigeon. They actually sound more like a passerine than a duck. I enjoy hearing and listening to them.

The photo above shows a female mallard behind a ?domestic goose?

Here is a male mallard.

And a female mallard.

And maybe someone can identify this bird. My husband and I think it is a "domesticated" type of goose. Is it? There are so many of these guys waddling or swimming around the pond.

And is this also a goose? Or is it some form of duck? A white form of a mallard? A hybrid duck/goose?

Festival of the Cranes, Wed, Nov 14, 2007

My husband, Dave, and I flew into Albuquerque on Tuesday. We arrived around 5 p.m. and after picking up our rental car enjoyed the beautiful sunset while finding a good place to eat dinner. When we used to live in ABQ, we had some favorite restaurants we visited. One of our favorites is located across the street from the University of New Mexico. The restaurant is called Frontier Restaurant and they are well known for their famous green chile stew. I ordered a Frontier Burrito which included green chili, beef, beans and lots of cheese. Yum!

After dinner we headed for Socorro, about 75 miles south of ABQ and checked into our motel. We wanted to be in town for the first event we signed up for that would begin at 9 a.m., Wednesday, at the Wildlife Refuge, which is another 20 minutes south of Socorro. Our first presentation was by Tom Waddell, the ranch manager for Armendaris Ranch. This ranch is owned by Ted Turner, and is located south of the Bosque del Apache NWR and runs all the way down to Truth or Consequences, a total of 600 square miles. The ranch is known for raising bison, but also raises other animals on the ranch through study programs. Those animals are oryx, pronghorn antelope, bats, and Aplomado falcons.

When the presentation was over (around 11 a.m.), Dave and I figured we would look for a place to eat lunch. Rather than head to Socorro, we decided on getting lunch at the "original" Owl Cafe in San Antonio, New Mexico, the birthplace of Conrad Hilton (Hilton Hotels). This town is about 9 or 10 miles north of the Wildlife Refuge. The Owl Cafe is renowned for its world famous green chile cheeseburgers, which is what we enjoyed. Below are a couple of photos I took of the Owl Cafe. And take note of the beautiful blue sky! Weather was gorgeous - blue sky, no wind, and about 70 degrees in the middle of the day.

After lunch, we drove north to Socorro to attend our next lecture/presentation. All lectures or presentations are held either at the Refuge or at New Mexico Tech's Macey Center, in Socorro. This lecture was called "Mapping the Rio." We saw a filmed documentary on the Rio Grande River and its possibility of being endangered. The lecture part was more of a round table geared toward preservation of the river and what individuals or groups are doing to preserve this precious resource.

Later, Tuesday evening we had dinner at the Garcia Opera House and were treated to a comedy called "The Foreigner" (by Larry Shue) presented by the Socorro Community Theater.

All About Raptors class and field trip

One of the events we chose to attend at the Festival of the Cranes, at Bosque del Apache, was the lecture and field trip called "All About Raptors," held on Thursday morning (Nov 15). Two raptor handlers gave the attendees a plethora of information regarding all types of raptors. They even brought many birds they use for education purposes, such as a red-tailed hawk and a great horned owl. These women were from The Wildlife Center located in Espanola, New Mexico, which is about 25-30 miles north of Santa Fe. Once we took to the "field" which was on the Wildlife Refuge, we got to see the release of a peregrine falcon. There were some extra "guests" who accompanied this group of attendees, namely Jeff Bouton (Leica Birding Blog) and Julie Zickefoose. Here is a link to a very short video I took of the release of the peregrine falcon. While also in the "field," Jeff Bouton spotted a "different" type of red-tailed hawk, a Harlan's red-tailed hawk. He was so good at describing the differences in the morph and coloring. If anyone should ever have the opportunity to go birding with this expert, please don't miss out on it, especially if you want to learn more than one can absorb in a day.

** Just a note to let you know that Blogger is giving me trouble today with uploading this 14 second (3 MB) video - so that is why there is a link rather than the Blogger video I tried to upload. I'll try to upload the video itself when Blogger decides to cooperate. ;o)

I'm home!

We just got back from our trip to New Mexico earlier this afternoon. Great weather, great food, and great experiences! I took over 150 pictures and will have to sort through them, but I will eventually get some of them posted.

I mentioned in my last post about the reading material I took with me. I finished James Michener's "Chesapeake." And I am already half-way through Kenn Kaufman's "Kingbird Highway." I will also post on these two books soon.

Meanwhile, I did not have any time while in Socorro to check all the blogs I subscribe to; I only had 1/2 an hour to check email and blogs Sunday morning before heading for the Las Vegas NWR (Las Vegas, New Mexico). And then I took the time (about an hour) to check blogs and email again once we arrived in Albuquerque yesterday afternoon. But I was overwhelmed with the amount of email, and over 200 blog posts to catch up on. Whew!

If I don't get something posted in the next day or two, I want to take this opportunity to wish all of my blogging buddies a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Getting Ready

Wow! I can't believe it's been more than a week since I last posted. By the way, for those who are still curious about mama lynx spider and her babies, they are doing well. Babies are still hanging around. We had rain Saturday night, but Sunday morning we found mama and her babies had taken refuge under a leaf of their resident rose bush. I haven't posted a picture of them since last Sunday because they don't seem any bigger now than last weekend. I'm fairly certain they will look bigger when I return from my trip.

Trip? Yes, this is my trip I've looked forward to since early summer. This is the Festival of the Cranes in Socorro, New Mexico. I am so hyped up about going, you'd think this was my first time attending. But, I get more excited about this birding event every year. Last year, Julie Zickfoose was the keynote speaker. This year Julie and Bill return and will be leading a couple of birding tours. Both tours are the same; one on Saturday morning, and the other on Sunday morning. It's called "Mountain Birding Tour." It will be a 1-2 mile walk/hike at 7,000 feet elevation. We should be able to see woodpeckers, jays, bluebirds, nuthatches, etc. Here is the cover for this year's event.

And for reading material, I've decided to bring along Kenn Kaufman's book, Kingbird Highway. I really liked Delia's recent book review (beginning to bird), and decided to buy the book to take along on my trip.

Another book I started to read when I flew back east earlier this summer, and haven't finished reading it yet, is Chesapeake by James Michener. I really want to finish this one before starting the Kingbird Highway. Hopefully, I will have time in the evenings to read. I should at least be able to read on the plane and in the airports.

Some of the other programs/workshops happening during the festival that my husband and I signed up for and are looking forward to attending: All About Raptors, Cave Swallows, Birds of New Mexico, Raptors on the Rio, Hummingbirds. This is not a complete/comprehensive list, but just the ones that highlight birding events. There will be plenty more to see and do. And hopefully, I will have Internet access so I can keep up with reading everyone's posts.