A New Mexico sunset

There are so many great opportunities to see beautiful sunsets in New Mexico. While visiting the Bosque del Apache during the Festival of the Cranes (Nov 17-22, 2009) there were a couple of beautiful sunsets. Here is one worth sharing. You can click on each of the photos to enlarge them.

Note the sandhill crane flying in this photo. I think this one is my favorite of the three photos here.

And this one I was trying to get what is called a "sun dog" where there is a rainbow of sorts in the clouds.

Skywatch Friday # 34

Back in early January, my family and I visited Elkhorn Slough Reserve on a late Sunday afternoon. My daughter Red (aka Heidi) and I took a relatively short trail around the Reserve knowing it was close to closing time. This old "barn" looks like it had been used for storing grain. But it also shows that before this land became Elkhorn Slough Reserve it used to be private farmland.

As we got near the end of the trail the sun was setting, and as we looked westward we could see the PG&E stacks across the way in Moss Landing. At first we weren't sure it was going to be much of a sunset. But Mother Nature proved us wrong.

Below you can see in the far distance many birds flying around, probably getting ready to find a roost for the night.

All is quiet now, and we needed to hurry out of the Reserve, because it was past closing time.

Click on the link to see other bloggers' Skywatch postings.

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.

Embudo Canyon and ABQ foothills open space

I had the opportunity to meet another blogger who lives in Albuquerque. We arranged to meet each other in the early afternoon at the parking lot of Embudo Canyon, an open space preserve on the west side of the Sandia mountains. There are several canyons coming down from Sandia Peak that can be explored, and most of them are open space areas used for hiking, and some even have picnic tables near their parking lots. These canyons have a beauty of their own, and it's amazing how wildlife can abound knowing you are still within or just outside of the city limits of ABQ. Judy and Dave and I headed up the canyon hoping to find some birds, especially a few I may not have seen before. Knowing it was early afternoon and that's when birds seem to be least active, I still was hopeful to come across a few birds. Below is a photo I took of Embudo Canyon from the parking lot. (You can click on any of the photos for a larger image.) In the distance you can see what appears to be a water tank (center left) and another piece of concrete (center right). These structures are part of ABQ's arroyo flood control.

Here is a close-up view of the chute or channel. I'm not sure of its proper name. During the monsoon seasons fierce thunderstorms can occur and water rushing down from the canyons can be quite devastating and forceful, causing flash floods on the plains.
Prickly pear cactus found on the trail.
And a cholla found on the trail. But where were the birds?
We did see a few birds; canyon towhee, house finches, scrub jay, and a ruby-crowned kinglet that was impossible to get a photo of. Below is a white-crowned sparrow who was more accommodating. One bird that we should have seen, but had no luck finding was a Crissal thrasher. Oh well, maybe next time. It would have been nice to have seen any kind of thrasher. Sage thrashers and curve-billed thrashers are also to be found in New Mexico.

When we decided to call it a day, Judy also recommended to look around the residential area of the foothills where there is still some open brushy areas. On our way back down the hill from the parking lot we came across this bird feeder someone had set out across from their home. I never knew that scaled quail would come to feeders. I used to see them on my neighbor's roof when I lived in ABQ, but I never thought of putting a feeder out for them. The smaller brown birds feeding with the quail (I think) are female house sparrows.

There was a canyon towhee who came to visit the feeder, too. But he seemed to be camera shy. This was the best shot I could get of the canyon towhee.

Here is a close-up shot of the scaled quail. Be sure to enlarge the image so you can see the finer details of his feathers. I got a kick out of their behavior while watching them at the feeder. There was one quail (possibly this one) who was agressive at times and would chase the other birds away, and if they didn't get out of its way it would peck at them (like a chicken) on their heads. Too bad I didn't get a video of that.

As the daylight hours were waning we realized that there was an alpenglow around us.

Here is Sandia Peak just before sunset.

Tonight's Sunset

Tonight, just before 7:30, this is what I saw. Red called me and told me to quickly go look at the western sky. I peaked out my kitchen window and could see a reddish glow. I ran down to my room to grab my camera, and ran outside to see this. Wow!

I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed the sunset!

Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico

After our Mountain Birding Tour it was time to leave Socorro, New Mexico and head north. We drove to Albuquerque planning to eat lunch at one of our favorite restaurants before heading farther north (and east) to Las Vegas, New Mexico. When we arrived at the location of one of our favorite restaurants we found that Pereas wasn't there. Instead, it had a new name, Seferinos - located on Central and Alvarado. While waiting to be seated we found that the restaurant is run by the same family - known for some of the best true New Mexican fare. My husband had one of his favorite dishes, Carne Adovado, and I had a beef taco plate. We also ordered a couple of sopapillas. After lunch we headed north to Las Vegas, NM, about 60 miles east of Santa Fe. Once we arrived in Las Vegas we felt we should locate a motel before heading over to the refuge. As we exited from I-25 we saw what looked like a brand new, just opened Holiday Inn Express. We found out that it had just recently opened - they had only been opened for two weeks. I can't imagine a motel/hotel having a grand opening in a small (out of the way) town in early November (unless they are anticipating a lot of holiday traffic). We managed to get a suite for the night for only $85. It sure was luxurious. It had a flat panel TV and a king-size bed, with a fridge, microwave and a bar sink. We then headed over to the Wildlife Refuge to see if we could see any cranes flying in for the night. By now it was getting close to sundown. We did see some cranes flying in as well as snow geese. Most ducks and Canada geese had already arrived earlier. Below is what I attempted to capture of a virga in the clouds. And the second photo is the sunset we saw while driving through the refuge. That is Lake McAlister in the sunset photo, which is the largest lake on the refuge.

We headed back out to the refuge around 10 a.m (Mon, Nov 19). Below is a flock of Canada geese we saw while driving around.
We also saw many ravens throughout the refuge, in the fields and perched in trees.
And then we saw sandhill cranes in several fields. Here are a few photos of what we saw.
Notice ravens perched in the trees in the distance.

Here we found a red-tailed hawk surveying his territory.

This is a view of the Sangre de Cristo range, part of the Rocky Mountains, in south central Colorado from the refuge.

Stay tuned for part 2 of Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge. The next post I will provide more photos of other birds we saw.