Sunday, December 20, 2009 - Bosque Bird Watcher's RV Park, San Antonio NM
< previous day | archives | next day >
Bald Eagles, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, December 20, 2009
The Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is a must see if you are into birdwatching. I'm not really a birdwatcher but today was such a beautiful sunny Sunday I couldn't resist taking a bike ride through the refuge before I head off to Ghost Ranch.
Those three big birds were so far away I couldn't tell what they were with these old naked eyes so I zoomed in to 18x with the Panasonic DMC-FZ28 I was carrying and fired away. Surprise! They weren't some big buzzard or hawk - they were bald eagles. Four bald eagles - an adult and three juveniles. I hadn't even seen the adult camouflaged by the tree. Way cool.
Maybe I oughta come back here....
Night camp
Bosque Bird Watcher's RV Park, San Antonio NM
- This is a basic, small Mom & Pop RV Park with full hookups.
- Verizon cell phone and Broadband service are available here with a strong signal.
- Locate Bosque Bird Watcher's RV Park on my Night Camps map
- Click for Google street view
- Check the weather in San Antonio NM
Heliograph route between Fort Cummings NM and Tubac, AZ
1886 heliograph transmissions between Tubac near Nogales Arizona/Mexico, and Fort Cummings New Mexico: Joe Marques (Flagstaff) was doing some research in old Flagstaff newspapers and found something that might interest. In the Arizona Weekly Champion, Saturday August 7, 1886, page 2 column 1, it says: "A message was recently sent by the government heliograph (signalling by sunlight flashes) from Fort Cummings, N.M. to Tubac, Ariz., a distance of 400 miles, and an answer received in four hours." What a great [research] find! This was during the Geronimo Campaign of 1886, and the heliograph system at that time did indeed extend between the two stations. From Tubac, the most westerly terminus, the intermediate stations were Baldy Peak or possibly Josephine Peak just a little south of Baldy), Fort Huachuca, Antelope Spring, Emma Monk, White's Ranch, Bowie Peak (or Helen's Dome), Steins Peak, and Camp Henely (east of Fort Cummings). This means the message would have been relayed seven times, one way. It most likely was a test message, and relatively short, but I would love to know what it and the reply really said. The 1886 "airline" distance between Tubac and Fort Cummings; and of course on to Fort Cummings. I calculate the one-way distance between the two extremes as being 241 miles, with round trip of course being 482 miles.