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Saturday, January 23, 2010 - Bosque Birdwatchers RV Park, San Antonio NM

Coming to Roost, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM, January 22, 2010
Coming to Roost, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM, January 22, 2010

Last night about sunset I walked the mile and a half from the RV park down to the first pond to watch the Sandhill Cranes come to roost and managed to get this fun shot in the fading light. These amazing birds don't seem to pay any attention to the camera crews. They make their landing, settle in, tuck their head under a wing and call it a day.

What an awesome experience it is to have these huge magnificent birds glide over not 20 feet above your head. Jaw dropping.

Ready or not.... , Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM, January 23, 2010
Ready or not.... , Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM, January 23, 2010

Today I walked down early to eavesdrop on their morning ritual and takeoff and found the birders as entertaining as the birds. There were folks here with some really good gear. Huge, long lenses, gimbaled tracking tripods, fill flashes - very impressive equipment. And me with my little Panasonic DMC-FZ28 point & shoot trying my best to get any shot at all on this cloudy morning. If it weren't for a good noise reduction plugin and some creative license in Photoshop I wouldn't have recovered anything from the 90 images I shot.

Maybe it isn’t where I am, but what I do.

John Farr

Night camp

Site 16 - Bosque Bird Watcher's RV Park, San Antonio NM

What I've Learned

Such delicate goods as justice, love, honor and courtesy, and indeed all the things we care for, are valid everywhere but they are variously molded and often differently handled and sometimes nearly unrecognizable if you meet them in a foreign land, and the art of learning fundamental common values is perhaps the greatest gain of travel to those who wish to live at ease with their fellows.

The Middle of Everywhere, Freya Stark quoted by Mary Pipher, pg 339

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