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Saturday, January 22, 2011 - Bosque Birdwatchers RV Park, San Antonio NM

Foraging, Sandhill Cranes, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM, January 17, 2011
Foraging, Sandhill Cranes, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM, January 17, 2011

What do cranes eat anyway?

From what I can see, here they seem to be eating corn, which is grown for them, and the tubers of marsh grasses. You can't see it but this grassy meadow is flooded with a couple of inches of water. This area extends "upstream" from the shallow pond where the cranes roost. Pumps are running, pumping water into the upper end of this long meadow whence it flows slowly down through the grasses to the pond. Makes for good foraging and photographing.

Sandhill Cranes forage by picking and probing with their long bills both at and below the water’s surface, as well as on land. They prefer grain when available, but eat a wide variety of foods. In their northern breeding areas, they consume berries, mammals, and insects. Where resident year-round, Sandhill Cranes eat insects, reptiles, amphibians, small birds and mammals, seeds, and berries. Source: Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.

Night camp

Site 10 - Bosque Bird Watcher's RV Park, San Antonio NM

Our Past is Written Deep

We do not destroy this past of ours; it is indestructible. We carry it with us; its record is written deep in our lives. We only refuse to acknowledge it as our true past and try to make it an alien thing - something that did not happen to our real selves.... But this unremembered past endures.... Our buried past is mighty; the ghosts of our father and of the selves that we have been haunt our days and nights though we refuse to acknowledge their presence.

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