Monday, January 24, 2011 - Bosque Birdwatchers RV Park, San Antonio NM

Mallards & Wigeons, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM, January 24, 2011

A day at the Refuge

On a whim I ended up spending the day down at the Bosque today.

That wasn't my intent when I crawled out of bed this morning but what the heck, I'm retired, I can play my whims as they come. My intent was to run up to Socorro to see if I could find a replacement for the balky DeLonghi radiant heater that started acting up a couple nights back ( just as a cold snap set in don't you know) but I have other sources of heat; that could wait.

So on this bright sunny dawn I headed down to the refuge to see if I could get some shots of Sandhill Cranes at the roost over by the Willow Deck, an observation deck on the Farm Loop drive that runs northbound up the east side of the Refuge. Being east of the birds puts the rising sun behind a photographer. Makes for good backlighting. Like I had at the roosting ponds along the highway for most of the morning crane shots I've posted.

That didn't work out so well, the Sandhill Cranes weren't well situated. Other than a few shots of cranes and Canada Geese walking on the thin ice that formed overnight I didn't get much worth keeping.

Ducks were hanging out at a pond farther up the loop and I got some nice shots with the light reflecting off iridescent green heads of the Mallards and American Wigeons. I ended up parking along the Loop for the day sorting pictures.

I waited for the afternoon light along the Marsh Trail way over at the far corner of the Refuge to see if I might get some shots of Great Blue Herons hanging out over there before I headed back to the RV park. They were there, but what I thought would give me good light didn't work out; my timing was off (I got over there about a half hour too late) and the viewpoints I thought I would have of the marsh from the trail along the west side don't exist.

Ah well, it was a nice day at the park.

Night camp

Site 10 - 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