Sunday, February 6, 2011 - Bosque Birdwatchers RV Park, San Antonio NM

Impaled, Sandhill Crane, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM, February 6, 2011

What can I say?

Maybe the can will come off. Maybe not. Knowing now how cranes drink I can see this can becoming quickly lethal. It's one thing to be short on food - quite another to be short on water. In any case, help will be on the scene tomorrow morning to assess the situation.

There is only a narrow window of opportunity to help this poor crane. The crane must be weak enough to be netted (a healthy crane is not to be messed with - that beak can impale far more than a can. And that is backed up with two serious sets of claws) but strong enough to recover once freed.

Cross your fingers.

Pictures available

Here are larger versions of this picture and two others to download and distribute in any way you see fit under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License:

Sandhill Crane with Can 235, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM, February 6, 2011 2400 x 1800 px - 3.2MB
Sandhill Crane with Can 265, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM, February 6, 2011 2400 x 1800 px - 2.8MB
Sandhill Crane with Can 274, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM, February 6, 2011 2400 x 1800 px - 2.4MB

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
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Check the weather in San Antonio NM

Rice Toss

After the dinner our hosts conducted us to the beach. Among the presents was a large supply rice for the fleet. It was put up in straw sacks or bales containing about 125 pounds each. By the pile stood a company of athletes or gymnasts chosen from the peasantry for their strength and size and trained for the service and entertainment of the court. At a signal from their leader, who was himself a giant of muscle and fat, a sort of human Jumbo, they began transporting the rice to the boats. It was more frolic than work. Some of thembore a bale on each hand above their heads, some would carry two laid crosswise on the shoulders and head, while others performed dextrous feats of tossing, catching, balancing them, or turning somersaults with them. I saw one nimble Titan fasten his talons in a sack, throw it down on the sand still keeping his hold, turn a somersault over it, throw it over him as he revolved, and come down sitting on the beach with the sack in his lap. Beat that who can. If you imagine it "as easy as preaching," try it the next time in a gymnasium. But let me advise you, first make your will.

The Logbook of the Captains Clerk, John J. Sewell, Lakeside Press, 1995 pg 256

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