Wednesday, December 26, 2012 - Bosque Birdwatchers RV Park, San Antonio NM
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Sandhill Crane, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM, December 26, 2012
Number 1460
This is number 1,460 of the 1,523 pictures I shot this morning, by far the most I've yet to shoot at one go. Some days the stars align and we get lucky enough to recognize the alignment. This morning dawned as one of those days. Here I stood at waters edge, toes in the pond, camera before me on tripod pointed at a vast sea of Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes in front of me, and a substantial sea of photographers beside and behind me, with a cacophony of bird calls and camera shutters breaking the dawn's quiet.
I'm pointing and shooting rather aimlessly at nothing very special when what do I see? A few American Coots in the foreground silhouetted against the calm waters in the early light. Then a sandpiper (a Long-billed Dowitcher I think) working its way through the shallows coming closer and closer to us. This is interesting. These are skittish birds but for some reason these little fellows paid us no mind and came almost up to our feet. It didn't take me long to get the camera free of the tripod and as near the ground as I could squat and start firing away. Firing and firing and firing right before the knees of the crowd focussed on the sea of geese and cranes farther out. What a hoot. With any luck I'll have a few decent pictures to put up here the next few days.
In about an hour the crowd dispersed and I wandered over to the rig parked behind me and fixed a nice breakfast while the pictures downloaded. After breakfast I walked out to the now deserted pond's edge for a last look around before heading out. Standing in the bushes right in front of me were two Sandhill Cranes which slowly wandered off when the saw me - but not before I got a few nice close shots. That's one of them above.
What a great morning!
Nightcamp
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
We Are Clearly a Species Worth Saving
Our world is entering a time of profound and perhaps catastrophic change. My hope is that by getting people to care about and learn about what is in their backyard, they can be made to realize that while it seems like we are destroying the planet in out greed and excess, what we are really destroying is ourselves. The planet and life in general has dealt with catastrophe many times before. Cataclysm on Earth is a creative time and evolution can handle it. Culture is much more fragile and we as individuals are more fragile still. I think that it is time for people to come to terms with the fact that our own behaviors put humanity at risk. While people have always done atrocious things, I believe that we are a species capable of beautiful, amazing and important things as well and we are clearly a species worth saving.
Jon Piasecki