Sunday, February 6, 2011 - Bosque Birdwatchers RV Park, San Antonio NM
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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
- Click for Google street view
- Check the weather in San Antonio NM
Heliograph route between Fort Cummings NM and Tubac, AZ
1886 heliograph transmissions between Tubac near Nogales Arizona/Mexico, and Fort Cummings New Mexico: Joe Marques (Flagstaff) was doing some research in old Flagstaff newspapers and found something that might interest. In the Arizona Weekly Champion, Saturday August 7, 1886, page 2 column 1, it says: "A message was recently sent by the government heliograph (signalling by sunlight flashes) from Fort Cummings, N.M. to Tubac, Ariz., a distance of 400 miles, and an answer received in four hours." What a great [research] find! This was during the Geronimo Campaign of 1886, and the heliograph system at that time did indeed extend between the two stations. From Tubac, the most westerly terminus, the intermediate stations were Baldy Peak or possibly Josephine Peak just a little south of Baldy), Fort Huachuca, Antelope Spring, Emma Monk, White's Ranch, Bowie Peak (or Helen's Dome), Steins Peak, and Camp Henely (east of Fort Cummings). This means the message would have been relayed seven times, one way. It most likely was a test message, and relatively short, but I would love to know what it and the reply really said. The 1886 "airline" distance between Tubac and Fort Cummings; and of course on to Fort Cummings. I calculate the one-way distance between the two extremes as being 241 miles, with round trip of course being 482 miles.