Bosque del Apache Again!

 

Every year for the last 4 years, while photographing the sandhill cranes I said “this is my last visit here.”  But here I was again.  How many photos of these birds can you want?  There is always the lure of getting the perfect image.  This year was warm weather but I prefer it freezing cold. 

 

  I enjoy just watching the behavior of these cranes, particularly listening to their conversations, courtship dancing practices and the poses that they adopt before taking off.  Before departing the groups crouch their bodies and extend the necks and stay that way until suddenly one takes off.  In reality, also watching the other photographers boarding the road ponds are also an entertaining bunch to observe trying to get the best spot for their tripods…I wonder if there is such a spot.

 

There are more than cranes in Bosque; such that the elusive Bobcat that everybody sees but me, the mule deer, a black morph of the snow geese and a great blue heron proudly displaying its late dinner meal. 

 

Bosque is located in old highway 85 (NM 1) near the village of San Antonio.  This road is paralleled by a railroad track and I was surprised to see a train with a Ferromex locomotive.   I had never seen that company name in the USA; it turned out that it was Mexican train.  I was lucky to be there a day when the Intermittent Tour Road was opened to traffic, I captured an image of a pond with red reeds; very unusual.

Most photographing at Bosque is done during sunrise and sunset when bird activity is more interesting and to take advantage of the early/late light that renders the best colors.  During the middle of the day, I just wandered around the area where great landscapes and old buildings make great images.  One day driving back to Socorro, I happened to run into a wonderful storm.  And near Magdalena, found a ghost town where I had capture and HDR image of the now abandoned Riley School, and a stucco ruin with a wonderful window…I wonder who used to stare out of it?  And I did not forget the indispensable odd house.  Bosque and the old ruins around the desert make a great photographing trip.  Will I go back next year?