Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge
The Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, located in southern Socorro County, New Mexico, lies in the Albuquerque Basin, along the Rio Grande River.
The wetlands attract huge flocks of wintering cranes, geese, and many other species of waterfowl, shorebirds, and birds of prey.
Head over to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Area for more images of the refuge.
Snow at the Roost
Fall at the Pond
First Light
Daybreak at the Roost
Sepia Savanna
Rising With the Sun
On a Frosty Morn
Sky-blue Pink
The Lull
Aglow
Red Sky in the Morning
Baldy's Perch
Hangout
Dawn on a Foggy Morn
Morning at the Roost
Sunrise at the Flight Deck
Bosque Sunrise
Red Bosque Sunrise
Snow at the Roost
Sandhill Cranes at the Roost, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 28, 2019
Fall at the Pond
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 16, 2019
Snow geese: What a beautiful fall day to hang out at the pond!
First Light
Sandhill Cranes at Roost, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
December 31, 2016
All too often my first shot is the best and it's all down hill from there. Like this morning - the more I tried the worse it got.
I took this photo about half an hour before sunrise when I was attracted to the cranes roosting in reflected light from a break in the clouds. Some birds were awake already and were ghosted by the 5 second exposure but those still asleep make the shot.
Daybreak at the Roost
Sandhill Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 9, 2015
The birds awoke to another misty dawn at their roost on the pond at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.
The resident leucistic crane occasionally roosts here now. But not every night. Having an easily identifiable individual crane in residence at the Bosque has put to rest my presumption that individual Sandhill Crane family units have habitual routines which they seldom deviate from. Not so, it would appear. This bird and its mate are moving around the Refuge quite unpredictably from day to day and night to night.
Sepia Savanna
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 26, 2016
The fall colors can be magnificent at the Bosque but by this late in the season most have faded to browns, lending a special beauty to the grasslands that I particularly like in the low light of the morning. This shot wasn't taken particularly early in the morning but the overcast sky softened the shadows nicely.
Savanna
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland grassland ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of grasses.
Savannas maintain an open canopy despite a high tree density. It is often believed that savannas feature widely spaced, scattered trees. However, in many savannas, tree densities are higher and trees are more regularly spaced than in forests. The South American savanna types cerrado sensu stricto and cerrado dense typically have densities of trees similar to or higher than that found in South American tropical forests, with savanna ranging 800 to 3300 trees/hectare and adjacent forests with 800 to 2000 trees/hectare. Similarly Guinean savanna has 129 trees/ha, compared to 103 for riparian forest, while Eastern Australian sclerophyll forests have average tree densities of approximately 100 per hectare, comparable to savannas in the same region.
Savannas are also characterised by seasonal water availability, with the majority of rainfall confined to one season; they are associated with several types of biomes, and are frequently in a transitional zone between forest and desert or grassland. Savanna covers approximately 20% of the Earth's land area.
Wikipedia
Rising With the Sun
Fog Bank and Snow Geese, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
January 1, 2017
I see an interesting fog bank lit by the rising sun, raise the camera to capture it, and up pops a cloud of Snow Geese perfectly mirroring the fog bank to complete the picture. Serendipity. How cool is that!
Serendipity
Serendipity means a "fortunate happenstance" or "pleasant surprise". It was coined by Horace Walpole in 1754. In a letter he wrote to a friend, Walpole explained an unexpected discovery he had made by reference to a Persian fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip. The princes, he told his correspondent, were "always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of". The notion of serendipity is a common occurrence throughout the history of scientific innovation such as Alexander Fleming's accidental discovery of penicillin in 1928, the invention of the microwave oven by Percy Spencer in 1945, and the invention of the Post-it note by Spencer Silver in 1968.
In June 2004 a British translation company voted the word to be one of the ten English words hardest to translate. However, due to its sociological use, the word has since been exported into many other languages.
Wikipedia
Happy New Year!
On a Frosty Morn
Sandhill Cranes, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 23, 2016
This was one of the coldest mornings this fall at the Bosque with temperatures in the low 20s. Everything carried a frosty coating and a light mist rose from the ponds and canals as the sun rose. Beautiful!
Sky-blue Pink
Dawn along the Farm Loop, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 20, 2016
skybluepink
The color of a sunset wherein the sunlight in the atmosphere mixes with the moisture of the thin clouds to make the fire like orange that blends into deep purples then fades into pink and then the blue of the sky around it.
From The Urban Dictionary
sky-blue pink
noun, adjective
1. a jocular name for a nonexistent, unknown, or unimportant colour
From Dictionary.com
The Lull
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 4, 2016
The Sandhill Cranes roosting at the ponds were awakened at first light this morning by a crash bang boomer of a thunderstorm. Normally that early they are still sound asleep, heads tucked under a wing, but this storm had them silently standing at attention, all facing the same direction (huh? I don't know if they were frightened or entertained but they sure were alert).
A little after sunrise the storm eased up for a few minutes and the sun peeked through a break in the clouds, lighting the landscape with that eerie bright light below a dark sky that can be so beautiful.
I wasn't going to go out this stormy morning but I am glad I did. One doesn't get the interesting pictures if one doesn't show up...
Aglow
Cottonwoods at Sunrise, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 3, 2016
I didn't hold out much hope of getting any good shots on this dreary overcast morning but the sun peeked through a gap in the eastern cloud cover and set the cottonwoods aglow for a few minutes. Bingo!
Red Sky in the Morning
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 1, 2016
Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning. Red sky at night, sailors delight.
That's how I remember it. Wikipedia remembers it a little differently, with several variants.
I like this one.
“Like a red morn that ever yet betokened,
William Shakespeare
Wreck to the seaman, tempest to the field,
Sorrow to the shepherds, woe unto the birds,
Gusts and foul flaws to herdmen and to herds.”
Baldy's Perch
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refure, San Antonio NM
April 3, 2017
Hangout
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 15, 2015
This oft photographed tree is a well known bald eagle perch at the Bosque.
Dawn on a Foggy Morn
Sandhill Cranes, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
December 24, 2016
It rained the day before and this day dawned heavily fogged in at the Bosque. The photo opportunities were fantastic as the fog lifted above a wet glistening landscape and the sun shone in under lingering clouds. Many great pictures of the unusually boldly colored desert landscape were captured that morning I'm sure.
Morning at the Roost
Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese at the Pond, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
December 22, 2014
On a good day this is the scene that greets us photographers lined up along the edge of the pond, waiting for the action to begin at sunrise.
Sunrise at the Flight Deck
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 14, 2014
It’s not every morning the clouds are positioned to greet the sun so gloriously just as the Snow Geese are leaving for the day.
Bosque Sunrise
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 11, 2014
This is the grassy field in its fall colors that is the ponds before they are filled for the birds to use as a roost through the winter.
Red Bosque Sunrise
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM
November 1, 2014
For some reason I'm reminded by the color in this sunrise, with just a hint of the sun's orb rising above the horizon, that Ground Zero is only about 30 miles from here, just beyond those mountains in the background.
There aren't too many folks left who saw that big cloud back in the day.
Boom.