The Christmas Goose

It's the day after Christmas and all you insane friends of mine are out fighting the crowds for another bargain or two.  My hat is off to you for having the courage to fight your way through it.  I personally don't need anything that badly.  In fact, I had a lovely Christmas.  It started with sunrise over the mountains while I sat deep in the Bosque watching the sandhill cranes fly out to other fields to feed all day.  Shortly after that I watched as the snow geese covered the surface of a large pond on the north side.  They are so loud coming in that I could close my eyes and imagine myself back home at the Hickerson family gathering (actually this fly in was so loud they could have been my Ogg family gathering). 

Lots of people from all around the state and well beyond come here to see the sandhill cranes but the cranes are far outnumbered by the "light" geese most of which are snow geese, but about one third of them are Ross' geese and if you look closely you will even see the fabled blue goose. 

If turkey is more to your liking for the Christmas feast just head to the woods in the northern reaches of the Bosque where I found about 100 of them in a corn field.  They tend to stay hidden from the visitors here although they are certainly protected like all the other birds.

So I sat and watched the geese for a while thinking about the traditional Christmas goose in Dickens' Christmas Carol.  A hunter out looking for a fat goose for the table would have his pick here - as long as he avoids Ben the Bosque game warden. 

After a few hours in the refuge it was time to head back to my little home and check on the crockpot chicken and dressing I was cooking for our covered dish Christmas dinner.  Late in the afternoon we all gathered together in the lounge and followed the Christmas tradition of stuffing our bellies one more time.  Lots to eat but no goose!

 

 

My Life is For The Birds

The sky is filled with cranes every morning.

Looks like it's been a while since my last post.  I would apologize but I feel no guilt for it.  Seems like my life has been for the birds more and more since I moved into the refuge.  And boy do we have the birds here.
This week's count for Sandhill Cranes is a little over 8,500.  The cranes are the main draw here but the snow geese give them a run for their money.  And these guys do their best to take away attention from the cranes.  It makes for very interesting shows all the time.  The cranes have a loud bugling voice that rings out across the refuge night and day.  They are tall and graceful with their scarlet caps that seem to glow on sunny days, and when they come in for a landing they drop their long legs and flap their huge wings resembling small aircraft coming in for a landing on the fields and ponds.

The snow geese aren't about to be put out by some showy cranes.  Not only are the geese numbers more than twice the number of the cranes, but they have a way of being noticed when they leave and arrive.  First of all the geese arrive in groups of one hundred or more at a time.  

It's snowing geese!

They fly over the field in a dramatic swoop then swing back across a little lower before finally coming to a noisy landing.  Try to imagine a restaurant full of chatting people.  Multiply that noise by tens or hundreds depending on the size of the flock.  If you are used to the honk honk of the Canada geese on the pond, forget it.  Snow geese sound like that restaurant full of people.   

An American Widgeon is unimpressed by my visit.

And then things get ducky - like more than 85,000 ducks worth of ducky.  Most of them are northern pintails, northern shovelers, and mallards.  But mixed in with them are ruddy ducks, buffleheads, canvasbacks, redheads, ringed necks, and a few widgeons, green-winged teals, and wood ducks.  A drive or walk down the south loop is filled with lots of quackers. 



Just one of the training sessions I've attended since starting
at the Bosque.  We are taught the history of the refuge and
the Rio Grande River as well as birder training.

After the cranes and the geese, the next big draw here on the Bosque is the raptors.  I rode the 12 mile tour loop last Sunday with our bird guide and ended up with a count of 3 mature bald eagles and 5 juveniles; 2 mature golden eagles and 1 juvenile; 32 northern harriers,
1 kestrel, 13 ravens, and 37 red tail hawks.  And the biggest thing I learned is that not all red tail hawks have a red tail.  Go figure.

Beyond the big show there are all the little song birds that come to the feeders or hang out on the dried sunflowers in the fields: white crowned sparrows, white throated sparrows, song sparrows, house sparrows, juncos, towhees, and a few house finches.  The winter weather here is mild but what few bugs we get are kept in control by the resident flycatchers: Say's Phoebe and Black Phoebe.

Wheww!!  Did I leave anyone out?  Well, wintering goldfinches and mountain bluebirds of course. 

A murder of crows

So if I don't blog as often as I have before you'll have to understand.  When I'm not taking visitors out to see the refuge and our residents, I'm studying them.  It's a tough job but somebody's got to love it!