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Published: February 18th 2020
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blog 02-16-20 Snow Geese
We had a lovely slow start to the day with nothing planned til later. The sun was out and the temps were warming up nicely so after breakfast Watson and I took a really long walk around camp and over to the bird blinds. There are 3 ponds across the street and the park service has build a lovely boardwalk connecting the parking lot to all 3 ponds each having it's own bird blind. They are very simple structures but serve the purpose of concealing people to the sciddish birds and providing shade for the observer. I have seen coots, round, black ducks, there but nothing else but I have heard sandhill cranes back there from my camper. The cranes are not water birds, preferring dry open ground but the water provides safety for them and the reeds conceal them. It's fun to walk over every day to see what happening.
About 3 pm Lynne and I left for the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge hoping to see the sandhill cranes coming back for the night. The refuge is a long strip of land running along the Pecos River and the refuge floods certain areas
at different times a year to provide a safe landing area for migrating birds. The sandhill cranes have huge numbers in November and December but the cranes slowly head north after that. There is a huge refuge in Nebraska where thousands stay til they head further north.
We drove along the dirt road seeing nothing, not even ducks, until we came over a little rise and there in 2 areas were thousands of snow geese. Oh, we were so excited, and found an overlook to park the car and sit outside overlooking the show. There were 2 groups of birds, one to the right, one to the left and as time went on the right group swam or flew to join the left group. Some were in the water, some on the land but they were all clustered together and honking, what a sight. The water color was so blue, the birds are so white and the distant hill is streaked with tan and red. It was definitely a Deluxe color day. Pictures
Here is an example of not being able to capture the scene in a picture. I shot a lot off but it didn't capture all
the drama and certainly not the excitement I was feeling. The sight was one thing but the sound was something else. They would honk at a moderate level, then quiet down a little then all of a sudden a flock would take off into the wind. They headed south because of the wind but I don't know if they circled around when they were higher and headed north. Little by little each group would take off til only a few remained, we were there a long time. What makes one group go and the others wait? Are they family groups? Is there a traffic controller deciding what happens? Quite a mystery.
By the time we decided to leave it was getting dark, closing time, so we high tailed it out of there because we didn't want to be locked in.
Back home it was time for dinner and seeing what pictures I could use to best illustrate the drama of the day. Great time.
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