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Published: November 15th 2007
early morning liftoff
This is when there is a mass liftoff of birds early in the morning.What an experience Bosque is. The day started off pretty early when the alarm went off at 4:45.
After getting ready and taking care of Chessy, I headed out to meet the CNPA group. Soon after entering the refuge, I began to see areas along either side of the road lined with photographers silhouetted in the pre-dawn sliver of light and hundreds or thousands of birds awaiting the warmth of the early morning sun.
When I arrived at the flight deck and got out of the Jeep I was greeted with the sounds of thousands of Sand Hill Cranes crying out. Several large groups began to lift off even though sunrise was about 15 minutes away. What incredible sights and sounds. For several minutes I simply stopped, watched and listened in awe!!!
I’ll be surprised if I got very many good shots (I haven’t yet begun to really look at the 511 images I captured this morning) but I decided before I even got my equipment out that today was going to be a day of completely immersing myself in enjoying the uniqueness of Bosque. Any great images will be icing on the cake.
We went to
fall color
Just after sunrise along one of the pools at Bosque. three different locations from 6:30 to 9:30. Since I had a tour to the Trinity Site this afternoon, I stopped by the visitor’s center and came back to the RV for a little while.
Headed back down to San Antonio (NM of course, not TX!) to meet the group for lunch at the Owl Bar and Grill. It’s about a 30 minute drive from the Trinity Site and many of the people working on the Manhattan Project often came into town for lunch there. They are well known for their green chile cheeseburgers. It was quite tasty (and spicy I might add) along with french fries and onion rings.
After lunch we boarded our motor coach for the drive out to the site. It was quite an experience, one that I’m not sure I can adequately put into words. We visited ground zero and then the McDonald Ranch some two miles from ground zero. It was where the assembly of the plutonium core was completed just before the detonation.
Even though it was less than 3 miles away, it was over a slight hill and was not damaged other than windows blown out and the roof of
a barn partially collapsed.
Three observation points were located 10,000 yards from ground zero (nearly 5.75 miles away) and the automatic firing device was triggered from one of the points.
Visiting the site, I don’t think anyone can help but think what went through the minds of the scientists, military, and other government officials as the time for the test grew closer. It was a very sobering time.
With that I’ll wrap up this entry and see if I have any good images from the morning to share with you.
As always, thanks for checking in. Stay tuned for more reports and photos as time permits.
Bruce
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