Bosque Del Apache. December 2008

Flying from Heathrow to Washington and then onto Albuquerque – Long trip as travelling for 22 hours – Once at Albuquerque easy access to hire vehicles as they are off site in one location and you catch a courtesy bus to site. Once there you transfer to your vehicle and away you go – a one hour drive to Socorro and then get into your hotel and then a good night’s sleep hopefully.

The following morning the drive to Bosque which is about a 20 minuets drive – best to go to the visitors centre and do a recce although this does not open until 9am – there is a sightings book that is helpful to read through and also there are maps and small handouts with info of the reserve workings.

The site is run by volunteers and they are very helpful. The main site is basically a circular route which is cut in two by a road dissecting in the middle. The road off to the right, whilst offering some good views, had little to offer photographically. The shrubs along the edge of the fields are overgrown and obscure the view from a vehicle and once out of the vehicle, the wildlife disappears so you have to stay in the vehicle to shoot.

Although the views were indifferent, we did travel around this section every day but within a 10 day period we did not find anything of note to photograph. However the left hand side of the circuit offers much more and there are several places along the route from which to photograph.

We quickly got into a system whereby we got up at 5:15am and went for a light breakfast (but this does depend on your motel) before heading out to Bosque – before the visitor’s centre there are two pools on the right hand side of the road and another on the left hand side. These pools offer close proximity to both Cranes and Snow Geese. In true American style which I love these pools have a parking pull in so it remains easy to pull over, park, and then get your gear out and photograph as the sun comes up. As the temperatures fall the water can freeze around the legs of the Cranes and so in the morning they have to break free in order to fly off – this makes for some unusual photography as they try to stand on the ice which is breaking under their feet.

Most people however go into the centre at sunup and queue to get onto the Flight Deck – this is where the birds are backlit and with a magical red sun, you get the images that we have all seen in various magazines – steam rising from the water, birds taking off, and red sky. If only it was that easy! – you have to get the right temperature so as to create the steam to rise from the water and, yes, the red sun, ooh, well maybe. Getting all these things right is difficult as then you need to orchestrate the geese to take off!

We stayed out on the main road of a morning and whilst we did not get the backlit effect we did get the magical light on the birds as they flew out to feed –

Over the course of the 10 days we managed to see the Cranes and the Geese in varying light and doing numerous activities – also, with the geese you have to get your timing right to visit – this has to coincide with the cutting of the corn fields so that the geese have somewhere to feed.

When driving on the left hand ring route there are a number of places to get good views – the main one when we visited was at Willow Deck, this being an overlook where you can watch the birds coming in of an evening and also first thing in the morning. We were fortunate to see a Bald Eagle eating the remains of a Snow Goose in early morning light and also on another occasion; again first thing in the morning, we watched the cranes attempting to move off with their legs frozen in the shallow water – this was comical to watch but also presented us with great photographic opportunities.

Further on around the circuit there are many fields where you can get good views of the thousands of birds that congregate here.

As well as the Cranes and Snow Geese there are a number of other birds and mammals to photograph however these are not numerous and do take some time in tracking.

In truth the main times to photograph are first thing in the morning until about 10 and then again in the afternoon from 4 onwards until dusk. The rest of the day can be used to catch up on sleep or do some recce’s – the choice is yours.

Other species that you are likely to see can be:-

Coyote, Northern Shoveler, Canada Goose, Greater Roadrunner, American Widgeon, Mallard, American Coot, Pied billed Grebe, Green-winged Teal, Golden Eagle, Coopers Hawk, American Kestrel, Re-tailed Hawk, Mourning Dove, American Crow and also there are various small birds that come into the feeders that are replenished by the staff of the visitors centre.

This is a handy trip to end your years photography with and I will no-doubt be returning for another encounter so if you would like to come along, please contact me and I will provide details.