Bosque del Apache

I took a couple of days and went to visit my sister in Springerville, AZ. I left Rio Rancho and drove to Socorro, NM and then a half hour south to the village of San Antonio, NM where I turned off on another road to go to the Bosque del Apache Bird Refuge. I have been there several times over the years but it had been about 15 years since I was last there. It is a wonderful place where you can see just about any bird that can be found in New Mexico there most of the year. In the winter the place is home to lots of migratory birds, especially the Sandhill Crane and Snow Geese, as well as Canadian Geese and about a dozen kinds of ducks. Or they usually are. I was disappointed to not see the thousands of cranes and geese I had remembered seeing the times I had been there before. I did see more deer than I remembered seeing before as well as lots of Redtailed Hawks and Cooper's Hawks and 3 Bald Eagles. This refuge was started in 1939. The Festival of the Cranes is held every November when the Cranes come back with lots of special people to talk about birds and other things at the refuge. There are lots of other animals here, too, like deer, coyotes, bobcats, rabbits, javalena (a type of wild pig native to the Americas) There are many different kinds of lizards and snakes, too. There is a large visitors center and gift shop.

Canadian Geese

Redtailed Hawk

Bird viewing deck

Redtailed Hawk

Pair of Bald Eagles in the tree. A bit hard to see in this photo.

Bald Eagle using my zoom lens

A different Bald Eagle sitting on dead tree that I remember having been in this pond for at least 30 years.

Mule Deer

Sandhill Cranes

Canadian Geese

A pair of Mute Swans were grazing in a pasture outside of the Refuge near a private home.

Old train depot, I think, as it was by the tracks in San Antonio, NM

Old church in San Antonio, NM that is no longer in use. There was a fence around it so couldn't get close. Couldn't find out any history on it.

Looking for Gold

The day after I got to Springerville, AZ where my sister lives we went to the White Mountains to look for gold. Golden Aspen trees that is. I made the trip at just the right time and the aspen trees had just turned the beautiful of shade of gold they turn in most Octobers. The White Mountains are old volcanos that erupted many, many millions of years ago and fell in on their selves making calderas. Now they are huge fields full of trees, native grasses and other plants. Deer, elk, coyote are frequently seen and sometimes foxes, bobcats, mountain lions. There are prairie dogs, and  other kinds o rodents as well as many hawks, owls, eagles and songbirds. There are several small man-made lakes for fishing and panics. We found a lake where there was no one and had a light lunch there watching some sort of ducks that didn't want us to get close enough to see what kind they were. We had Sarah's dog, Ruby, with us and she enjoyed herself as much as we did. We saw a couple of does and a large fawn and got a couple of pics of them. Then we lucked out and saw some of the feral horses that live in the White Mountains. Their website calls them wild horses but I feel they are probably some that have gone wild when no one wanted to care for them. Regardless we enjoyed seeing them. Check out their facebook page, where there are much better photos of them.

The vine with the red leaves is called Virginia Creeper. We saw lots of it and we both have a little one in our yards. You can buy them in some plant nurseries but they seem to do better in the wild.