Feeling Right At Home

My first post in this new blog let you know that I had arrived safely back at Bosque del Apache where I will spend a beautiful fall reacquainting myself with the birds and beasts and blooms of this little oasis in the desert.  When I first returned I couldn’t wait to head out to the tour loop and drive around to some of my favorite spots.  Wow, things have really changed here since I left in the spring. 

A long wet monsoon season means that the refuge is very green right now.  The sunflowers have been glorious this summer and in many places stand over ten feet tall making it very hard to see into fields where elk graze or some of my favorite birds flock.  The sight of a bright blue grosbeak next to one of those sunny yellow blooms is breathtaking and therefore worth losing the peak into the field.  And of course all those blooms will dry and fall and feed the birds all winter.  I’ll survive without the view for a while.

 



Just a quick shot taken with my phone.

Early one morning I drove through the north seasonal loop trying to glimpse a few warblers but the leaves are still so thick on the cottonwoods where they roost it was a pretty low count.  Then, just as I turned off the loop onto the main road I looked over into the field and was greeted by 3 bull elk having a morning conference near the edge of the cottonwoods.  That’s what I enjoy about being at the Bosque – all the little surprises that brighten my days here



More than a month has passed here since I arrived.  Early in the predawn hours if I’m awake with my morning tea and the weather allows me to have my window open I am treated to the elk bugling down by the river.  The sunflowers are rusty brown stands along the fields and in places lay on the ground where the mowers have cut them down to allow the human visitors a better view of the bird visitors we host here all winter.  The blue grosbeaks have moved to warmer climates and the first Sand Hill Cranes trumpeted their arrival the third day of October – a few weeks early but always welcome.  Fields that were dry one day are muddy and wet now as the biologists begin their winter long task of making things just the way the cranes like it for their long winter stay. 

The cycle has begun again and soon there will be lots of cars on the tour loop drive with long lenses poking out the windows toward the fields.  The truly serious wildlife photogs will be standing in the predawn shadows at the edge of the fields hugging their coffee thermos.  Cameras mounted on tripods line up like soldiers facing the field ready to fire multiple rapid rounds at the moment the birds begin to lift off.  It’s an awesome sight to watch thousands of cranes and snow geese take off together.  Also pretty awesome to watch all those cameras going off too!

Fay shared this photo of a baby elk taking
a morning nap just outside their door at
The Grand Canyon.  They've had a great
summer there but we are ready for
some Mary/Fay times at the Bosque!

This place is filled with lots of good friends and good memories for me.  Life on the road is funny that way.  You stumble upon a place one day that looks like it might be interesting to take a closer look into.  Then you get sucked in and begin to feel right at home.  The rangers and the other volunteers I work with here are another branch of family to me now.  It has felt good to return to them as well as to my birds and bosque.  Yesterday Bev and I went out and watched ducks off the marsh deck trying to relearn them: pintails, shovelers, mallards, etc.  A perfect area for a hooded merganser whose female sports a bright shock of red Mohawk-ish hairdo which made me think of Mary and Fay.  In a few more days they will finish up at the Grand Canyon and return to our little Bosque family too.  About the same time as Priscilla.  Yes, I am happy here at my Bosque home.