The Snow of Our Deserts

Welcome to the 2013 New Year!  I will be publishing once a week from my work in the garden, travel, and around the world this year.  Today's post focuses on my target bird, the Snow Geese of Bosque Del Apache, New Mexico.

Now unfortuneatly, I didn't know much about New Mexico other than the highway known as 25.  It is a long and boring drive from Tucson up to Colorado.   It does get a little more interesting landscape-wise towards the northern part of the state....except for the radio stations. Pardon the expression when I say, "It was god awful!"  Bring music with you unless you like this stuff. Part of the challenge was to find the beauty of New Mexico.  So like I always do, I planned and planned our way up to Colorado carefully and stopped along the way in southern New Mexico.  What we found was EVERYTHING but boring!

So instead of driving through the state making a snap judgement, we spent several nights there. It was an incredible discovery full of amazing wildlife.  I will be going back again.  I have several blogger friends in New Mexico and I still can't imagine landscaping or gardening there as it was very very cold!  But I got a better sense of what plants do well in the environment and felt like it wouldn't be difficult creating a garden space in this part of the country.  While before, I just saw a couple trees and really didn't know much more than that.....I was especially impressed with a prickly pear cactus that could withstand freezing temps!  So David, I can relate to your work better:)  It really does get cold in this high desert area.

But I followed my motto.  "Step out your door and look!"  We went to film the Snow Geese of New Mexico and film them we did!  Thousands and thousands of them.  Like snow in the sky or snow on the fields, these geese did not disappoint at all.  It was a lifebird for me and I take the lifebirds seriously the first time around. I try to get as much observation time in as I can.  I observe their sounds, movements, etc.

And I try to do the best photography that I can.  Now there are lifebirds that just fly by and pose for two seconds.....that is very challenging.  Or they're out of range from my camera like the many Bald Eagles on this trip!!  Thankfully the Snow Geese were so much more cooperative. We raced in the darkness to watch sunrise at Bosque Del Apache.  This is the time when thousands and thousands of Snow Geese will rise from their huddled slumber and fly to open water to begin their day.  They move from the fields to the water.  In fact, while driving in, we saw what looked like snow all along the fields.  It was the geese and it proved their name lived up to their description.

As a birder, I knew that there was another kind of goose similar to the Snow Goose.  It's known as the Ross's Goose.  They can also breed together and make hybrids! The difference?  Look at the head shot above at the Snow Goose.  Notice the smile on the bill?  That is typical of a Snow Goose. The Ross's Goose has a shorter bill sans the "smile".  Some birders call it a sweeter and cuter look. I call it tricky birding because in those thousands of Snow Geese, there are several hiding.  Being that this would also be a lifebird for me, I searched long and hard for them.  While I didn't count them in the thousands, I did capture them on my camera in the hundreds.

If you're a birder and your partner is not, this is a great outing to share together as it is a spectacular show.  Also present in the thousands are the the Sandhill Cranes.  See you next week with another report.  Until then, here's a video I took with my IPHONE on the trip.