Living Rootless: festival of the cranes

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Bosque del Apache, NM: Festival of Cranes: Rescues

Great horned owl, Festival of Cranes, Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

I spent the first part of my day at Festival of the Cranes at the fun duck-banding activity. For the balance, I visited the many exhibits outside the visitor center.

Kestrel, Festival of Cranes, Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

Lots of raptors! I think there were perhaps four separate rescue organizations represented, each bringing owls and hawks, and one bringing a wolf.

Harris hawk, Festival of Cranes, Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

Back of great horned owl, Festival of Cranes, Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

Great horned owl, Festival of Cranes, Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

Screech owl, Festival of Cranes, Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

Wolf and penitent owner, Festival of Cranes, Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

About the man with the wolf. He bought the wolf when it was eight weeks old, and quickly realized that raising a wolf is not like raising a dog. His current mission is to educate people about the stupidity of taking on wolves as pets. His wolf, now about three years old, lives in the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary, where the man now also lives and works.

There was also a rather large representation of snake lovers at the festival.

Bull snake, Festival of Cranes, Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

I had in mind to take a walk at the refuge, but by the time I finished visiting all of the exhibits, I was ready to push on, thinking perhaps to swing through Capitan on a circuitous route home to Alamogordo.

On the way out, I stopped by a lake with snow geese.

Snow geese, Festival of Cranes, Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

Heading home, I took Highway 380 east, the reverse of my way to Bosque del Apache in the morning. What a pretty highway, and the foliage is changing color, resulting in soft yellows and ivories, deep oranges.

Colored hills in November, near Fite Ranch, Highway 380, New Mexico

November colors, Fite Ranch, Highway 380, New Mexico

November colors, Highway 380, between mile markers 56-57, New Mexico

I passed a tall cholla cactus with what I thought were yellow flowers, but on further research, must be buds, which will transform perhaps to violet-colored flowers. If so, I look forward to seeing that. Anyway, I passed this tall plant, so turned around and went back to get photos. I found a herd of them.

Cholla cactus, between mile markers 56-57, Highway 380, New Mexico

And now that this has been maybe my third trip down this highway, and the spectacular basin view, here's a pretty-good photo of same:

Highway 380, New Mexico, between San Antonio and Carrizozo

But I hope to get many more opportunities to find that perfect shot.

It's pretty special to live in New Mexico for this year, to be able to look at these spectacular sights so often.

Coming up: Another pass through Carrizozo. And Tularosa.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Bosque del Apache, NM: Festival of Cranes: The Ducks

Mallard duck, Festival of Cranes, Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

Whoa! The Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge almost got away from me, even though it was on my list of events to attend from even before I arrived in New Mexico.

Because I didn't catch my oversight until yesterday afternoon, I knew in advance I'd miss the climax of the event, either the sunrise or sundown, which means the cranes either leaving Bosque del Apache for the day or returning. Tomorrow, Sunday, is the final day of the Festival of Cranes. (But since the cranes don't care when the festival begins or ends, I may see about catching a dawn or sunset this coming week.)

In the meantime, below is a beautiful video filmed by New Mexico Tourism in 2011, very relaxing, with cranes, snow geese, and ducks at Bosque del Apache:

I left Alamogordo a little after 6:00 a.m. for the 2.5 hour trip.

On Highway 54, between Tularosa and Carrizozo, the mountains on the west glowed pink as the sun rose over the eastern mountains.

The trip there was uneventful, and I arrived 10 minutes before the bus for "duck banding' was to leave. And it was pure luck that I was able to participate, as most people had registered a month ago and the event was full. But I guess there were some no-shows, so I and some other lucky folks got to go.

Biologists had arrived early in the morning and trapped the ducks with a net while the ducks ate corn scattered along a lake bank. Before we arrived in two vans, the biologists had already sorted the ducks according to species (pintail and mallard), gender, age, and those unbanded versus previously banded.

Sorted ducks, Festival of Cranes, Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

We were shown how to hold the ducks and how to identify gender.

All of us got a chance to band a duck with an aluminum band. One of the participants, a gentleman from Texas, who hunts birds, has collected numerous bands from his and his friends' kills. When you send a band in to the appropriate location noted on the band, you get a certificate of appreciation that explain where the bird was originally banded.

Collection of bird bands, Festival of Cranes, Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

The process included:

Slipping band on duck's leg and closing it with pliers
Noting band number, wing measurement, and weight on written log
Measuring duck's wing
Weighing duck
Releasing duck

Measuring wing, Festival of Cranes, Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

Putting duck in sock before weighing, Festival of Cranes, Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

Releasing banded duck, Festival of Cranes, Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

Nearby, people logged in data on the birds that had been trapped, but had been banded previously. Participants really got into holding the ducks. Twice, a duck flew out of the arms of an attendee and the biologist literally caught them on the fly. In the instance I saw, caught the fugitive, mid-flight, with her left hand, while she held another duck in her right. The photo below shows her holding the two ducks.