Bird Bird Bird–Bird Bird’s the Word

A terrible title, but I couldn’t resist.  If you don’t know what I’m referring to just Google The Ramones.

(Warning – lots of photos and a video.)

Thursday Betty and I got up at 3:15 AM so we could leave by 3:45 to drive down to the Bosque del Apache Nature Preserve.  The preserve is 8 miles South of San Antonio which is 8 miles South of Socorro which is about 2 hours South of us.  It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get there and we wanted to get there before sunrise.

The reason to get there early is to watch the Snow Geese.  They come back to the preserve each evening to rest in the lake.  Then, just before sunrise something sets them off and hundreds and hundreds of Snow Geese take to the air all at the same time.  It’s called ‘the lift-off,’ ‘the rising,’ and, my favorite, ‘the blast.’  And it is a blast to watch and hear all of these birds rising up and lifting off and flying over you.

After that, we drove around the preserve to see what else we could see. 

Well, here we go with some photos.  Here’s a picture of the Snow Geese on the lake as we arrived at the preserve.  It’s about 6:30 AM and sunrise is 7:10 AM.

Here’s some photos of a Snow Geese ‘blast’ from the other side of the lake.

Just before sunrise, the Snow Geese on our side of the lake took to the air with a blast of noise and wings.

Then we drove around the preserve to see other birds as the sun came up.  First, some ducks and Sandhill Cranes feeding.

As we drove around we saw several hawks.

When we got to the Southern end of the preserve we came upon a flock of Snow Geese and some Canada Geese in a field.  While we were there they suddenly walked and flew to an irrigation ditch right in front of us.  We were the only people there so it was our own mini-blast.

Finally, we watched some Sandhill Cranes, a few more Snow Geese and a couple of Bald Eagles.

Here’s a short video of some of the sights and sounds.

We stopped at a Sonic in Socorro on the way home and had some breakfast burritos.  We were tired and worn out when we got home, but it was a great day and we enjoyed it.