Bosque del Apache NWR

Al Hansen

Al Hansen

Well-known member
Good morning. In the past week or so I have had the chance to run down to the refuge (northern boundary is only 8.5 miles from our home) and see if there are any birds left. I was surprised to see what seemed to be a flock of 5,000 light geese that had maybe just arrived from Chihuahua, Mexico. The reason I say that is that they were not on full alert. Normally when birds are shot at a lot, you can see and darn near feel the distrust they have with people/vehicles, etc. While I was there it seemed like 25% of the flock landed around me keeping me from moving forward. Of course I didn't mind that at all. I had the time of my life watching this magnificent group of geese. I have said it before but will reiterate once again that if any waterfowl in the world could possibly earn a doctorate just because of smarts, this one is more than qualified!

By the way, from remarks made on this site, I fully agree with the assessment on the hit the light geese took this past spring in the Arctic area. The lack of juveniles is for real! Let us hope that was not part of global warming.

Anyway, I had fun observing them and taking pictures. The first time I had 1,279 shots to sort on my computer and yesterday when I got home I was surprised at house close I was to that first number because it was at 1,239. If you like birding, and I do, you also love looking at each shot and making up your mind if you should keep it or not. I tried hard to keep the number lower than 100 and on the 16th, I kept 61 pictures and yesterday's total was 41. The reason for it being so low is that clouds moved in and I failed/forgot to change the setting on my camera. That definitely was my fault. Dang it.

Here are some shots for you.
Al



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Maybe mother nature is doing more to control the the over population in the breeding areas than mans liberal harvest attempts.
Thanks for the images,wonderful.
Bill.
 
Al -

I was smitten by the allure of the Snow Goose, greater and lesser, at a very young age, and wanted to be where they were. Watch them, study them, hunt them, and eat them, so they could become part of who I am.

SONG OF THE NORTH WIND a story of the Snow Goose, by Paul A. Johnsgard is one of my favorite books on the subject.


Your wonderful photo's do justice to the birds, and all who admire them. Thank You.

We never grow tired of them do we... There is always something more to learn and appreciate.


Best regards
Vince
 
I have to agree with you, Bill. Let's hope we don't see too many of them though. Bev and I have lived down here since 1997 and in the course of that time this marks the first experience of looking at such a few youngsters. We will just have to wait and see what happens this year. Thanks so much for your comments.
Al

I liked this Ross goose with the warts on his upper mandible.



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Ken, just so you know we are only about 150 miles north of Mexico. During the last week of duck season I happened to see many flocks of robins heading north on the reverse migration. As for the waterfowl, the vast majority of light geese left here about 2 weeks ago along with a lot of ducks. With this crazy weather pattern that seems to be sweeping from west to east bringing lots of snow, I have no idea where they are holed up at the present time. I forgot to mention that it seems that 95% of all the sandhill cranes are gone, also.
Al



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Vince, I really enjoyed what you had to say. I would like to add a good dose of "respect", also and hope you don't mind. That is one thing that my father instilled in me when I was a youngster. I can still remember when we drove to Iowa to visit grandpa and grandma. I guess I was about 11 years old at the time. Dad and I got in the car and we took a drive out into the country side of west central Iowa. It was spring time and the whole area was loaded with ducks. It was at that time that I begged for something that my folks thought long and hard about but finally decided to buy a pair of 8 power binoculars. I wanted to see those ducks closer. I about wore them out.

Thanks for the title of the book that you like.
Al



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Hey Greg, it was good to hear from you. I have had to change a few things in my life but it was well worth it. I can still go duck hunting and nothing could be better than that. Then the only thing besides that is to always try and remember to bring my camera with me. Now when I build my blind, I make a spot just for the camera that is easy to grab and get ready to take photos. Makes each hunt more interesting.
Al

I guess my old 06 white Super Duty must have looked like a goose to these guys because they kept on landing all around the truck. About the only thing they didn't do was land in the bed of the truck. Belize has learned very quickly what to look for. She was on high alert. For an 11 month old pup she is doing just fine.



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Al, great photos!! I have two questions: Are your overwintering sandhills all lesser? What is your surface water situation this winter?

I can assure you the northward migration will not reach the southern shore of Lake Superior for awhile; we have about 26" of standing snow cover and a bomb cyclone headed in today with another ten to 18" forecast prior its departure...
 
Good morning, Al~


It is truly great to have you and your tales and your wonderful photos back. All beautiful stuff!


All the best,


SJS

 
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Al-life is interesting. It seems like every 5-6 years toe focus of life changes. That can be due to so many different reasons. But it's all good! We get all greater snows out this way, and the migration patterns have changed quite a bit in the past few years. Typically, or at least for the last 25-30 years, they mostly overfly this area, then start working their way back north in late December. I'm not so sure that they aren't staying up north of here in milder winters as they discover new feeding areas. I have also driven up to fields loaded with them and they might only be 10 yards away. But get out of the car and off they go. I shot a Ross's goose once several years back, every once in a great while a few come through here. You can really tell the difference pretty easily as the greaters are fairly large, around 6 lbs, and the Ross's geese are definitely faster on the wing, or at least they look like they are.
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As Snow goose/Ross goose hunters. My two hunting partners, and myself were asked to supply information in Canada, and the USA, regarding Light Goose Management.

This Draft Environmental Impact Statement, was the result of much knowledge, study, and information gathered from many sources over many years.

It has been awhile since I have reread it. Now may be a good time to do so.

Many may think it dry and very boring reading, but for some of us it is not. It's all part of the deal.




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Rick, I called Tim on Saturday to ask him about your first question. He responded with this. Our area has more greater sandhill cranes than lesser. In the Rio Grande corridor the hunts for cranes are monitored closely and the regulations are pretty strick compared to the eastern side of New Mexico.

As for surface water here in the high desert the only area containing water would be the Rio Grande. It has been flowing at a rate of roughly 250cfs to 450cfs during the late fall and early winter. I checked yesterday and it had escalated to 900cfs. The Magdalena mountain range which is just to our west has held on to its snowfall from the middle of December until just two days ago when we received a rain and the mountain range got more snow. It is very unusual for us to see snow in the mountains for such a long time in this southwest quadrant of New Mexico. Normally it is there for a few days then melts. Not this year. It has been a very cold winter for us.

The spot I hunt on a private ranch next to the Rio Grande did not have water until the 23rd of December. I hunted the following morning and my decoys were frozen in the ice when I got there. Because of the unusually cold weather my duck season was cut short. I believe my total take for December and January was 9 ducks. I was thankful that I could hunt those few days that I did. It was a very unique weather system here.
Al

Rick, here is a picture I took on 2-23-19 while driving towards Bosque del Apache NWR. We had some rain during the night and when I left for the refuge around mid morning, I stopped to take this picture. I was the only vehicle on this section of Hwy 1. I could see 2 miles south and at least 5 miles behind me to the north.

The mule deer yearling is being opportunistic. Took this shot through the windshield with my 100-400mmL lens. She did not rush to finish because I was there. I just watched her until she quenched her thirst and then joined the rest of the does and yearlings.



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I just had to add these photos from this past week. Whenever I have been a witness to large masses of birds I have always been rather awe struck by their abilities to avoid mid air collisions whether that be a massive flock of migrating redwing blackbirds being invaded by a hawk. I have seen hawks dive into these tightly knit undulating waves of birds and I have yet to see one who was victorious.

This brings me to Thursday, February 21st. I was sitting in my truck with my Canon in hand. Attached to the camera was my long lens, a (100mm-400mmL) which has always been my favorite for shooting light geese. On that day there were many times where I had wished that I had my walkabout lens, the 24-105L attached to my camera. The geese were sometimes right in my face it seemed. Once again I was a witness to those massive explosions created by thousands of geese all trying to leap up at the same time all the while telling the world about their excitement level. The noise can be deafening if you have ever been witness to this.

On this particular occasion I just watched with my camera in my lap. It was another goose bump affair being totally amazed by what I was witnessing until I saw it happen. By sheer happenstance, I watched a lesser snow fall to the water then favoring her right wing. The rest of the geese flew about like they do in tight knit quarters until several of them made the decision to land in front of my truck. That was followed by hundreds more with the rest not too far from me. Some of them swam west towards where I was in my truck. They either went behind me or up front with the majority of them picking up small bits of gravel for their gizzard. I happen to glance over and spotted the injured snow goose. She was almost to shore and then before I knew it, she was walking on the shore line heading for the birds in front of my truck.

It was evident that her wing had popped out of the joint when colliding with another goose. The winds on that day were blowing at 30+mph. Once she decided to head north along the shore, she quickly turned around because the wind caught her injured wing, flipping it higher on her body. That is when she turned back to walk south into the wind, which kept her wing down with her having a bit more control over it. The first thing I thought of was this. Would she be taken by an eagle, red tail hawk, or maybe a coyote, if she walked up on the shoreline? I then began to wonder how often something like must take place from the very first time of learning how to fly, then learning how to handle the migration flights, etc. Yes, I do understand about the real world because we can see these things, if you are aware or lucky enough to be on the "x".
Al

When she was on the shore line I don't think she could have been 40 feet away from me. She was looking out at the flock which had departed evidently heading out to the cornfields to feed again.




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Afternoon Al,

Did you happen to view any neck collards? We still see a few when we are up in Saskatchewan ion September and October?

Great pictures, I remember the time at the refuge when the Snow Geese rose up in a hurry and low and behold, Mr Coyote had Mr. Snow Goose for dinner in his jaws. He must have crawl up on them in a cut corn field and waited for them to hop scotch on top of him when feeding.

The Snow Geese just might stay around a few more days before heading North. I hope to meet them and their offspring in September.

Best Regards,

Dennis S.
Rio Rancho, NM

PS: Great looking dog.
 
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