Seven years ago we worked as volunteers at the Bosque for the winter season.
Elephant Butte, where we are camped this February and March, is about an hour south of the refuge. We decided that before the winter ends we should go back, see the sandhill cranes and snow geese, visit the refuge office and drive the loop road to view any changes.
The biggest change we could see was the staff.
Only one person that we knew was there.
We had a great visit with LeighAnn
catching up on all the happenings.
There were very few birds and those were mainly ducks and coots.
I hadn't really given it any thought until the morning of the trip.
The sandhill cranes and snow geese usually leave in February to begin the spring
return to their breeding grounds.
This year was no different.
They left right on schedule, about February 14th.
The refuge has many canals that are used to manage the fields.
This was Vic's "toy" while we were there.
He put a few hundred hours on this piece of equipment,
much of it on the tamarisk eradication project.
Tamarisk is non-native.
Unlike plants and trees that are native, tamarisk uses
a copious amounts of water and crowds out the native species.
We were happy to see that the project was successful.
No signs of tamarisk anywhere on the refuge!
During the winter the cranes and snow geese feed on the
corn and alfalfa
provided in the farm fields at the refuge.
These irrigation ditches provide coyotes with a place to hide while stalking the birds.
They were fondly referred to as 'coyote runways'.
A coyote could run out of sight along these ditches, put it's head up at intervals while searching for an unsuspecting crane or goose that wasn't too far away.
The green in the canal is Parrot Feather, also a non native species.
One of Vic's jobs with the excavator was to clean this out.
The job has to be done every few years as it comes back again and again.
Why did the turtle cross the road?
So I would photograph it and make it famous on the internet.
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