Simply My Life...me discovering me: Pandemic Road Trip: Thanksgiving 2020 "No eyeball pecking today"

I am reminded of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 horror classic, The Birds, but a much friendlier version with nicer cast members. There are a gazillion flying feathered creatures, like in the movie, but what is absent is the gruesome pecking of eyeballs.

Instead, the birds peck in the fields and occasionally at one another, while the horrifying screams of eyeless people have been replaced by the squawking and quacking of cranes, geese, and ducks.

It’s winter migration.

There have been 374 different bird species observed at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, but I have come for just one – the long legged, long necked Sandhill Crane.

This is the week of the Festival of the Cranes, but since we are in the middle of a pandemic, the festivities have been cancelled. However, the birds obviously did not get the memo.

Typically, about 10,000 cranes migrate through the refuge, along with the 20,000 or so of Ross’s and Snow geese and they all seem to be here on this day.

It’s only 7:30am, but I am already late to the party.

It’s well past sunrise, the time when the flocks of birds who roost in the refuge move to the agricultural fields to feed. Apparently, that is quite the spectacle and as I enter the refuge, I notice a slew of photographers with their big lenses and just as many other birders with binoculars dangling from their necks. They were here before dawn to get into position to get the perfect view, to get the perfect shot. I envy them for their dedication. I suppose that is the downfall of my success as a wildlife photographer. I like my sleep.

The refuge is over 57,000 acres of flooded plains, wetlands, grasslands, scrublands, and desert terrain. Prime habitat for birding, but I have no expectations. I am simply hoping to “see a few birds,” but as soon as I enter the refuge, I see my Sandhill Cranes and my heart skips a beat.

My head is on a swivel.

Birds are everywhere.

I do not know where to look, however, it is the sound that intensifies my excitement. With no human noise to contend with, the calls of thousands of birds echoing in the early morning stillness is jarring. It is a sound I have never heard before at this level. Loud and obnoxious, yet beautiful and hypnotizing.

A deep breath letting nature flow through me. Now I am ready to be a wildlife photographer and unashamedly, a bird nerd.

My Field Guide to Birds of North America is at the ready. In between taking pictures, I attempt to identify birds. Many I have seen before, like the swarms of red-winged black birds that swirl into the air as one, reminding me of the crows in Hitchcock’s movie.

However, there are many first timers that I can check off in my book, like the Northern Pintail and Ross’s Goose. The Sandhill Cranes were, of course, a major highlight, but seeing two bald eagles was a wonderful surprise.

Although it isn't just the birds I watch. There is other wildlife as well, like deer and coyote, however, if I had to pick one memory from being at Bosque, it would be watching a squadron of javelina. As with some of the birds, this was my first time seeing javelina, which I thought were wild boar.

Although the speed limit on the auto-tour road is 25mph, the lack of traffic allowed me to drive much slower. Puttering along the north loop, I saw two men crouched down with lenses aimed into the brush. I couldn’t see what they saw, but when a photographer has his face pressed against his camera, you know something is there worthy of a photograph!

Javelina!

Many national parks require you to remain 25-yards away from wildlife. I don’t know if that applies in Bosque, but if it did, I clearly violated the rules. I didn’t realize how close I was until I peeked out from behind my camera. I was standing less than 10-feet away. He, or she, stopped eating and looked at me. We made eye contact.

“Oh shit.”

I weighed my options and there were none. No nearby tree to climb, no car to jump into, and nowhere to run. Basically, I was wide open for attack, but lucky for me, he was more interested in eating leaves rather than eating me. Cautiously, I moved away in the opposite direction in which he was headed.

Eventually, they crossed the road in front of the handful of photographers who had gathered and that is when I took my favorite image from this entire trip. A few ran across and then a mother and her baby stopped hidden partially by the bushes. The baby nursed for several seconds and then mama crossed the road with the baby right behind her. That is the picture I took. I turned to the woman next to me and we both had tears in our eyes. Watching the baby nurse was a very touching moment and one I will never forget.

My second morning at the refuge didn’t present quite the same birding experiences as the day before.

The weather was different. Previously, it was overcast with a sprinkling of rain, but calm, now it was sunny and very windy. The birds weren’t as active and neither the bald eagles nor javelina could be found, although I did get some good photos of cranes in flight.

What an incredible two days of photography at Bosque and I'm already planning to go back! But for now, I have a decision to make...

Where to next?

…to be continued.

To see more pictures from this and other road trips, visit my Facebook Page and Instagram.