December 12, 2013
Sandhill Cranes' sunrise march
Sandhill Cranes' sunrise march

Our Phoenix son and I have three things in common:  we both love the outdoors; we both think Cameron Diaz is waaay overrated; and we both love his wife, Allison, though obviously for different reasons and in different ways.  Readers first met Allison a little over three years ago in a column (jimburnsphotos.com/pages/9-9-10.html) I wrote about making “bird” a verb for those who haven’t yet seen the beauty and diversity of our avian fellow travelers and still think of “bird” as just a noun.

My suggestion in that column was to take your uninitiated to one of the country’s spectacular avian events, the Festival of Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico being the closest to Phoenix and arguably the best.  Last month we were finally able to accompany our son and his family to the Bosque, just south of Socorro, and introduce them to the autumn highlights on the refuge.  Although we went at Thanksgiving and missed the festival itself (not necessarily a bad thing given the crush of birders who come to the annual event) due to our work schedules, the show put on by the cranes and geese was, as we had promised Allison, totally spectacular.

Fifty thousand Snow Geese, intermingled with lesser numbers of Ross’s, and 8,000 Sandhill Cranes are hard to miss, especially if you’re on the 57,000 acre refuge for the pre-dawn “blast-off” or the sunset fly-in.  For the former, the best viewing spot is the Flight Deck on the two way section at the south end of the North Loop Road.  For the latter you want to be at one of the two Crane Pools on the west side of Highway 1.  Be prepared, aurally and visually, for a once in a lifetime experience.

Blast-off typically occurs ten to fifteen minutes prior to actual sunrise.  It is accompanied by the nervous calling of 50,000 birds reaching a crescendo at the noise level of a passing train as the geese take flight in simultaneous waves, hopefully against the violet to orange to mauve backdrop of a clear sky over the Chupadera Mountains on the eastern horizon.  This is the Bosque’s main event.  Fly-in is the best crane event, lasting from an hour before sundown to half an hour after as skeins of Sandhills return from the outlying corn fields to land in their overnight roosting pools against the mauve to orange to violet backdrop of the Gallinas Range to the west.

Allison’s two words to describe these spectacles of nature were “relaxing” (she’s a teacher after all—elementary and special needs) and “interesting” (at the Visitors Center she picked up some ideas for her classroom).  This description of the kaleidoscope colors and heretofore unheard cacophony of sounds at the core of the Bosque experience may seem only a lukewarm reaction but remember, though she’s completely at home in nature and the outdoors, Allison has always been uncomfortable around birds, particularly geese, due to family incidents that occurred when she was a child.

Thrust amongst 50,000 geese in the darkness before dawn, and not knowing for sure what to expect, Allison admits flinching, but only once, during her first blast-off.  We all need to relax and get away from our demanding lives, who more than teachers, and we all crave interesting and unique experiences in our daily routine.  I know Allison has a different outlook on birds now and a new appreciation for their world.  That was the goal.  That’s what the Bosque is all about.

Sunset over the Chupaderas
Sunset over the Chupaderas