During the last week of the 2024, we made a trip to Socorro, to visit Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge. Soon after arriving at the Refuge, we had a couple of hours of birding, before the sun set for the day. One of the first birds that we encountered was this American Kestrel perched on a Cottonwood tree close to the entrance.
The next morning, we headed out to the Refuge. Shortly after sunrise, we stopped by a pond where several Sandhill Cranes were busy feeding. Nearby, a Bald Eagle had caught a Snow Goose, and was feeding with two immature eagles; we were too distant to get a good view of that scene.
We continued to visit some other locations. The refuge have several ponds that are flooded during different years. We found a newly flooded pond that had several shore birds, in addition to the usual ducks and geese. We found a Greater Yellowlegs feeding in the pond.
In another pond, we found several Northern Pintail ducks feeding along the edges of he pond. In this image, a group of male Pintails were swimming to a new location in the pond.
During the afternoon, we made a trip to the southern loop of the refuge. In one of the ponds we found a female Canvasback duck. In a previous year, we found a Canvasback in the same pond. Maybe this is the same bird?
Towards the end of the day, we found a Say’s Phoebe. This flycatcher made several trips to catch bugs, returning intermittently to a perched on a thistle plant.
The ponds in the refuge are used by several waterfowl species that roost for the night. He they are protected from predators. A pair of Sandhill Cranes had flown in from daytime feeding grounds.
There were several streams of incoming groups of cranes as the sun dipped below the horizon.
I tracked several incoming groups of Sandhill Cranes as they were silhouetted against the evening sky. I waited until one of the cranes dropped its legs in preparation for a landing in the pond.