{"id":9652,"date":"2023-03-20T22:59:22","date_gmt":"2023-03-21T05:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/?p=9652"},"modified":"2023-03-20T22:59:44","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T05:59:44","slug":"monte-vista-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/20\/monte-vista-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Monte Vista — 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Earlier this month, we took a birding trip to Monte Vista. Every year, at this time of year, Sandhill Cranes make their way north to their summer breeding areas. Monte Vista is one location where thousands of cranes stop over during their flight from New Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city also hosts an annual Crane Festival. This year we decided to visit before the festival started. It was the 40th anniversary of the festival, so we chose to avoid the expected crowds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For our first morning, we headed out to the National Wildlife Refuge at dawn, well before sunrise.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"2803-0037-Pair-Of-Sandhill-Cranes-Taking-Flight-Monte-Vista\"
Pair Of Sandhill Cranes, Taking Flight, Monte Vista.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The cranes spend the night in the the ponds, where they are safe from any predators. Hundreds of Canada Geese also spend the night in the same ponds. About the time of sunrise, the take flight, either singly or in family groups, to daily feeding grounds. I managed to capture some of these magnificent birds in flight.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"2803-0061-Sandhill-Crane-In-Flight-Monte-Vista-Ponds\"
Sandhill Crane In Flight, Monte Vista Ponds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In the following image, the single crane took flight. In the background there are five cranes — all out of focus. I like the contrast of the four out-of-focus birds with the wings swept up above the single bird, contrasting with the wings swept down of the out-of-focus single bird.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"2803-0106-Single-Sandhill-Crane-At-Sunrise\"
Single Sandhill Crane At Sunrise.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Around the edges of the ponds are plenty of cattails. Hundreds of Red-Winged Blackbirds also spent the night in these cattails. There was an amazing cacophony of sound as the birds were chattering and calling from the cattails.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"2803-0150-Male-Red-Winged-Blackbird-Calling-On-Cattails\"
Male Red-Winged Blackbird, Calling, On Cattails.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Typically, there are male blackbirds that have migrated to the ponds, while they await female birds to arrive. I did manage to find one female Red-Winged Blackbird, perched on a cattail.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"2803-0159-Female-Red-Winged-Blackbird-Monte-Vista\"
Female Red-Winged Blackbird, Monte Vista.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This year we were lucky in finding a male Great-Horned owl during the late afternoon. They are really difficult to see clearly because they often perch close to the main tree trunk and are often tucked between other branches. Luckily, this owl was perched in a tree close to the road. They may also roost in trees far from the roads during the day. They are so well camouflaged that they become invisible.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"2802-0017-Great-Horned-Owl-Monte-Vists-NWR\"
Great Horned Owl, Monte Vista NWR.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

During the other mornings, we headed out well before sunrise. Here are some more images of family groups of Sandhill Cranes leaving the ponds.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"2804-0033-Sandhill-Crane-Family-Taking-Flight\"
Sandhill Crane Family, Taking Flight.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

And here is a family threesome taking flight against the dawn sky.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"2804-0035-Three-Sandhill-Cranes-Monte-Vista-NWR\"
Three Sandhill Cranes, Monte Vista NWR.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

We spent three nights and four days in Monte vista. However, for days two and three, there were strong cold winds blowing across the San Luis Valley, often kicking up dust from the dirt roads and ploughed fields. Regardless, we still enjoyed birding for all four days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month, we took a birding trip to Monte Vista. Every year, at this time of year, Sandhill Cranes make their way north to their summer breeding areas. Monte Vista is one location where thousands of cranes stop over during their flight from New Mexico. The city also hosts an annual Crane Festival. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[378,1362,67,1871,1360,426,1870,1869,425,34,831],"class_list":{"0":"post-9652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-general","7":"tag-dawn","8":"tag-flight","9":"tag-geese","10":"tag-great-horned-owl","11":"tag-monte-vista","12":"tag-ponds","13":"tag-red-winged-blackbirds","14":"tag-san-luis-valley","15":"tag-sandhill-cranes","16":"tag-sunrise","17":"tag-wildlife-refuge"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMatQ-2vG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9652"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9657,"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9652\/revisions\/9657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}