Volunteering at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

San Antonio, NM (52 degrees high, 19 degrees low, clear blue skies)

We have returned again to volunteer for Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. This is our second time here and it felt like home when we arrived in late October. It's a beautiful refuge in New Mexico where Sandhill Cranes, Snow Geese, Hawks, Eagles, songbirds, and lots of ducks migrate here to spend the winter. 

Sandhill Cranes

The refuge recreates what the Rio Grande used to do and an elaborate system of water canals and dikes flood areas for the birds to enjoy. The refuge planted lots of corn and grains for the birds and will harvest over 1.1 million pounds of grain to feed them. The Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese will now remain with their young until late January. 

Wild Rio Grande Turkeys

Mule Deer

We work three eight hour shifts in exchange for our site with full hook ups and WiFi. There is a very comfortable volunteer lounge with TV, game tables, reclining chairs, library, and a huge kitchen with industrial style stove and ovens. We have lots of potlucks and game nights with board and card games. We will be here until the end of February and folks arrive here in a staggered fashion with the majority of volunteers here now for the busy season. 

John's responsibility will be working in the fee booth and roving (driving around the refuge monitoring and talking to visitors). I'll be working in the Visitor Center and roving. 

Sandhill Crane Choir

When we first arrived there were only a few Sandhill Cranes and no Snow Geese and very few ducks. Each day more and more have arrived. In a couple of weeks the Sandhill Cranes will increase to 12,000, Snow Geese 30,000 and duck of all kinds to over 80,000. It's an amazing place.

All the staff and volunteers have been very busy getting ready for a fun event called the Festival of the Cranes. Visitors come from far and wide to participate. This event (31st) brings in lots of money for the local economy and there are presenters offering over 140 programs in photography, birding, and lots of field trips to local attractions such as the Very Large Array for the night sky, Owl expeditions and so much more. To see this years catalog click here. 

We have all helped with landscaping, cleaning, and an extensive orientation was presented by the staff to help us be ready. The festival started on Wednesday and its been so much fun. John has driven a van for some of the presenters, roved the refuge talking to visitors and monitoring areas. I've worked in the Visitor Center and Bull Pen (central area for communication), cleaned conference rooms and bathrooms and even walked around with a Sandhill Crane puppet.  All hands on deck are necessary. The refuge and Friends staff work very hard organizing and helping out.  

Early morning before the Fly Out

Snow Geese

The highlight for most visitors during the festival is the Fly Out and Fly In. The Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese roost at night in several wetlands each night. You can sign up for an early morning Fly Out and be taken by school bus to one of these areas just before dawn. Then as you stand there the Cranes start to wake up and soon a huge chorus of thousands of them start calling.  Aldo Leopold describes the sounds of the Sandhill Cranes as "tinkling of little bells, the baying of some sweet-throated hound, and a pandemonium of trumpets, rattles, croaks, and cries". Then slowly in groups of three the cranes start to leave the wetland area and head out to the farm fields just as the sun rises. What's really thrilling is when the Snow Geese lift from the field. Oftentimes, they will fly out in one huge flock and swirl around the wetland area for several minutes. It almost looks like a shaken snow globe. The sound of them lifting is really loud and it's so thrilling. 

Snow Geese at Fly Out

We signed up and paid for two classes. John attended a Raptor ID class. It lasted for five hours and the presenter, Gail Garber with Hawks Aloft, had the van driver explore areas of the refuge helping the attendees find and learn how to identify them. Later in the day she also brought in five rescued hawks for an up close look at them. I attended a Point and Shoot camera class and it was great and easy to follow. Our instructor, Stephen Ingram, initially took us out to the fly out and talked about how to use our cameras for morning light, landscape photos, and close ups photos of birds. He told me about features of my camera I was unaware of. Our presenter has written a book if you are interested in learning more. Click here for the details.

The Fly In can be equally impressive. The Cranes and Snow Geese return from the fields and land in the wetlands or fields for the night. You can hear the Snow Geese coming from the distance in big flocks. Our visitors and all of us really enjoy witnessing this event. It's magical. This will happen each day now until about late January. If you are in the area please stop by to see us. We will love showing you our "backyard". 

Our Travels Since Arriving in the U.S.

San Antonio, NM (62 degrees, clear blue skies)

After crossing the border from Canada into the U.S. we stopped along the way to see Great Falls and Custer's last stand in Montana. Both stops were very interesting. The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center features a  stopover of the Discovery Expedition at a huge waterfall.  There were very interesting displays and movie about the expedition and what happened here.

Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center

Little Bighorn Native American Memorial 

Grave markers for each soldier

Custer's last stand at the Battle of the Little Bighorn is also definitely worth the stop. We spent a few days exploring the area and found the National Monument gave a very balanced view of the cavalry and the Sioux and Cheyenne. Custer and 262 other soldiers lost their lives in this ill conceived battle. It's very sobering to see the graves where each of the soldiers died. A tombstone marks where each soldier died across a now peaceful battlefield. I won't go into all the history of this battle but encourage you to stop and experience it for yourself. 

We then spent a few days  in Colorado Springs tat the beautiful Air Force Academy military campground o do some much needed shopping and a few repairs. Our motorhome had been having a difficult time ascending hills and it was steadily getting worse. We had to pull over frequently to cool the engine down which can be a scary thing on major highways. It wasn't possible to have it diagnosed in Alaska but our campground gave us a great reference to a diesel shop. They found out there were huge amounts of dust, debris, and mud packed in the very tight spaces of the radiator and transmission cooler. They said it was a common problem and gave us a couple of options. The best one was to drop the radiator and clean it thoroughly. It took the mechanic most of the day and he said it was by far the best option. The good news is our motorhome run like a champ.  Maybe we will even get a little bit better gas mileage. They did recommend spraying water with a high pressure monthly into this area to keep it clear. Maybe you should do this too!

The weather suddenly turned very cold and we got a welcome phone call from our friends in Albuquerque. How would we like to come visit them and be able to go to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. Dub and Rae live in a 55 plus community which has two RV spots available for guests. Well, we didn't have to think about this offer very long and headed quickly in their direction. We were planning on going to Albuquerque but not until the Fiesta was over.

It was great to see Dub and Rae and we had fun sharing stories of Alaska and Canada. They had gone there long ago when it was even more of an adventure. We shared lots of laughs and some great food. We also were able to arrange a dinner together with two couples we had traveled with this summer. It was great fun.

We went to two mass ascensions able to at the Balloon Fiesta  and what a joy it was to see all the beautiful hot air balloons. This is our fourth time attending and we just couldn't resist taking way too many photos. Here are just a few.

After the Fiesta we returned for a second time to volunteer at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. This beautiful refuge is located about 80 miles south of Albuquerque. It 's home in the fall and winter to thousands of Sandhill Cranes, Snow Geese, song birds, and lots and lots of ducks. There are great wildlife opportunities as well. Occasionally you might spot an elk, bobcat, or if you are very lucky a mountain lion. When we arrived it really felt like we had come home. We saw some of our friends and seeing the refuge in all it's fall colors is just spectacular. 

The Sandhill Cranes will eventually reach over 12, 000 and more and more are arriving each day. Our orientation started on October 22nd and even though we have participated with this in the past we learned so much. What is really exciting is there is an excellent corn crop this year. This refuge recreates what the Rio Grande River used to do and has grown over 1.1 million pounds of grain to feed their hungry visitors. They also flood fields in a very orchestrated and technical way for the wildlife to enjoy.

Wild Turkey

Snow Geese

Sandhill Cranes at dawn

We will be here until the end of February. If you are in the area, please stop by. We'd love to show you our beautiful "back yard"!