Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

2/2/2023

We passed through San Antonio, New Mexico at the end of January on our way to Albuquerque for a short, but great visit with friends, Beth and Keith, who still reside in Birmingham, Alabama, our hometown.

I mention this because we happened on the Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge located just down the road from our great campsite at Chupadero Mountain View RV Park.

As we arrived the first time, we were greeted by a number of Sandhill Cranes who spend some of their day away from Bosque Del Apache NWR at Chupadero. Neither of us had seen the cranes up close though we witnessed thousands of them migrating south through Arkansas during our first year of travel.

They are beautiful large prehistoric looking birds and make a very distinctive sound.

The calls of Sandhill Cranes are described as trumpeting, bugling, rattling, or croaking, but these adjectives do not fully convey the volume or quality of the sound produced by a mature Sandhill Crane. Birds of the World

So, after our visit with our friends in Albuquerque, we traveled back south, first to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico and then back north to San Antonio, New Mexico and visit to Bosque Del Apache.

While we didn't close enough to the cranes for photos at the refuge, I'm posted a few shots from Chupadero RV park. The remainder of the shots are from our mostly drive through of the refuge.