All along the Rio Grande
valley, birds and other wildlife
gather for the season
By John Fleck
Journal Staff Writer
Come for the sandhill cranes and the grand clouds of snow geese. Stay for the coyote, or possibly the American pipit.
The big gray cranes and waves of geese are the marquee attraction at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife refuge � its charismatic megafauna, if you will.
To see the geese take flight by the thousands is awe-inspiring, said Albuquerque bird-watcher John Arnold.
�That is spectacular, and that really speaks to people,� Arnold said.
But there is a quiet side that draws Arnold back each November. It is his birthday tradition to spend a day at the Bosque del Apache, seeing how many different species of birds he can identify.
And what he finds goes far beyond the geese and cranes.
In the ponds at the south end of the refuge, he�ll often see canvasbacks and redheads, ducks that find their way to the deep water alongside the sleek long-necked cormorants.
And his favorite of all is a modest bird, the American pipit. A drab little bird easily mistaken for a sparrow, the pipit winters in New Mexico. When Arnold spots one of those, he knows it�s been a good day.
The cranes, which winter in the middle Rio Grande valley in the tens of thousands, have made the Bosque del Apache, south of Socorro, a popular winter bird-watching and nature destination.
From Nov. 16 to 21, it will host its annual Festival of the Cranes, with days of talks, art exhibits, bird walks and more.
While the cranes and geese are the marquee attraction, the ecosystem built primarily for the big wintering birds has become a haven for an enormous range of wildlife, according to refuge biologist John Vradenburg.
Fields of corn grown under contract for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provide food for the cranes, which at 4 feet high and with a 6-foot wingspan are among the largest birds in New Mexico. Their full-throated call is one of the characteristic signs of fall along the Rio Grande in New Mexico.
The corn also attracts enormous flocks of snow geese and Ross�s geese, white birds that when they take flight en masse can block out the sun.
Beyond the Bosque del Apache, the sandhill cranes spread out up and down the middle Rio Grande Valley. Major flocks winter at the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish�s Ladd S. Gordon Waterfowl Complex south of Belen, and the big gray birds also can be found at the Rio Grande Nature Center and the Albuquerque Open Space Visitors Center in the heart of the Albuquerque metro area.
The 57,191-acre Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, spanning the Rio Grande south of Socorro in central New Mexico, sees some 350 different species of birds a year, plus reptiles, amphibians, insects and 30-odd kinds of mammals.
This year, according to Vradenburg, the aplomado falcon has been a particular favorite among refuge visitors. One of the rarest birds of prey to be found in New Mexico, the falcon has been formally declared �endangered.� But an experimental population introduced on a private ranch south of the refuge has become a regular visitor to the refuge, according to Vradenburg.
Aplomados feast on dragonflies, and have been seen of late flying low over the Bosque del Apache�s wetlands, Vradenburg said.
Coyotes are a common sight, and the refuge has deer and a recently growing population of elk, Vradenburg said.
The diversity of animal life is an example of the way a habitat created primarily for cranes and other water birds has created a rich ecosystem.
�We don�t manage for them,� Vradenburg said. �They just show up.�
The Bosque del Apache�s landscape represents an attempt using human engineering to create something similar to what would have once been there naturally, as the Rio Grande followed a meandering flood plain.
The refuge management strategy includes growing feed for the larger birds and clearing thickets of nonnative vegetation like salt cedar. Refuge staff also use a complex plumbing system of canals to create vast wetlands that mimic the slow-moving water once found when the Rio Grande wandered the flood plain.
�We�re trying to put in place what the river would have done naturally,� Vradenburg said.
But while the refuge, built in the 1930s, has brought New Mexico wintering populations of sandhill cranes back from a few dozen to the tens of thousands now, and has become a haven for birds of all sorts, it is still a tiny fraction compared to the rich ecosystem once found here, Vradenburg noted.
�It�s just a postage stamp on a big landscape,� he said.
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Aplomado Falconsby BirdingAdventures460 views
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