Last weekend I was fortunate to have birding friends from Colorado come to New Mexico to visit. One place I always enjoy taking visiting birders is the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, which is located southeast of Socorro, New Mexico. Fall is a particularly lovely time to visit the refuge.
We arrived to find the bosque cottonwoods in full fall color.
Cottonwoods showing fall colors at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.
The pond at the north end of the refuge held thousands of Snow Geese.
Snow Geese at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.
Snow Goose at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.
Snow Geese at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge showing color morphs.
It was lovely to watch the Snow Geese against the fall colors.
Snow Geese flying past the cottonwoods at Bosque del Apache.
There were hundreds of Northern Pintails in the pond with the Snow Geese.
Female Northern Pintail.
Male Northern Pintail.
Northern Pintail pair.
A Bald Eagle would occasionally circle the pond, causing the Snow Geese and Northern Pintails to take to the air amid a flurry of honking and quacking.
Bald Eagle takes flight, disturbing the ducks and geese.
Snow geese take flight after being disturbed by a Bald Eagle.
The Northern Pintails were disturbed by the Bald Eagle too.
Sandhill Cranes were in many of the shallow ponds in the refuge …
Sandhill Cranes wade in a shallow pond as Northern Pintails fly by.
… and we watched them fly over our heads for most of the day.
Sandhill Cranes flew overhead for most of the day.
As we drove over to the crane pools to watch the evening fly-in, we saw a variety of birds.
American Kestrel hovering.
Greater Roadrunner surveys the terrain.
Lilian's Eastern Meadowlarks singing in the trees.
White-tailed Kite, almost out of camera range.
As evening drew near we drove to the crane pools to watch the evening fly-in. There were not huge numbers of cranes there yet, but still, it is a wonderful spectacle.
Sandhill Cranes, evening fly-in.
Sandhill Cranes coming in for a landing at the crane pools.
Sandhill Cranes circle in against the fading light.
As we left Bosque del Apache after a wonderful day, we watched a new moon set over the mountains to the west.
New moon at sunset.
It was a wonderful day!
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Photo Feathers 
Wonderful post, Linda!! I would have loved to be there with you all!
This looks like an awesome place I need to visit one of these days. Great photos!
This place looks busy …. beautiful! Wonderful shots. The snow goose in full honk cracked me up 🙂
Linda, fantastic post and photos! Thank you for taking us along on your birding excursion to Bosque del Apache. This looks like a place I would love to visit. Such a wide variety of beautiful birds. A joy to read this post, indeed.
Nice Linda great diversity Very nice place Thanks for sharing those. Great Blog post and pictures.
Thanks for sharing this with us, Linda. I’m tempted to invite myself over–being at the other end of the migration is such a gift. We saw our first robin this week!
Beautiful photos Rocky! Glad you all had a great time!
What a fabulous visit you must have had, these pictures are so amazing!
Thank all of you for your very kind comments. I wish all of you could go there with me. I’ll take you whenever you can come to New Mexico!
Wonderful post and photos! Thank you for sharing. I will be there in February and am wondering if you can tell me the best places in the refuge go to watch the snow geese take flight? Thank you! Beth
The best place to watch the snow geese take flight is from the Flight Deck at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. Get there before sunrise. 🙂