Bosque del Apache: The Mardi Gras of birdwatching

By Bob Difley

Tens of thousands of snow geese, Canadian geese, sandhill cranes, and ducks of all varieties fill the skies, chattering and flapping in a wild cacophony of quacks, honks, and croaks. This is Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, nine miles south of the New Mexico town of Socorro in the Rio Grande Valley less than an hour and a half from Albuquerque. It is winter, unlike summer when all is quiet in this riparian refuge surrounded by dry, barren, high desert.

The Spanish explorers, often encountering Apaches camped in the riverside forest, gave this place its name, which means "woods of the Apache." No longer a respite for Apaches, the refuge is an important--and critical--wintering home for thousands of sandhill cranes that arrive in November and leave in February. Thousands of other migratory birds also find shelter and food in the refuge. Watching the sunset "fly in" and the dawn "fly out," when some magical trigger catapults thousands of snow geese simultaneously into the air, emptying the pond in seconds, is a spectacle you will not soon forget.

Modern birds are not the first to discover the refuge. Paleontologists have discovered fossils from prehistoric hoofed animals from the Miocene era--10 to 15 million years ago. But for the birder, the refuge is one of the nations's premier birdwatching destinations, and the Festival of the Cranes, in its 22nd year of celebrating their return, is the birders' equivalent of the Mardi Gras. In 2009 the festival is November 17 - 22 and this year's schedule will include over 100 lectures, workshops, tours, hikes, and hands-on activities.

Like Quartzsite is a "must see" for the general RVer, Bosque del Apache is a "must see" for birdwatchers. Learn more about the Bosque at their Friends Website that includes directions, events, bird spotting lists and numbers and other refuge information. The 30-site Birdwatchers RV Park just outside the refuge at San Antonio and 93-site Socorro RV Park south of Socorro are conveniently close campgrounds, though there are additional choices in and around Socorro.