Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese at sunset

Sandhill cranes and snow geese at sunset at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, an absolutely awesome place, except it is infested with photographers. These photographers are in a vastly different place than I am. They have humongous tripods and lenses that are bigger than the dog. They all sort of swagger when they walk, but that is probably just the weight of the setup. It was hard to get a place along the deck to take photographs because there are almost as many photographers lining the edge of the water as birds in the water.

I ended up finding a some relatively empty space and crawling on my hands and knees to near the edge of the water where I took some pictures and the sprawled on my back and just watched the birds fly over head and land. After awhile, I was joined by one of the giant lens people.

There were thousands of birds and I actually got some shots where the birds on the water and in the air were in focus but they are so busy in black and white that I decided to go with this much simpler silhouette.

Today I am grateful for birds, sky, wind, air and earth.