You know those irresistible, “palpable” kinds of books that a reader yearns to touch? A book that’s ideal in size—eight by seven inches with a satisfying heft—which elicits delight when the perfect pages are turned, or by caressing the flawless dust cover or running a hand hand along the elegant spine? Such a book is “Fifty Places to Go Birding Before You Die” by Chris Santella.
Readers will recognize its high quality instantly when they open it to any page and see that it miraculously lies flat when opened. Absolute perfection. And by the way, the book’s editorial content is darn good, too, which is a bit surprising since author Chris Santella is not a hardcore birder. Instead, he’s the “Fifty Places” guy—writer of several other guides in Stewart, Tabori & Chang’s series, including “Fifty Places to Fly Fish Before You Die”, “Fifty Places to Play Golf Before You Die”, “Fifty Places to Sail Before You Die”, and “Fifty Favorite Fly-Fishing Tales”.
Santella was well aware that he was less than qualified to select “top birding sites” all on his own, so he solicited input from a host of birders and ornithologists, biologists, tour leaders and science writers, and a different individual nominated each of the 50 places in this book.
The author interestingly showcases many of the greatest bird-watching venues in the world—both at home and abroad—with interviews from stellar birding notables like David Allen Sibley, author and illustrator of the “Sibley Guide to Birds”; John W. Fitzpatrick, director of the world-famous Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology; Rose Ann Rowlett, the mother of modern birding; and Steve McCormick, president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy, among many others. Santella interviewed these birding world luminaries and elicited the most amazing places they’ve been to bird watch. Included among the fascinating destination descriptions are also travel tips and great-read stories about the fifty “faraway places with the strange-sounding names.”
It’s estimated that some 60 million Americans count birding among their hobbies, be it to hang bird feeders in their backyards or accumulate personal “yard lists,” or to participate in annual “Christmas counts.”
A lucky few have the means to travel to the ends of the earth to, literally, see every bird in the world. If you are one of those arcane individuals who actually do aspire to personally “see every bird in the world,” fellow birder Dan Koeppel’s wonderful yet sobering memoir, “To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifetime Obsession” may be an inspiration. Author Koeppel describes his father’s dogged pursuit of glimpsing every single species of the world’s 10,000+ birds, at enormous cost to his family, his own personal happiness, even his sanity.
No list of “Fifty Favorite Birding Places” is going to please everyone, and one’s top birding spot may not have made it onto Santella’s list. (No place in Montana did, except for Yellowstone National Park which was listed under Wyoming.)
But one of my favorite places did: the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge near Socorro, New Mexico. Yes, it’s about 1100 miles from Park County, but hey, it’s a straight shot south—an easy day-and-a-half drive. Yes, gas prices are criminal and getting worse all the time, but who knows what the state of affairs may be by late November—the best time to visit the Bosque? Perhaps the planets will realign themselves serendipitously, and lovely, long road trips may yet again be possible for us all. At any rate, birders looking for the ultimate experience have just got to visit the Bosque sometime, at dawn and dusk, and especially under the light of a full moon.
From late November through early January, visitors to the Bosque witness the spectacle and grandeur of migrating greater sandhill cranes (at times up to 20,000), white and blue phases of lesser snow geese, Ross’s geese, Canada geese (around 30,000 geese altogether), and an impressive array of ducks (up to 50,000), all coming to rest and feed for awhile in an oasis in the Chihuahuan Desert. Oh yes, and there are plenty of raptors, too: bald and golden eagle; prairie falcon; hawks including ferruginous, Swainson’s, and red-tailed, northern harrier; and the beautiful, feisty little American kestrel.
A visitor’s first sight of the 57,191-acre Bosque is of a sun-drenched flood-plain with more than 80 constructed water impoundments, rimmed by vegetation and graced by occasional, large and lovely cottonwoods. The remainder of the refuge is comprised of arid foothills and mesas, bounded by rugged, distant mountains to both west and east. The refuge straddles the Rio Grande about 20 miles south of Socorro, New Mexico, at the far northern edge of the Chihuahuan desert.
The ducks are the first to show up here, in early October. Then the greater sandhill cranes start coming in later in the month, then the geese start arriving in early November. Mid-November through mid-January are the best wildlife viewing times. By the first of March, most of the waterfowl have moved on—and (a word to the wise) mosquitoes start moving in. Choose your visiting time at the Bosque accordingly.
Be sure to check out what I call the “sandhill crane sneak.” About 30 minutes before sunrise, make sure to be in place along the water impoundments on the west side of the road between the refuge and the village of San Antonio. Get your binoculars ready—alas, it’s too early and dark for cameras. Observing from the dirt levee, you can dimly see the sleeping cranes in the middle of the pond: dark motionless lumps, heads tucked under wings. And then, the false light of pre-sunrise begins to gather. The cranes pop their heads up, almost in unison. First one, then two, then choruses of cranes begin their characteristic vocalization, a chittering silvery purr. But the growing light elicits no great flurry of crane wings to the sky—that frenzy is for the ducks and geese. Cranes are far more sedate and stately.
As the sunrise light grows and finally touches their bodies, the sandhill cranes gradually begin what I call their “sneak walk.” One at a time, the cranes begin walking very, very slowly—step by deliberate step—from the water onto land. Sometimes they appear to be moving in single file, other times not. As full sunshine paints the landscape, the cranes slowly and deliberately take wing, usually in small clusters of three to eight individuals. Their huge wings flash magnificently against the dawn. Fifteen minutes after sunrise when camera shutter-speeds are still too slow to catch action in the dim light all of the cranes have left the ponds. Show’s over, folks, now it’s time for feeding in nearby fields.
My favorite Bosque activity is walking out onto the refuge under a full moon, when the waterfowl and cranes fitfully attempt to sleep frequently “startling”themselves awake with a torrent of vocalization due to some danger, real or imagined.
Most folks come to the Bosque to see the daily “fly-out” just before dawn or the “fly-in” shortly before sunset—the wonderful sights and sounds of thousands of waterfowl moving to and from the relative safety of mid-pond where they cluster together for the night for safety. The silhouetted skeins of geese, ducks and cranes against the flaming skies are heart-stoppingly beautiful.
During the last two weeks in November, the world-famous “Festival of the Cranes” at the Bosque celebrates the annual spectacle of the southbound waterfowl and crane migration, typically drawing up to 10,000 visitors to the refuge and surrounding area. Someday—gas prices permitting—I hope to go back to the Bosque, and I hope local birders get a chance to see it too, sometime.
Inevitably, the experience of visiting these birding hot-spots will be changed (and quite possibly degraded after a time) by the increasing number of folks who will visit them… not to mention issues of habitat degradation, deforestation, and global warming. But you’d better go and see the birds anyway. Now, while they’re still here.
—Jane Susan MacCarter
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Posted by: Angel | July 12, 2008 at 01:36 AM