Bosque del Apache

I went to Bosque del Apache yesterday, the 57,000-acre wildlife bird sanctuary near Socorro, NM, to watch the migratory birds roosting there lift off from the water at sunrise to feed.  They are there in large numbers from November to December. More than 40,000 birds including as many as 17,000 sandhill cranes, ducks, geese and more stop here in the flood planes of the Rio Grande in autumn to rest and feed on their southward migration. They come from as far as Alaska and travel as far south as Mexico. On a frosty November morning with the sun taking its veiled time to rise from behind mountains and clouds they are a sight to behold. More later.  For now, photos.  (Click to enlarge.)

Sunscapes, Sanity, and Migratory Birds

I've been lazy lately. The sunsets have been magnificent.  Here are a few scenes at a truck stop, as I entered New Mexico last month. (click to expand.)

Ah, but not just on the highways that the sun plays its tricks with the sky.

In Truth or Consequences it rises over Turtleback Mountain, lighting the morning, and painting the dawn clouds platinum white and charcoal gray.

By evening, the sky is red again, as the westering sun ducks behind the Gila Mountains, painting the sky a fiery orange.

And paints the turtle on Turtleback Mountain gold.

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It is good to be home. Much has been happening in TorC. hTremayne, almost my next door neighbor, published a book in June — The Good Life Lab, about her and her husband's decision to leave the high-powered, high moneyed life of Manhattan and find a saner and more satisfying way to life.

They found it here. The book details what and how they worked to learn new skills and make —  not buy — a life of plenty.  And the philosophies they developed as they lived their dream.

"I discovered there are two kinds of poverty," said, during a book signing at the Black Cat Bookstore and Cafe here in Truth or Consequences. "There is the poverty of really not having enough, and the poverty of thinking you don't have enough."

Wendy gets a hug during a book signing.

There is, says Wendy, organic living in which we are one with our instincts that tell us what this world, the natural world, is all about.  And there is the artificial world that civilization has created out of the natural world.  Wendy believes we are not never really at home in that world and never can be.


Meanwhile, I've settled in to do some  writing here.  I've added a small addition to my bus to make things cozy yet  more spacious.

A canopy awning and front panel — a marvel of modern engineering.

It is getting cold at night, but my bed is warm, and my ancient German Eberspacher gasoline heater still works to warm things up in the morning.  When the sun comes out it is marvelous.

There are many friends in this unique little town of poets, writers, painters, musicians and hippies; where you can soak in 108 degree artesian water, and at night watch Orion climb straight overhead into a jet black, star-spangled autumn New Mexico sky.

And much to do. On Thursday I am off to Bosque del Apache at dawn to watch the migratory birds  — ducks and geese and cranes — already there. When these birds lift off in to he morning sun, I am told, it is a sight to behold.