Sandhill cranes, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico, USA

Today we’re visiting Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico to join a group of sandhill cranes and their mallard duck friends as they feed in shallow water. Each year beginning in late October, this refuge in the Southwestern United States becomes the winter home to tens of thousands of migratory birds including sandhill cranes and various species of geese and ducks who travel from as far away as Alaska and Siberia. They stay until late February when they begin their journey back north to their summer homes. Since sandhill cranes can live for 40 years, it’s possible a few of the cranes pictured here have been wintering in the Bosque for decades.
© Cathy & Gordon Illg/Jaynes Gallery/DanitaDelimont.com