Another Recurring Visual Exploration

One of my favorite locations in New Mexico — the Bosque Del Apache — is situated along the eastern side of the Rio Grande 160 miles south of Albuquerque. It reminds me so much of where I lived for 12 years on the eastern shore of Maryland — 10 miles up the Miles River from the Chesapeake Bay — before moving to Santa Fe.

The eastern shore is very flat and surrounded by the Chesapeake Bay to the west, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, with numerous rivers, and lots of wetlands and marshes; the Bosque del Apache too is very flat and is surrounded by the Rio Grande and its canals creating its wetlands.

While the eastern shore’s elevation averages only 4 to 6 feet, the Bosque del Apache’s elevation averages about 4,500′. Nevertheless, the high desert bosque still looks so much like the eastern shore, except that to the east and west are mountain ranges rising 2,000 to 3,000′ above the desert.

Both are important migratory flyways: the eastern shore is part of North America’s eastern migration flyway stopover for thousands of ducks, geese, and swans, while New Mexico’s Bosque del Apache is an established stopover serving the ducks and geese and sandhill cranes of North America’s western migratory flyway.

At the end of 2013, I spent more than a week — morning and night — photographing at the Bosque to provide me the opportunity to treat it for the following 8 blog posts as:

Early Light

Early Light Early Light II Early Light III Early Light V

Wetlands

Wet Lands Wet Lands III Wet Lands IV Wet Lands V

Framed by Mountains

Against Mountains Against Mountains II Against Mountains III Against Mountains IV

Sandhills Rising

Sandhills Rising II Sandhills Rising III Sandhills Rising IV Sandhills Rising V

Overflight

Sandhill Overflies Snow Geese Snow Geese Overflight Snow Geese Overflight II Snow Geese Overflight III

 Sunset

Snow Geese Fly-In Sandhill Fly-In Chupaderas at Sunset Chupaderas at Sunset II

 Last Light

Last Light Last Light II Last Light III Last Light IV

Totems

Marsh Snow Geese Sandhills Wetlands Bald Eagle Sandhill Cottonwood Sandhill II

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