End of Festival 2010

Full Moon Rising 2010...farm loop, BdA NWR

Leigh Ann Vradenburg, Executive director Friends of the Bosque del Apache NWR, and John Vradenburg, head biologist are pictured below standing outside the Art Show Tent during the final day of the Festival.

This was a hugely successful Festival - participants and exhibitors were happy, and many visitors to the Refuge were very pleased with the condition of the Refuge- it was perfect! So many were excited by the numbers of wintering birds and great visibility and viewing. People were lined up taking photos at various locations on the refuge, and cranes and geese were close, much to the thrill of the visitors!

We would all like to thank the many tireless and generous volunteers. The Festival absolutely could not have happened without your help! More than 50 volunteers staffed the hospitality tent and the information table at Macey Center in Socorro. More than 30 other volunteers drove vans, fixed meals and worked their hearts out to make this an enjoyable and successful event.

Everyone involved loves and is dedicated to the Refuge, and strives to have visitors feel the same connection to the birds and wildlife and the beautiful and critical habitat!

We are all in this together!

Thanks everyone for a fantastic Festival 2010!

Again, Thank you to our Festival attendees, our wonderful Festival volunteers, our many participants, the great refuge staff, the fine City of Socorro, Friends of the Bosque and everyone who helped and supported us during the popular 23rd Festival of the Cranes 2010!

We could never do this without your help!

© 2010 Sandy Seth (Festival Artist 2010)

Hawks Aloft Inc. Elizabeth and Chuck (and friend)

HawksAloft.org

Conservation, Avian Research and Education

Albuquerque, NM

a few rare birds seen festival of the cranes

White-tailed kite seen (some say 2) seen near flight deck (today and yesterday)

mountain lion in "face-off" with coyotes (3 reports of this)

bobcat seen several times

surf scoter seen along marsh loop Nov 15, seen by leader of Audubon group from New Jersey

Lorraine McInnes Intrepid Rattlesnake Researcher Bosque del Apache

Using radio telemetry to track diamondback rattlesnake movement on the Refuge (she is currently tracking 17 snakes in their annual cycle)

Services and Donations for Bob Merkel

Services for Bob Merkel, our beloved volunteer will be Tuesday in Socorro,

and the family wishes that donations be made to Friends of the Bosque NWR and Sevilleta NWR in lieu of flowers. With Thanks.

We will miss Bob, and are so grateful for his years of dedication,

and we send love to his family

Sevilleta Natiional Wildlife Refuge Jim and Pat Niner, Volunteers

Jim and Pat have over 4,000 volunteer hours with our

NM sister Refuge, Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge

Wildlife Rescue New Mexico Inc

Patty Elliott

and rescue owl

Wildlife Exhibitor at the Festival of the Cranes 2010

Sunrise Nov 20

Santa fe Raptor Center ambassador

The Center's main focus is the rescue, rehabilitation and release of injured raptors.

www.thesantaferaptorcenter.org

Santa Fe Raptor Center Laura Swartz

Festival Wildlife Exhibitor

Santa Fe Raptor Center Laura Swartz and Great Horned Owl, who, because of shotgun injuries (shocking and sad) is non-releasable. and has joined our group of educational raptors.

Jerry Goffe, vice President of the Friends of the Bosque and photography expert says his long lens pre-Festival class was a success with 23 people. Jerry is so personable and knowledgeable! We heard from many happy participants. Again next year, Jerry?

www.naturephotoworks.com

pink light sandhill cranes

more Art Show participants - a great variety!

Bronze sculpture by Jammey Huggins

www.jammey.com

official f&w bird count nov 19, 2010

ok..changed from 7000 sandhills to 4777 seems like a lot more though.. 26,500 snow geese,,, 66,738 ducks, 259 canada geese, 3 eagles, 28 hawks & owls. Refuge looks beautiful...a bountiful winter home for our migrating sandhills, geese, ducks and more

Art show textiles and more

Judith Roderick nature painter judith roderick.com

silk scarves shown here

More and more from the Art Show and Fish and Wildlife

Skeeter Leard, Artist, skeeterart.com

showing at the Festival of the Cranes Art Show

Daniel Perry, Outdoor Recreation Planner

Bosque del Apache NWR

Open house begins today at 1:00

RioGrandeCacti.com

Identifying collars for geese - Migration

From John Vradenburg's presentation on snow goose ecology-

Geese we will see at Bosque

Collar colors- origin

Lesser snow goose

RED Warngel Island Russia and la Perouse Bay, Churchill, Manitoba (Hudson Bay)

BLUE Alaska

BLACK Western Canadian Artic (Bank's Island)

YELLOW Central Canadian Arctic (Queen Maude Gulf)

GREEN Eastern Canadian Arctic (Hudson Bay)

Ross's Goose

BLUE (Queen Maude Gulf)

PALE (Quebec Blue- Central Canadian Arctic

YELLOW Eastern Canadian Arctic

some of the 24,000 ducks (a few days later, there were 64,000!!)

North Farm loop yesterday

thousands of snow geese!

Festival is in full swing.. 7,000 sandhills, puffs of snow geese and great workshops

Joel Sartore, photographer for National Geographic and other publications, gave a strong and entertaining keynote His powerful presentation showed all of us- again- how much the natural world matters, how much birds and wildlife matter. His current book, RARE is a gripping portrayal of what we are losing, and his dedication to helping to stop this loss and other losses is appreciated and invaluable. Thank you, Joel.

a friend lost ... a sad day

Bob Merkel, a wonderful man and a great supporter of the Friends, our newsletter editor and corresponding secretary who has devoted much of his time volunteering, has died suddenly. We are all saddened.

sunset pink and blues, thousands of sandhills landed on one of the north ponds elk in background looked a little surprised

migration patterns changed older population of snow geese now, but a very large population./ android phone limits text ..apologies

details on snow goose populations are astounding. increased historicaly but gosling survival is down...tundra damage extensive up north..changed migra

7,ooo cranes new count tomorrow promised by f&w great snow goose ecology workshop by john vradenburg will have photos tomorrow no wifi here

city of socorro, sponsoring the festival of the cranes along with the refuge and the friends

40 sandhills hundreds of ducks big redtail while crossing rio grande at isleta cottonwoods less color here

trees in Albuquerque are still yellow gold red ... beautiful fall colors the bosque will be wonderful again this year.

am heading for festival 12 am from santa fe will report this afternoom

driving past the sandia mountains

We've had a report of 2 Mississippi Kites at the Flight Deck.

More Sandhill Cranes are arriving. Snow and cold and fog up north should bring in more cranes a little later this evening.

The Festival is setting up a silent auction here at the Festival with lots of great donated items, the sale of which will support the Emerson Learn Bus Scholarship Endowment Fund. The permanent fund was started in Emerson's memory by the Friends of the Bosque in coordination with the family of G. Emerson Learn III. It provides stipends for New Mexico schools to visit the Refuge.

Encouraging education about the value and beauty of the natural world - birds and wildlife and the habitat which they rely on for survival- is a key goal of the Friends.

Long Lenses Photography- pre Festival workshop with the fun and helpful and talented Jerry Goffe- we will interview him in a few days...

YouTube video

We will have much better videos during the Festival, but we know you will you enjoy the sounds of the cranes and geese and portions of the sunset scene.

Sandhill Cranes, Light Geese - Sunset at the Bosque del Apache NWR

See it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H90YoIXAdw

Festival Coordinatior Robyn Harrison (left) and Friends of the Bosque Executive Director Leigh Ann Vradenburg dressed in the fun t-shirts for this years' Festival, featuring the Festival Art and sandhill crane tracks down one arm.

(If you buy anything in the Bosque Nature Store - or the online Bosque Nature Store, the money supports the Friends' great projects in support of our spectacular Refuge.)

OK- first off- the bird count-

There are more birds than reported officially since the count was a while back (the Friends' web site has the official report which is a combination of Nov 5 and Nov 10; and F&W "didn't get a good count.")

Light Geese 19,850

Sandhill Cranes 2,491 (more as of today, Nov 15)

Canada Geese 325

Ducks over 23,000

With good internet access at the Refuge, we'll have a blog you will love (we hope!!)

It won't start the first day because the main blogger is traveling down to the Bosque on Wednesday and getting set up, so the first report will be that afternoon and might be an interview with John Vradenburg about snow geese and his workshop.

This will be the beginning of interviews from the presenters and speakers and updates on the whole Festival from a variety of people..

We'll include photos from the Festival- of people, birds, art and more.

(and some surprises!)

Complete Schedule of Events Online

Six Great Days !

Workshops, tours, lectures, hikes and special activities

Art Show!

Paintings, photography, jewelry, crafts, clothing and gifts!

Wildlife Exhibitions!

Snakes, wolves, raptors and binoculars!

Registration is closed (as of Nov 11, 2010)

but you may buy a ticket for any open events at the door.

Check the schedule- there is so much to see and do!

Art Show and Wildlife Exhibitions

FestivaloftheCranes.com

2010 Keynote Speaker Joel Sartore

Joel Sartore

Festival of the Cranes 2010 Keynote Speaker
Thursday night 8pm, November 18, 2010

For more than 20 years, Joel has contributed to such magazines as Time, Life, Newsweek, Audubon, Sports Illustrated and hundreds of books. National Geographic has sent him to exotic destinations to photograph wildlife. Grizzly bears have chased him up trees, parasites have devoured his flesh, musk ox have charged him. And yet, not only has he lived to talk about it, he does so with humor and a desire to educate others about the dire state of our environment. He'll speak Thursday night, November 18, 2010, at 8:00 pm at the Macey Center. He also will talk about the business of photography and its future earlier on Thursday.

Workshops, special tours, lectures, events... Festival of the Cranes 2010!

We are excited, and are working on the schedule of workshops, special tours, lectures and more for our Festival, and will have these posted on the Festival of the Cranes web site at FestivaloftheCranes.com as soon as possible. As usual, registration will not begin until closer to the Festival dates, and the beginning of registration will be announced on the Festival site (and here) Due to the great popularity and uniqueness of the events, you will need to register as soon as possible. Many events are free, and many others have a low, nominal fee (often just $5 or $10)

Festival of the Cranes! Nov 16-21 Art and More!

The Art for the Festival of the Cranes from Nov 16-21, 2010 is pictured at left. This image of a pair of Sandhill Cranes as they walk toward the last light of sunset will be featured on the Festival T-shirts, mugs, lapel pins, and more... All sales from the Bosque Nature Store (online at Friends of the Bosque and at the Nature Store at the Refuge 575-835-1828) all help to fund the Friends of the Bosque's wonderful educational and other valuable programs - all which support the Refuge. Please visit the Friends web site and to see some of these projects, and please consider membership. We love to have new Friends!

NEWS! Festival of the Cranes

2010 Festival of the Cranes Dates announced!

Nov 16-21, 2010

Put it on your calendar- more great tours, workshops, lectures and fun!

www.FestivaloftheCranes.com