We have finished our third week of work at Bosque del Apache. Things have been slow. However, it does feel like the days before Christmas as the anticipation and excitement and expectations grow in the hopes that old St. Nichols would soon be there. Or, in this case the sandhill cranes would be here.

The excitement this week was a phone call to the VC that Shannon fielded from one of the staff discing fields in preparation for returning birds saying that two cranes had been sighted in the field where he was working. Everyone was shocked that the cranes had arrived this early. Last year it was October 3; I’d say September 30 is not too far off the mark. To be on the safe side, I tell visitors the cranes return about the second week in October. Bottom line is that the cranes officially are returning. However, no one has seen them today. And so it still feels like the days before Christmas.

Sans cranes notwithstanding, the excitement today were the photographs of a large bob cat one of the volunteers who lives for photography had taken yesterday as he drove the refuge roads, and the spotting of a mountain lion by two couples driving the refuge today. So, cranes are not the only thing that provides excitement.

It has been record-setting to near record-setting temperatures in New Mexico this week. We have had 5 days this week with temps in the 90’s and three days when the temps were 97-plus degrees for highs. The ABQ Balloon Fiesta starts on Saturday, and everyone says that event usually heralds a change in the weather. Sure enough temps are dropping, rain is predicted (in northern NM), and the winds are picking up.

We were able to watch the lunar eclipse on Sunday. Usually cloud cover is not a problem in New Mexico. And so, we had good viewing. Our phone cameras are really not meant to make prize winning photos of lunar eclipses, and so the best we can do is a photo of moonrise. But the eclipsed was spectacular.