Overview:
►  Bosque del Apache means "Woods of the Apache"
►  Located off of Interstate 25  about 18 miles south of Socorro, near the small town of San Antonio, New Mexico.
►  The refuge has 57,191 acres along the Rio Grande River Valley, about 12,000 acres constitute the bottomlands easily accessed by refuge roads.
►  Refuge ponds are alternately flooded and drained to provide the best habitat possible for the wildlife species that inhabit the refuge on a permanent or migratory basis.  Over 340 species of birds are among the wildlife that frequents the refuge.
►  Internal refuge roads, viewpoints, blinds, and overlooks allow excellent photography opportunities at both sunrise and sunset.
►  From my home in Cache Valley, Utah - Bosque is about a 12 hour drive via Moab, UT - Cortez, CO - Gallup, NM - Albuquerque, NM - then south to Socorro.
►  The best times to go (greatest numbers of birds) is from November through February, though large numbers of species inhabit the refuge year-round.

I shot "the Bosque", as its called locally, in January 2007.  Wow.  There were tens of thousands of migrating Snow Geese, thousands of Sandhill Cranes, and thousands of wintering ducks on the refuges many ponds.  I spent sunrise shooting the Snow Geese on a pond they were using each morning (pre-sunrise) as a gathering spot, a couple of miles before the refuge entry station, near the RR tracks.  A few minutes after sunrise each morning there is an amazing  Grand Exodus from this pond as the geese head out to feed in corn and winter wheat fields.  On my trip this thunderous lift off was truly stunning to watch and photograph as 5,000 to 8,000 snow geese took to the wing within seconds.  I shot it 3 different mornings.  Twice using my 500mm lens and once using just an 80-200 zoom.  Be ready.

Throughout the day we photographed fly-by's of geese and cranes and they moved between fields and ponds.  The refuge has many "decks" or overlooks, built near the ponds and fields for bird watchers and photographers.  Raptors such as Red-tailed Hawks, Bald Eagles, etc can be seen and photographed from hunting perches.  Road Runners appeared after sunrise to warm themselves and ducks were in the various canals and ponds as well.

Near sunset the hot spot to shoot was the "Flight Deck", just north of the entry station inside the refuge.  This large pond began collecting ducks, geese, and cranes about 30 minutes before sunset - with thousands coming in during the last ten minutes of light and the first ten minutes after sunset.  Hundreds of Sandhill Cranes came into this pond, many floating by the Flight Deck as they came into land in shallow water.  A number of photographers were using flash from the Flight Deck to stop the fly-by motion of the Cranes.

This was a great shoot.  The Grand Exodus from the morning pond is worth the drive by itself.  Mid-day is slow and you have to work to continue shooting throughout the day.  Some decks were better than others.  While you can shoot great images with an 80-200 zoom lens, a longer lens is helpful.  Lodging is Socorro is plentiful, though I understand that peak photography visitation is in November and early December and early reservations are needed.  Also, there are many docents at the refuge to provide valuable on-site information.

While I probably won't go every year, this is a truly unique shoot and is now on my schedule every other year.