Traveled to New Mexico and Arizona in January to photograph snow geese and sandhill cranes at Bosque del Apache NWR and the beautiful sands and desert landscapes of White Sands and Saguaro National Monuments. Tens of thousands of snow geese and cranes winter on the refuge. One of the highlights I was looking forward to was the "blastoff" at sunrise. The thunderous sound of all those beating wings and cackling as they lifted off en masse was an awesome experience.  Snow Geese Blastoff Flight thru the Clouds One of my favorite images from Bosque was not snow geese or cranes but rather red-winged blackbirds . A mass of blackbirds were roosted in a tree next to us when we stoped to photograph some ducks. While Jim and Jeff concentrated on the ducks I turned my attention to the blackbirds and snapped an image as they exploded out of the tree. I had no idea they were even red-wings until I checked my LCD. Sometimes you just get lucky. Red-winged Explosion

As we approached White Sands NM (maybe 20 -30 miles away), you could see a long band of white at the base of the San Andres Mountains. My first though was it was snow. But it made no sense to have snow there rather than on the peaks. As we got closer I realized it was the "white sands", tens of miles at the base of the mountains. What a surreal environment. I could have spend mornings and evenings photographing the shifting sands. The white, gypsum sand was surprisingly easy to walk on, very compact, not a lot of beach sands. I'd love to go back some day. Sandy Ridge