This is somewhere near the bottom of the Rio Grande Gorge, maybe twenty yards above and fifty in a straight line from the river. The top of the cliff is 800 feet above. The scene is more unusual than you might think. The humongous boulders, for example, but especially the really sturdy sagebrush and a [...]
ducks
No marsh, this
I could have taken this anywhere there are ducks, I suppose. But this is 800 feet below the level of the surrounding landscape at the bottom of the Rio Grande Gorge just north of Pilar. Up at the top, it’s sagebrush, piñon, juniper, and cactus. The weird thing is that you can go hiking far [...]
Mallards and goldeneyes behind the geese
What an incredible visit to the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument today. A bald eagle flew right over our heads, and afterwards we spotted two more. It could have been the same one, I suppose, but thinking we saw three eagles feels a whole lot better. We also saw several kinds of ducks, numerous [...]
Had no idea there were so many colors from the back
Behold the male mallard exploding into flight! Beautiful day on the Rio Grande north of Pilar today, with tons o’ ducks (mergansers, goldeneyes, mallards). We also saw Canada geese and a heron. The river is where the action is, all right. And to think that just 800 feet higher and out of the gorge, you’re [...]
At Orilla Verde north of Pilar in the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument
Another dispatch from the terrible high desert! Behold the poor female mallards, forced to feed and find shelter on the banks of the Rio Grande. The water was running high and clear on Sunday afternoon. So much water going south, where everybody steals it. The ducks kept to the slow water unless they wanted to [...]
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