Though we have been to Bosque Del Apache, New Mexico, many times in the past to photograph the annual migration of sandhill cranes and snow geese, we have never been fortunate enough to be there when it snowed. This year we wanted to make it a goal to be there during a snowstorm, even if it meant dropping everything we were doing and heading out on a moment's notice and that is exactly what we did just over a week ago. At first the reports were just calling for rain, but then it changed to a rain/snow mix and it seemed with every passing moment the weather report leaned more and more over to snow, until finally we felt comfortable enough with the report calling for a 90% chance of snow with accumulations up to 4 inches, that we decided to go for it. We jumped in our car and drove seven hours overnight, much of it through blowing snow, to be in Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge for "sunrise." We stayed through the day and headed back to the refuge the next morning for one more sunrise before heading back home to Phoenix. With approximately 40,000 snow geese and 10,000 sandhill cranes in attendance and snow falling on and off throughout the day and into the next morning with accumulations up to a few inches, we were not disappointed! The refuge sits at about 4,500 feet and though it does snow there, snow events are not very common, so this was a real treat for us and the resulting images shown in this post were exactly what we were hoping for!
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