New Mexico: Cranes, Geese and Landscapes Tour Report 2025

27 December 2025

by Inger Vandyke

This year, after a long gap, Wild Images was thrilled to return to the mesmerizing winter skies and incredible wildlife spectacle of Bosque del Apache in New Mexico. After only expecting to see the spectacle of the annual migration of Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese, the tour exceeded everyone’s idea of what we might see. Changed conditions meant that we had warmer days with clear skies and incredible encounters with a Bobcat mother and her two adult kitts, hunting Jackals, a breeding herd of almost fifty Pronghorn, a magnificent sunset in White Sands National Reserve and finally some beautiful encounters with Wood Duck, surely one of the world’s most beautiful ducks!

Albuquerque – Exploring Sandia Crest and the Rio Grande

Our tour started and ended at the bustling metropolis of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Despite its modernity, numerous hotels and easy access to an international airport, Albuquerque has some remarkable sites for nature right on its back doorstep.

On the first day of the tour we drove up to Sandia Crest, a high peak that overlooks the city. The winding road had recently seen snow and ice so it was heavily gritted and the driving was slow going. Still, we managed to have a couple of lovely encounters with Mule Deer in the snowy forests on the way up and down from the crest. At the crest itself the biting wind was so cold that the information centre was closed, the usual feeders were empty and the numerous small birds we’ve seen on our previous visits, were mostly absent. We stopped briefly to take photos of the views before descending and driving back to the city.

At the start and end of our trip we explored the numerous waterways of the Rio Grande looking for waterbirds and it was here we photographed the beautiful Wood Duck in millpond conditions with the birds reflected in waters tainted with gold of the surrounding vegetation. Other encounters in the Rio Grande area included Canvasback, Cackling Geese. Ring-necked Duck, American Coot, Canada Geese, Mallards and Pied-billed Grebes.

Could this be my favorite wildlife photography classroom on earth?

One of the things I love the most about our New Mexico trip is time. Our tour is nine days long so, even with exciting tours like this one, we have a little time to catch our breath and explore photography techniques that other places, like an African safari for example, don’t really leave any space for. On this tour we looked at intentional blurs, including wildlife and verticals. I laughed when a reserve ranger pulled his car over and asked what wildlife we had found and I had to sheepishly explain that we were down in the frost layered grasses learning about bokeh! Then, on the other end of the aperture spectrum we played around with sunbursts through the Cottonwoods. We even managed to tear ourselves away from the plethora of exciting stuff we saw in Bosque to enjoy an indoors session on workflow and editing in Lightroom! It’s truly a fun place to teach photography and with a fantastic image everywhere you turn, this tour is a truly a creative adventure.

Bosque del Apache

It’s difficult to put into words the beauty of Bosque del Apache. The soft hued vegetation of reeds, Cottonwoods and Red Twig Dogwoods provides a stunning backdrop to pools filled with thousands of migratory birds. Each day we would venture out before sunrise to make sure we were present in the reserve at dawn to witness the famous ‘blast-offs’, events where thousands of Snow Geese take off before your eyes and venture out from the safety of their night roosts to go and feed in nearby fields. Shortly after them the Sandhill Cranes leave for the day. The first light in Bosque is so magical it becomes almost like an addiction.

This year’s tour blessed us with some truly magical bird photography situations in Bosque. We were traveling at a time of a super moon, a mixed variety of clear and cloudy skies and even rainfall – all of which make for a truly extraordinary creative adventure in this magical place.

The full moon was an unexpected bonus of the trip and we capitalized on its movements at every possibility with one breathtaking late afternoon producing a huge yellow super moon on the horizon that we caught images of birds flying in front of on this trip. That particular session was so moving that I dug out my hot chocolate sachets to warm everyone up and I spiked each with a tiny amount of Amarula (the African equivalent of Bailey’s Irish Cream that I had brought with me from home), to celebrate!

At sunrise the next morning we specifically went to capture the tail end of it so we visited the wetland roost pool to photograph the cranes and geese as the full moon set behind the beautiful Chupadera Mountains to the west of Bosque.

Another memorable morning came the sunrise after a warm day had heated Bosque’s pools in tandem with a cloudless, freezing cold night that saw me scraping the ice of my windshield with one of my credit cards (necessity is the mother of all invention) before we could leave the hotel. Once we arrived in Bosque I noticed the temperature differential had created mist and, over the course of the sunrise and the following hour, we were incredibly blessed to photograph the blast offs of birds in this thick mist. The muted light was magical and it was hard to know where to turn. Everything you pointed a camera at looked amazing – from the white of Snow Geese in white mist to silhouetted ducks swimming past the gold light of sunrise through it. It was one of those situations of every photographer’s dreams and I had truly hoped it would happen again on our tour so we could have a second chance with it and more time. Sadly this was the only morning it happened but none of us were disappointed. What a scene!

Just another incredible ‘blast-off’ at sunrise in New Mexico (video by Inger Vandyke)

Where Wild Coyotes Roam

There have always been a host of predators in Bosque and we have never missed seeing Coyotes at the reserve. This year, however, we were blessed to see wild Coyotes often at extremely close range. On our first afternoon, while we photographed the masses of birds at sunset, we heard a pack of them excitedly yelping and howling after a hunt. It was the first of numerous stunning encounters we’d have with these creatures including a couple that ran right past our car, two that approached us on the ground while we photographed them (one of those trotted by us less than two meters away!), and a hunting pack of 7 that we saw trying to round up prey that had gone to ground in the thick brush. Perhaps the most thrilling encounters we had with Coyotes on the tour, however, were, in the shallow waters of Bosque’s ponds. On one day we saw two Coyotes hunting ducks in tandem with each other against a backdrop of gathered cranes. On another day we arrived a little late to see one catch a goose but, when we saw it devouring its lunch of a Blue Goose on the other side of the pond, I had a hunch we might get closer views if we drove the shorter south loop to the other side of the lake. My hunch proved correct and we arrived to photograph this feeding Coyote while we watched on in amusement as he tried to ‘spit out’ the feathers of his goose while devouring the rest. Looking on was another Coyote nearby and in the typical hierarchical pack system, when the dominant dog finished with the goose, the submissive one crept in to eat the scraps. What a fascinating thing to witness and photograph!

Hunting Coyote in the Sandhill Cranes (image by Inger Vandyke)

Bobcats and Kittens – surely a highlight of any wildlife photographer’s career!

It’s always surprising taking groups of photographers on safari. And driving people around Bosque looking for wildlife to photograph certainly feels like my drives in Africa taking people around there. Sometimes the quietest mornings can be broken by the most thrilling encounters of the trip! One morning we drove the North Loop which produced creatures we had mostly already seen but just gave us a few nice chances to improve on our existing photos. As we drove out of the loop I looked down the main road and saw some photographers near the Eagle Scout deck pointing their cameras to the brush vegetation on the opposite side of the road. I decided we should venture down there to find out what was up, only to discover that we were just a few minutes too late to see a mother Bobcat appear with her two near-adult kittens nearby. It was hard to shield my disappointment at seeing close Bobcats, especially when some of the assembled photographers show me some ‘back of camera’ shots of what they had just seen! Yikes! I thought the best thing to do would be to stop and wait, to see if they might come back. Thankfully that decision proved to be worth it, as within half an hour, we had some absolutely incredible encounters with the three Bobcats, as they wandered around on and next to the road! It was absolutely unbelievable! Prior to this encounter, as a foreign tour leader, I had only ever seen a wild Bobcat crossing a road in front of me in Canada so to have prolonged views of a mother with her two near adult kitts and get great photos of them was incredibly special and so very lucky. It must have been a Bobcat kind of day in Bosque as when we checked in at the Nature Centre, the office of the reserve, there had been a total of 8 Bobcats seen in different parts of the reserve that day. Oddly, in the days directly after that encounter, they had all disappeared. Such is life and luck on safari in the world’s wilds.

A Bobcat mother and her two near-adult kittens in Bosque (image by Inger Vandyke)

Bosque’s Avian Predators – Eagles, Hawks and Harriers

It’s never just the ground predators that are exciting on safari. With so much bird activity on the ground the skies above them proved to be fantastic for avian hunters like Northern Harrier, Cooper’s Hawk, American Kestrel and even a young Golden Eagle this year in Bosque.

We had our first sighting of the Golden Eagle during our first sunrise visit to the reserve but the light was so bad on it and the bird was so distant that it was hard to photograph.

Further into the trip we took a small tour with the Reserve staff and during it we had much better encounters with a Golden Eagle sunning itself on a warm afternoon.

Sadly we narrowly missed an encounter with a gutsy, hunting Northern Harrier who was trying to catch Snow Geese mid-flight apparently. None of us were disappointed really as we had wonderful encounters with other birds of prey including American Kestrel and Cooper’s Hawk.

Pronghorn, Elk and Mule Deer – Encounters with Bosque’s gentle ungulates

We have almost always seen Mule Deer in Bosque. They are, after all, the reserve’s most ubiquitous deer and photographing them as they wander through the complementary colors of Bosque’s woodlands is almost like creating a living, breathing work of art.

This year, however, we also managed to catch up with a magnificent male Elk and his brood of females on the North Loop. This unexpected highlight of our trip also brought another, a wandering Roadrunner that appeared in the middle of them!

Perhaps our most exciting ungulate encounter of the trip occurred when I took my group out on a circuit road that went through the quirky, rustic town of Magdalena over a magnificent back country route that had wonderful views of Elephant Butte Reserve and sunlit mountains dotted with wild junipers. On a previous trip I had encountered an elegant Pronghorn on this road, near the entrance to the Water Canyon. This year I asked some locals who were ranchers if that location was still good to see them. Once again I acted on their knowledge, and also my own, and we took off on a 2.5 hour drive to see if we could find them. Around half an hour out of Magdalena I saw a Pronghorn sleeping on a hillside. For a split second I thought it was a solo animal, until just past it I spotted a breeding herd of around 50 of them! Although there were no adult males present, it was one of the most incredible sights we would enjoy of the tour. For all of my group, seeing wild Pronghorn was a new experience and when I saw that they were quite skittish we tried to approach them slowly in our car. Then they started to move so I told my group to slowly, quietly get out of the car and see if they would allow us to approach on foot. Warily they all turned their backs towards us and wandered off with only brief stops to look back and see if we were still in their pursuit. We decided to leave them to their wanderings and, after picking up our jaws that had dropped to the ground, we all high-fived each other for the amazing luck we had in seeing them, before climbing back into the car to drive back to Bosque for sunset.

A curious, breeding herd of Pronghorn near Magdalena. Their closest living relatives are actually Giraffes! (image by Inger Vandyke)

Pig? Hog? Wild Boar? No! Curious encounters with sweet Javelinas

Prior to our visit this year, I hadn’t seen any wild Javelinas in Bosque. These adorable, small, pig-like animals have a very good sense of smell but not such great eyes. On our tour this year we saw close to fifty Javelinas over multiple sightings – some good for photography and others not so much.

On one beautiful sunny afternoon we were pulled up beside the flight deck pool in Bosque photographing an assembly of several thousand Snow Geese, Pintails and Shovelers, when I got chatting to some other photographers I’d met on the trails. One of the things I’ve always loved about leading tours in Bosque is the camaraderie between visitors. We spend six full days at Bosque and over the course of our visit, you run into people who, towards the end of the tour, become familiar faces and new friends. On that afternoon I ran into some people I’d talked to a couple of days earlier. When I asked if they had seen anything exciting, they mentioned the South Loop had quite a few Javelinas on it. We climbed back in the car, reluctantly leaving the huge flocks of birds and drove around to see if we could see them. What followed was some wonderful close encounters with two feeding Javelinas right next to the road. On our first drive of the shortcut loop we then spotted another 17, including a few adorable youngsters trotting to keep up with their parents in clear view! They were so sweet that we all just put our cameras down occasionally just to enjoy watching them.

Quirky Quails and Flowering Cactus

One of my absolute favorite birds to photograph in Bosque has always been the sweet, quirky Gambel’s Quail. On this trip they proved a little more elusive than I had hoped but this season’s best encounters happened near the feeders in the reserve’s arboretum.

Running between stands of flowering endemic cacti, we were lucky enough to have a couple of encounters with Gambel’s Quails including the comical males with their feather ‘bobbles’ bouncing up and down as they ran about.

Joining them at the feeders were White-winged Doves and White-crowned Sparrows, affording us some chances for bird photographs that differed from the portfolios we were developing elsewhere in the park.

Bosque’s Other Avian Wonders

In the frenzied migration activity of Bosque, there is always a lot of side-activity going on. This year, for the first time, we saw an unbelievable number of Mallards in Bosque. In one field, they were so numerous that they had almost created a Mallard monoculture. Although there is nothing special or new about Mallards, it is very hard to deny that seeing so many in one place is anything less than a true spectacle.

We also saw murmurations of Brewer’s and Red-winged Blackbirds on this year’s tour, challenging us all to get great shots of them as they burst into flight from the ground uniformly, creating clouds of birds in circles, swathes and swarms.

A murmuration of mixed blackbirds including Red-winged and Brewers (image by Inger Vandyke)

On the North Loop one morning we stopped to walk the Marsh Boardwalk where we ended up with some beautiful encounters with Canada Geese on the water with near perfect reflections.

To ‘clean up’ with other avian sightings we all enjoyed a guided tour of the reserve by park staff, who took us in their own minibus down roads that are normally off access to Bosque’s visitors. It was here that we had our best encounters with Roadrunner (although sadly they weren’t easy to photograph due to the fact the bus had windows that couldn’t be opened), a flock of almost 20 wild Turkey, Bluebird, a brief encounter with Ladderback Woodpecker and a Wilson’s Snipe!

Bernardo – the Mini Bosque

During our tour we had a few photographic sessions at Bernardo, a waterfowl reserve north of the town we were staying at, Socorro. This year, the management of Bernardo had only managed to flood one pool in the area due to a prolonged government shutdown in America. Our initial foray up there was in pouring rain. The main pool was empty but the area’s fields were full of feeding geese and cranes so although the weather wasn’t that great, we did manage to get some lovely portraits of both species and we played with negative space shots photographing cranes as they ‘hid’ in the fields of corn.

On our second visit the sun was out so we spent a wonderful sunset photographing a large herd of Mule Deer against a beautiful backdrop of Red Twig Dogwoods and the geese and cranes as they left for their watery overnight roosts. It was here we captured them against the sunlit Chupaderas on one horizon and against treble mountains of the opposite horizon. Towards the end the final rays of sun turned Bernardo’s Cottonwoods into a fiery orange color which made for wonderful photography of the cranes that moved through them to go to the reserve’s only pool. The whole situation was so breathtakingly beautiful that it moved us to tears.

Fiery Cottonwoods and cranes at Bernardo (image by Inger Vandyke)

Bernardo was the location of our final two shoots of the trip. Inspired by our earlier visit, we went back for the sunset after we returned from White Sands. This time we stayed until dark, until the light became so dim that we needed impossibly high ISOs to function, but boy was it worth it. We were at the pool in Bernardo this time, photographing the birds as they arrived for the night. That was to be our final sunset shoot of the tour and it really took us out with a bang. It was incredible!

The last sunrise of the trip also took place at the pool, allowing us to capture some final angles and perspectives as the flocks of cranes and geese blasted off from there. It was the perfect farewell to the bird photography aspect of our tour!

The Duck Pool at the Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro

Each time we head to New Mexico we stop by the duck pool, a man made lake in the grounds of the Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro. It’s a good place to pad out your portfolios as it often has some nice ducks that are not so easy to see in places like Bosque and Bernardo.

This time, as we approached the pool we were greeted by a flock of mixed domestic ducks – mainly interbred Mallards and one with a funny looking “fro” of feathers on its head, hoping to get some treats from us. This group had obviously been fed bread by local children I think. They approached us with reckless abandon.

Joining them was a couple of American Coots, which I jokingly told off for hanging out with the local avian Riff-raff. They didn’t seem too concerned by my stern words though – like the ducks they were just wanting treats. Thankfully when we managed to get past them (a few lost interest in us quickly when we produced no food), we managed to get some lovely photos of American Wigeon, Ring-necked Duck and Ruddy Duck. While we were shooting I heard the calls of a Ladderback Woodpecker nearby but we didn’t find it. We did, however, spot a lovely Grey Catbird eating Rowan berries in a nearby tree which was lovely to photograph.

A Grey Catbird devours Rowan berries (image by Inger Vandyke)

Wonderful White Sands – Exploring shapes and shadows in the dunes

I had originally planned an adventurous back country drive to White Sands from Bosque. Sadly this plan was thwarted by the military who had closed off the roads I wanted to drive that morning, forcing us to take the usual route-well-travelled via Carrizozo to the mesmerizing reserve of White Sands, outside the city of Alamogordo.

Since my last visit to this area, I was surprised to see a number of farms now set up to grow Pecans, Almonds and Pistachios. The saved time of taking the main road allowed us enough space to visit McGinn’s Pistachioland – a fun highlight and shopping stop at a wonderful shop nestled behind a giant Pistachio. In true tourist style we stopped to have our group photo in front of the Giant Pistachio. Well, it was just something we had to do!

Girls with Guns (and Pistachios) (image by Inger Vandyke)

Arriving at White Sands around lunchtime we stopped in the information centre to view a short video on the creation of White Sands before picking up some sandwiches and drinks to take into the reserve for a picnic lunch.

Our tour only has one night here which, for wildlife photographers, is usually quite enough. We went off into the reserve and enjoyed our picnic before doing a slow drive around the loops looking for landscape photography opportunities. We made some stops from the car to photograph the Soaptree Yuccas in the white sand dunes but our first walk of our visit was on the longer and more remote Alkali Flats trail. While we didn’t see a huge amount to photograph on this walk, we did enjoy a lovely encounter with a fighting pair of Horned Larks which was an unexpected bird photography highlight at a time when most of the wildlife in White Sands was largely absent due to the winter.

The second walk we did that afternoon was the smaller circuit around the Dune Life Nature Trail which produced images of the reserve’s only accessible Cottonwood but sadly no wildlife like we had hoped.

Finally we decided to do the guided Sunset Stroll with on of the reserve’s rangers who taught us about the park’s ecosystems and its history while we enjoyed taking photos in the golden light of the setting sun.

Without a doubt, however, some of the most beautiful images we all would take in White Sands, came after that walk. Between the walk’s end and the park closure times we had about 40 minutes to do the drive to the gate. Noticing the rapidly changing colors in the skies, I drove us in fairly quick pursuit to a particularly architectural Soaptree Yucca that we had photographed earlier in blue skies. When we arrived it was set against a stunning backdrop of pink, mauve and blue as the last light kissed the landscapes of this memorable place.

That night we went for dinner at DH Lescombes, a wonderful restaurant attached to the area’s vineyards. Alongside some fantastic food we enjoyed a celebratory glass of wine from the vigneron owner, who originally hailed from Algeria but had trained to make wine in France. The wine was excellent and the farm-to-table food was delicious. It was truly the best way to crown our visit to White Sands.

Due to a later opening at the reserve, sadly it was impossible to be in White Sands at first light. Still we left early and stopped to photograph a pretty roadside salt pool with it’s island in the blush of a new day. It was a brief yet lovely way to kill time while we waited for White Sands to open. Sadly, by the time it did open, the light was already becoming too difficult for photography so we spent some time doing some ‘clean up’ shots before making a final visit to the Information Centre for souvenir shopping, before we left to return to Bosque for the last two photo shoots of the tour.

My 2025 Chicks who Click in White Sands National Reserve (image by Inger Vandyke)

Urban Grunge – Exploring street photography in rustic Carrizozo

New Mexico certainly has a lot of charisma in its towns. Imagine, if you will, the iconic adobe style, mud facades on buildings, with a touch of the Wild West and reminders of a bygone era everywhere you look, then what you have is towns like Carizozo.

Carizozo sits at a half-way point between Socorro and Alamogordo in New Mexico. It’s quite literally a one-horse town with a main street of crumbling shops, street art, eccentric museums and houses. It was here we all enjoyed a fantastic cafe lunch at the delightful Jenn’s Sweet Spot with its excellent coffee and wonderful sandwiches and donuts!

After lunch we made a brief stop to venture down some of the town’s back streets looking for wrecked cars, old shop facades and an old roadside motel, complete with its 1950’s era sign and broken neon lights.

A typical, quirky Carrizozo streetscape (image by Inger Vandyke)

While the genre street photography only constituted a tiny portion of our trip, Carrizozo was definitely a good choice to do it.

The Festival of Lights in Socorro

By far the most fun and unexpected event of our tour came one night in Socorro where we just happened to be in town for its annual Festival of Lights to celebrate Christmas.

A young lady carries her dog through the annual Festival of Lights to celebrate Christmas in Socorro (image by Inger Vandyke)

While photography proved difficult – largely due to the mix of too many lights and trying to dodge flying sweets, soft toys and even business cards being thrown from cars in the parade – it was a fun way to join the local folk in celebrating Christmas and the excitement in the air, especially with all the kids, was palpable.

Full Hearts and Memory Cards in New Mexico

This was my third time leading the Bosque Del Apache tour for Wild Images and I have to admit, this trip exceeded all of my expectations. Not only did we enjoy some sublime bird photography, the amount of mammals on this tour really surprised me, especially the predatory Coyotes and Bobcats!

It was by far the best visit I’ve ever had to White Sands. On my first trip there I visited during another government shutdown where the park hours had been curtailed due to a lack of money. On the second trip it was grey and snowing which, while that created its own lovely images, also thwarted the iconic sunset skies that we were blessed to see this time around.

Bernardo, even though it lacked the amount of water on my last visits, produced some truly remarkable images, largely due to the construction of two more ground level blinds at the reserve’s main pool.

And finally we had a much better exploration of the Rio Grande area. After a meeting with two wonderful gents at Bernardo, they invited us to join them at the Rio Grande area in Albuquerque for a last quick photo shoot. This tiny outing produced some fabulous images of Wood Ducks, the American equivalent of Mandarin Ducks, in beautiful light and situations. We were lucky enough to watch these beautiful little ducks calling and swimming around just a few feet from us on the last morning of our tour. What a way to end our trip! We all had a hard time leaving.

The final icing on the cake was my incredible guests who joined as strangers and parted as friends. It was a fantastic blessing to lead an all women group this time round. They were my ‘girls with guns’, my ‘chicks who clicked’ and we all got along more like a bunch of mates on a fantastic road trip, rather than a formal tour following our itinerary. A huge thanks goes out to all of them for a truly memorable time in sublime New Mexico. Wild Images is definitely excited to be heading back in 2028!