Saturday, December 22, 2007

Friday, December 21, 2007

Sandra and I met about a year ago at Bosque del Apache while on a birding tour. We were both at a point in our lives where we were looking for new adventures. We have now committed to finding some. In February, we leave sunny New Mexico for cold dreary Nebraska....sound crazy? Well, not if you love birds-especially Sandhill cranes. We will be tour guides to the hordes of tourists who come to Rowe Audubon Sanctuary to view one of nature's most spectacular shows, 1/2 million cranes stopping over on the Platte River on their way to the nesting grounds as far away as Siberia. After a month or so we will head to the Pacific coast for a liesurely drive north to Prince Rupert Canada and catch a ferry to Haines, Alaska for the spring Bald Eagle gathering then hopefully to visit some new friends ( go to birdyear.com for a fascinating story of them) in White Horse, Yukon before driving to Homer where we will get training in Brown Bear behavior on Kodiak Island and ocean mammals and seabirds nesting in the Aleutians to equip us to work at the NWR (National Wildlife Refuge) visitor center in Homer for 3 months. Then we will wander around Alaska visiting Denali and other beautiful places before heading south to work again at the Grand Canyon presenting the California Condor program to visitors.Then back to the Bosque for school kid tours next winter. Then....as Sandra says, "I wonder what's over the next hill? Let's go see!"