Bird Trivia hosts, Cari Powell and Amy “Birds” Erickson kick off the evening’s fun and festivities in true style!
In a year fraught with change and uncertainty, when threats to public lands (and our hardworking and dedicated Federal employees) seemed to escalate every day, when the ongoing Sun Zia transmission line construction alas made its way across the Rio Grande (and through some of my favorite places); in a year marked by extreme drought, when we experienced the longest Federal government shutdown ever and refuge staff were, therefore, unable to prepare Bosque del Apache for the arrival of our feathered winter visitors; in this year, the one thing that kept me going was the knowledge that all of you would come to visit and celebrate the Festival of the Cranes with us! So when the Friends board was forced to make the incredibly difficult (but necessary) decision to cancel this year’s Festival in early November, I was lost. All the hard work, hundreds of hours of time and meticulous planning – both mine, as well as that of dozens of folks from across the US, including instructors, vendors, Friends staff and volunteers – just *POOF*… gone! All the magic we’d been planning, preparing and waiting for all year felt like it had disappeared!
Of course, now that the refuge is open once more and the amazing staff are again hard at work making up for six weeks of lost time, the public is welcome to come visit Bosque del Apache. The cranes, snow geese, ducks and other migratory friends are here and waiting for visitors! But, still, I wanted to do something to mark what should have been Festival time (I do like a good party!) So I conferred with my coworkers, “Would you help me make SOMETHING happen this year?” Luckily, we have a great team and they all agreed to help me to pivot, craft a new plan and quickly come up with new messaging and ads.
Our planned Opening Night Celebration speaker, sandhill crane expert and longtime Festival instructor, Paul Tebbel, generously and without hesitation agreed to give his “Why We Love Cranes” talk virtually. Over 180 people attended this presentation on December 4th and over 400 requested a link to the presentation! If you missed it, you can view the presentation recording HERE.
On Friday night, December 5th, we had an excellent turnout for our first annual Bird Trivia at the Capitol Bar and Brewery in Socorro! Six teams came out to test their bird knowledge with topics ranging from song ID to taxonomy to cranes. Visitors from afar and local regulars competed to see who were the “birdiest” nerds – it turns out it was the Bosque del Apache staff team! This was my favorite event this year. We definitely have a new Festival tradition!
Bird Trivia night’s winning teams.
Over the weekend we also live streamed an evening fly-in and a morning fly-out from Bosque del Apache. We didn’t have a lot of bird action on Saturday’s fly-in so we chose a different location for Sunday’s fly-out and boy, we were not disappointed! The cranes, ducks and geese all greeted us with their morning calls and wing stretches. We were lucky enough to witness a snow goose “blast off” and lots of other incredible birds filling the skies. If you’d like to watch a replay, check it out HERE.
Refuge Biologist, Shayla Marsh and Friends of BdA Festival Manager, Cari Powell braved the cold to live-stream a morning fly-out from the refuge wetlands.
I was delighted by the positive response we received for the few Festival of the Cranes events we were able to make happen! Thank you to the Friends staff, refuge employees, local friends and YOU dear reader for watching and participating in these events. Thank you for bringing back a little bit of the joy and the party we should have had!
If you have a visit to Bosque del Apache planned this winter season, be sure to check out our Virtual Welcome Packet for dining and lodging options in Socorro County. Our little community lost out big with this year’s Festival cancellation, and our local businesses would be extremely grateful for your support!
Rest assured that Festival of the Cranes will be back next year, and we’ll have the fabulous celebration I had planned for this year with just a few adjustments! Mark your calendar for December 2 – 6, 2026. We’re already looking forward to seeing you then!
With gratitude and hope,
Cari Powell
Festival Manager