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Tuesday, February 8, 2011 - Bosque Birdwatchers RV Park, San Antonio NM

Ready, Set, .., Snow Geese, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM, February 8, 2011
Ready, Set, .., Snow Geese, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM, February 8, 2011

Explosion

People travel miles to see what comes next. Now I know why. A few thousand Snow Geese resting on the ice out beyond the cranes suddenly stood up en masse, turned, and blasted off in a furious, roaring, quacking, cloud of flapping wings.

This neophyte didn't know this was coming and wasn't ready to get a worthy picture but maybe I can tease something from the few caught by my urgently flapping of the shutter that'll give some hint of this startling, awesome eruption to put up here tomorrow.

Night camp

Site 10 - Bosque Bird Watcher's RV Park, San Antonio NM

Ask What Surprised Them

I was afraid of flying for a long time and could only travel vicariously. When friends came back from faraway places, it wasn't just out of politeness that I asked what they saw. I really wanted to know. And I found the best way to get information out of them was to ask what surprised them. How was the place different from what they expected? This is an extremely useful question. You can ask it of the most unobservant people, and it will extract information they didn't even know they were recording.

The Age of the Essay, Paul Graham, September 2004

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