Who would think of New Mexico like this? A pond with cattails
and an island with ducks doesn't immediately spring to mind. I don't
have a good zoom lens on my digital camera; otherwise I would have
gotten a close-up of the ducks on that island.
Here's the best picture I could get of all the hummingbirds zipping around the feeder hanging over the pond at the Rio Grande Nature Center.
In this picture you can't see the hummingbirds so well, but you can see the five turtles lined up on the logs sticking up out of the water.
Maybe you can't see the hummingbird that's sitting on the left side of the feeder very well. It was getting very cloudy and threatening to rain (but it didn't), and it's much shadier in the bosque along the river. What I really wanted to show is that the Nature Center hangs up these gallon jug feeders for the hummingbirds. We didn't see as many this time. When we were there a couple of years ago, there were dozens and dozens of them flying around the feeder, fighting over territory as they always do.
The Rio Grande Nature Center is in the middle of Albuquerque along the Rio Grande River, and it's a great little park. They have hiking trails all through the park and paved jogging and biking trails for more than 10 miles along the river. The nature center building has classrooms and exhibits of the varied birds and wildlife in the area and the evolution of the river. It used to be about 1/3 mile farther to the east until a huge flood in 1922 when the river actually changed course. Where Rio Grande Boulevard is now is where the river used to be.
Even though they're only a short distance away, they have some birds there that we don't have here, just 1/3 of a mile from the river.
Albuquerque is way more than just the place where Bugs Bunny made a "wrong toyne."
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