Los Poblanos Fields

Like Rocky, in “Rocky Horror Picture Show”, I am full of “an—tis—ci—pa-tion!” each October. Sometimes the event that turns my year starts in late September but mostly it begins in full around October 15th. By November 15th the arrival is complete.

What is all my brouhaha about? The greater and lesser Sandhill Cranes arrive in Los Poblanos Fields, the Candelaria Fields, and along the Rio Grande at the Nature Center. My neighborhood is an arrival center for their annual migration. Many of them continue on to the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge to the south of Albuquerque but a great number of them call the North Valley their home for the winter.

Cranes, in their present form, are nearly 11 million years old. Yes, you read that correctly. They are beautiful, elegant, graceful and sometimes ungainly, visitors from the Pleistocene. If you want to know more, I highly recommend Alice Lindsay Price’s book, Cranes, The Noblest Flyers In Natural History & Cultural Lore. This well researched, beautifully written and illustrated book gives you much intriguing and inspiring information regarding the cranes of the world.

Greater and Lesser Sandhill Cranes are really the same bird, just a little different in size, one larger, one a little smaller. By larger, I mean that the greater stands between 5 to 6 feet tall. The smaller one a little less. 

All cranes except the Whooping Crane are omnivores which has insured their survival through the ages. Whooping Cranes are specialists, eating mostly aquatic invertebrates. As their habitat has diminished, so has their survival chances.

Most people turn their year in January. I am often contrary to usual cultural practices. My year turns on the arrival and departure of the cranes. By March 15th each year they have departed northward to their breeding grounds and I am left with longing for their return. Fortunately, there are numerous fruit trees blooming at that time to compensate me.

I am confident that should you continue to read my postings, you will encounter commentary and poems about Sandhill Cranes in the future. Since it is now winter, I offer this poem.

I wish for you today an anchor in deep time that expands your understanding of yourself and your being. 

Los Poblanos Fields

The cranes know when
eyes are on them.

Even when they are being
watched with love, they
are wary.

They have good reason
to be suspicious. A long

Most glances their way
have been covetous,
that ages old drive for
food to sustain life. Most
often, on our part, the glance
is one of simple greed
expressing power.

We with whom they
have no competition,
hunt them, at one point
to near extinction in
our ignorance.

I accept their distance
making, obliged when I
catch a glimpse of their
majesty, content to know
them from afar.

I am indebted to these
fields planted for their
sake. Here they have
grain and grubs and safety. 

Here I can be as close
as they allow.

Here I can behold
their improbable beauty
and be humbled.

©Lou Liberty