Red-Winged Blackbirds

I thought for sure today I would post a photo of a goose, or maybe a crane. But I kept coming back to this photo of a flock of red-winged blackbirds at Bosque del Apache. Frankly I think some of my other photos are better, but I really loved the experience of watching these (relatively) small birds flock around, swirling in huge groups through the sky, taking off and landing repeatedly. Every now and then they would fly toward the west, where the were backed by some reasonably good clouds and color.

I'm heading back out for one last photo shoot early tomorrow morning before flying to California, so hopefully tomorrow I'll have something good to share from Bosque...

Also, I think I get extra points for actually posting a bird photo, and not sticking with the railroad theme. I did photograph some railroad crossings today, but didn't make another visit to the caboose...

Oh, and I should also mention that the birds shown in today's photos are red-winged blackbirds. Sometimes they're mistakenly referred to as red-shouldered blackbirds on account of the position of their red color, but the correct name is red-winged blackbirds. In case you were wondering....