Fall Trip, Pt. 2

We did quite a bit of birding. Specifically we visited the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge in California, the Bosque del Apache Refuge near Soccoro, New Mexico and the Sevilleta Refuge also near Soccoro. Plus we generally look for birds wherever we go. We counted 54 species. It is always fun to be at the Bosque at this time of year. Just before Thanksgiving the sandhill cranes will have arrived. At the peak there will be about 30,000 of them as well as 20,000 snow geese. They had not arrived in those numbers in mid-October but there were enough of them to keep us happy.

We enjoyed greyhound racing in Tucson, art museums in Tucson and Reno, doing short walks wherever we were, especially along the Truckee River in Reno. We were stopped by the Border Patrol in southern Arizona and Homeland Security as we approached Boulder Dam. We saw The Illusionist and The Prestige and liked them both. The Illusionist had a cleaner story line, I thought. The Prestige was a bit more confusing. I’ve talked to a couple of people who have seen it, including my granddaughter, who saw things a lot differently than I did. But all agree that The Illusionist is a better movie. Say he who is probably the world’s worst movie critic. Anyway Chris Priest should make a few bucks from the latter.

So now we are home and ready for the winter. I won’t comment on the elections. I am trying to set aside a half hour a day to read through carefully and study several books on art; one on Impressionism, one on Toulouse-Lautrec, and one on James McNeil Whistler. I’ve never particularly cared for Whistler’s painting but the exhibit we saw at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno concentrated heavily on his etchings. I found them to be a delight. So my winter study course is set.