Valle de Oro

I've seen and heard a few sandhill cranes recently, so I decided to load some color in my Sears/Ricoh TLS with the 400mm Tele Vivitar and headed down to the Valle de Oro seven miles south of central Albuquerque.  There was not a bird in sight when I got to the old dairy farm that has recently become a National Wildlife Refuge.  So, I left the tripod and the long lensed camera in the truck and headed down  with my Pentax and a normal lens to the riverside bosque there which I had not visited before.  It turns out to be a spectacular place, and I'm looking forward to getting back there again soon.

The Refuge is adjacent to the Rio Grande Valley State Park which is populated by a mature cottonwood forest.  Most of the old giants were holding onto to their leaves still, but they are quickly turning to gold.  The forest floor is covered by a thick carpet of newly fallen leaves as well as those from years past.

When I first spotted this skull in the leaf litter I thought it was a coyote because of the size.  Looking closer, however, I saw that the two biggest teeth were right up front.  Turning the skull right side up showed a flattened shape rather than the domed and ridged cranium that drives the coyote's massive biting capacity.  So, my guess is that I had found a beaver.