New Mexico's Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is the place to be in the United States during the cold winter months for bird watching and photography.  Every year, around 50,000 Snow Geese and 15,000 Greater Sandhill Cranes spend their winter here.

Not much of a bird watcher?  Watching thousands of snow geese 'blast off' may change your mind! 

I highly recommend getting up early - before the sun rises - and making your way to the lake on the refuge where most of the snow geese spend the night.  All is quiet on the lake until suddenly something triggers the mass blast off.  Thousands of snow geese lift off in an ear deafening sound.

Tip: If you ever wanted to see a million dollars worth of camera gear in one place, go to Bosque del Apache.  Photographers are lined up shoulder to shoulder with their top of the line cameras and 600mm lenses sitting on carbon fiber tripods.  Those big, heavy (and costing the price of a small car) lenses are great for photographing relatively small things (like birds) from a safe distance.  However, for the blast offs that occur throughout the day; when thousands of snow geese take to the skies; you need a wide angle lens (think 16-35mm).