Posts in Category: birds
Cloud peppered with Snow Geese
Snow Geese, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
Our first day at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge for the Festival of the Cranes, there were very few Snow Geese. I saw a few hundred during the day. The next morning it was no better, but as I arrived back at the Visitor Center to begin my day’s work, at about 8:45 am, I heard geese coming in from the north and looked up to see the sky literally full of Snow (and undoubtedly many Ross’) Geese. And I mean full. Thousands. Maybe 10,000 Geese coming in a huge flock. At first it looked like they might overshoot the Refuge, but they did spiral down and settle on the ponds inside the tour loop. I grabbed the closest camera and took some stills and video from the parking lot. This relatively wide angle shot catches a bit of the feeling.
Nikon P610 at 30mm equivalent field of view. 1/1600th @ ISO 100 @ f5. Processed in Lightroom.
Tree Sparrow
American Tree Sparrow. Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms, Wells ME
Like most of the US, we only get American Tree Sparrows in Maine in the winter…and, even though winter weather has not yet arrived in Maine, the Tree Sparrows have. We are right at the northern edge of their winter territory, but get them migrating through to points south, so it is hard to say if this one stuck around or if it is now somewhere in the Carolinas, but it was a treat to see it as I walked the paths on am otherwise very quiet day at Laudholm Farms (Wells National Estuarine Research Center).
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 200 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Crane in Millet
Sandhill Crane, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is managed for wildlife. The Refuge has enough area to grow crops to feed the thousands of birds that winter there. Along the backside of the tour loop, they plant millet, and then flood the fields so that Sandhill Cranes, Snow Geese, and dabbling ducks of all kinds can feed on the seeds. This year, the corn crop failed, so the Cranes are depending more on the millet. Generally the millet is knocked down so it will be more accessible to the birds, but a small stand was left standing along the edge of the field, and it was interesting to watch the big cranes delicately picking millet seed above their heads. They seemed to have most success coming in from underneath. It has to take a lot of millet to feed a Sandhill Crane. 🙂 (The corn crops both north and south of the Refuge did not fail, so the Cranes are spending more time off the refuge, feeding in the fields where the NWS has contracted a portion of the crop.)
I love the light of early morning here, picking out all the details.
Nikon 900 at 1400mm equivalent field of view. 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom.
Blue Goose on Top
Snow Geese (one Blue), Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
I spent a lot of time, relatively speaking, at Bosque del Apache attempting flight shots. It is a lot of fun…a bit of challenge…but with the proper settings on your camera, it is quite possible to have enough success to make it satisfying. I experimented all week with settings, and finally resorted to Target finding Auto Focus and Shutter Preferred Auto Exposure. That seemed to work best. This group of Snow Geese, with one Blue variety at the top of the frame, was taken when a large group of geese were in the process of moving down the refuge a few fields. There were geese in the air continuously for close to an hour. I got lots of practice. 🙂
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/800th @ ISO 100 @ f8.2. Processed in Lightroom.
Evoking Cranes in the Dawn
Sandhill Cranes before dawn. Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
This is, to my eye, an “evocative” image…it evokes the experience of watching the Sandhill Cranes taking flight in the pre-dawn light at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge more than it “portrays” it. High ISO, low shutter speed, and a rapid pan with the birds in flight leads to an impressionistic background…water (including the two cranes standing) and landscape suggested rather than detailed…stripped down to a basic layering of color and texture. The relatively sharp cranes are laid over the background, but even they have a bit of the motion blur. Overall it looks more like a painting than a photograph. Generally I do not like that…but here, I think, it works. This would stand up to a fairly large print…and viewed from normal viewing distance, it would be quite striking on the wall. Evocative!
Nikon P900 at 400mm equivalent field of view. 1/60th @ ISO 560 @ f5. Processed and cropped slightly at the bottom for composition in Lightroom.
Bosque Dawn
Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
There is a somewhat famous photograph by another photographer called “Bosque Dawn”. If you go to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge you will see it…far faded from its native glory these days…on a billboard on the way out of the refuge on the left a mile or so before you get to San Antonio. When it first went up, years ago, it was impressive! This shot is nothing like it actually…but it catches some of the unique atmosphere of Bosque del Apache at dawn in November when the Geese and the Cranes are in. As you can see this is just at dawn. The sun is already touching the tops of the mountains behind on the left, but it has not reached the birds on the water. There is a dawn glow in sky, reflected subtly in the water. And the Geese are on the wing. They had settled in this pond with the Cranes (who had been there all night) for a few moments on their way out of the refuge (or further down the refuge) for the day…and to give the gathered photographers a treat. I was there leading one of my Point and Shoot Nature Photography workshops, and enjoying every moment of it.
Nikon P900 at 135mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/250th @ ISO 140 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
Wings! Greater Black-backed Gull
Greater Black-backed Gull, Pond at Fortune’s Rocks, Maine.
The gulls were restless yesterday in the ponds behind the beach at Fortune’s Rocks, just south of Biddeford Pool Maine. They were mostly big gulls…Greater Black-backed (like this one) and Herring. Every few moments one of them would do the whole standing-on-the-water thing with its wings out and water flying everywhere. I caught a few in action. This shot is not perfect…but it catches the action and the effect.
I am always amazed when I get a photo that shows the articulation of the wings this way. I tend to think, knowing no better, of birds’ wings like airplane wings…flat and rigid…sticking out at the sides…only birds move them up and down. Of course that is totally wrong. The bird’s wing is more like a sail, shaped by the wind and need to support the bird in powered flight, in a glide, in take off, and in landing. And a very sophisticated sail at that…one that can be cupped to assume complex curves to suit the moment. Look at the power in this gull’s wings!
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 125 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped just slightly in Lightroom.
Geese Away!
Snow Geese (and a few Ross’), Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
We return, this morning, to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge and the Festival of the Cranes. Snow Geese (and a few Ross’ undoubtedly) taking off in mass for another field. It is hard to capture the effect without the sound of hundreds of wings beating and dozens of geese calling. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 800mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f7.1. Processed in Lightroom.
Sandhill Cranes. Autumn Light.
Sandhill Cranes, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
The Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is wonderful for many reasons. The numbers of Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes, the possibility of many raptors and dabbling ducks, the song-birds still hanging in there, Mule Deer and Elk…the great variety of wildlife…but it is also wonderful for the light! Autumn in the high desert valley of the Rio Grande has to have some of the cleanest, most flattering light of anywhere, anytime. Especially morning and late afternoon. These three cranes over a field of grain, and in front of the foothills and autumn foliage, are ideally, and beautifully illuminated. Looking at it I am back there in the brisk morning air, hearing the calls of the cranes, feeling the sun warm by back. A wonderful place. A wonderful experience. Wonderful light!
Nikon P900 at 800mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ ISO 140 @ f5.6. Processed and cropped slightly to eliminate crane parts in Lightroom.
Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
The Great Blue Heron is not my favorite bird…and not even my favorite bird at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge…but I have always thought that if you want to turn someone on to birding…there is no better way than to give them a good close up view of a GBH in the field! The combination of feather texture, subtle colors, and the not-subtle-at-all yellow eye, make the GBH a knock-out bird. And they are likely to stand still long enough so anyone can get a good look. This specimen was in one of the water channels between the tour loop and the fields and brought us to an abrupt stop. It waited patiently while we got out and took way too many images, and was still there when we drove on. The low morning angle of the light brings out all the detail.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.