Posts in Category: birds
Leucistic Sandhill Crane
Leucistic Sandhill Crane, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
The Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge was founded to celebrate an experimental attempt to reintroduce the Wooping Crane to the Rio Grande Valley flyway. The Wooping Crane was in severe danger…down to a less than a hundred breeding pairs nationwide. And there were none using the historic Rio Grande Flyway. Cranes always lay several eggs, and generally raise only one chick, so eggs were harvested from Wooper nests and placed in the nests of Sandhill Cranes still using the Rio Grande. They hatched, and they grew to maturity…unfortunately they all “thought” that they were Sandhill Cranes and attempted to mate with other Sandhill Cranes. One hybrid was actually hatched and grew to adulthood…but that was the end of the experiment. Thankfully, other experiments to increase the numbers of Wooping Cranes were more successful, and, while still not out of danger, things are looking good for the Wooper.
The Wooping Crane is a big white crane, compared to the predominantly grey Sandhills…so you can imagine the excitement when a white crane showed up among the greys this year at the Bosque. Of course, closer examination showed it to be just another Sandhill, not quite an albino since it retained some grey, and the distinctive red cap of the Sandhill…a leucistic Sandhill Crane. It added a little spice to observing the flocks of Sandhills this year, since there was always a chance of spotting the leucistic crane. I saw it there times around the refuge…never in the same spot twice. It was not very cooperative, photographically speaking…and what you have here is a collage of my three best shots. I only realized that the flight shot was the leucistic crane on reviewing my images when I got home. 🙂
All images Nikon P900. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Snow Geese on the Mountain
Snow Geese, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
This year’s trip to the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge was among my most productive trips, photographically. I came back with close to 900 keepers. This is a shot I try for every year. Snow Geese in full flight against the backdrop of the mountains that rim the valley. Clearly it is a “right place at the right time” kind of shot. This year I found a field of Geese in the process of relocating a half mile down the refuge, so small groups of Geese would take off, rise up in front of the mountain, and then a bit higher to clear the hedge line of tall trees between fields. I could get them with mountains like this, clearing the trees, and against blue sky. It was ideal, and I spent a half hour or more there trying different shots. In this shot the strength of the geese comes through. These are not delicate birds. And the rugged mountains behind highlight that strength. What appear as flecks in the upper right corner are, I think, distant Ravens out further over the foothills.
Nikon P900 at 950mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f7.1 Processed in Lightroom.
Three cranes standing. Happy Sunday!
Sandhill Cranes. Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
Snow chased us down from Santa Fe through Albuquerque to Socorro, and we woke on our first morning at the Festival of the Cranes to overcast skies and a fresh white cover on the mountains rimming the valley of the Rio Grande. I was there for the flyout, and watched the Cranes take off in the half-light from the ponds along Route 1 on the way into Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, and then worked my way around to the backside of the north loop, to Coyote Deck. There was a cluster of cranes feeding along the dyke just north of the deck. The light on the refuge was subtle, and there was still a touch of frost on the fields. These three cranes were coming up the north slope of the dyke to cross to the main group in the field to the south. Something in their attitude, framed against the weeds beyond the dyke in the soft light, arrested my attention and pulled the camera around. And now, looking at the image, I am arrested again…by a beauty I can’t quite wrap in reason…a beauty that goes beyond the elements of composition, texture, detail…or the living vibrancy of the cranes…to become something more. The image is not perfect. The center crane was moving its head just a bit too fast for the shutter…perhaps just swallowing or raising its crest…or about to call…and is blurred, but somehow even that works.
Beauty, light, comes out from the generous eye to embrace the world, and the world responds with beauty. The light within and the light without are the same light…the light of creation…the light of love. Jesus, child of God, is the light of the world, and as we come into the season when we celebrate that light, we only need to open our eyes wide to both give and receive…beauty, light, love. In us and around us, children of God by faith, light…love…beauty. Like three cranes standing in a frosty field.
Happy Sunday!
Early Cranes in Flight
Sandhill Cranes, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
Early light on an overcast day at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge during the Festival of the Cranes lead to show shutter speeds and blurred wings. And I was panning with the cranes in flight, which blurred the background. The cranes were close. This is only a 400mm shot…so I was panning pretty fast. The composition, technically, is all wrong. I should have the cranes leading into the frame not out of it. And yet this is one of my favorite flight shots from the trip. The close view, the blurred wings and background, along with unconventional composition, all create an impression of the speed at which the cranes were moving. Â They provide an energy to the shot that might be missing in more “technically” perfect views. I like it!
Nikon P900 at 400mm equivalent field of view. 1/50th @ ISO 800 @ f5. Processed in Lightroom.
Snow Geese Calling
Snow Geese, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
The two sounds that bring Bosque del Apache most vividly to mind are the rattle of the Sandhill Cranes and the constant calling of the Snow Geese. On the ground or in the air…the aggregated sound of so many creatures fills the ear and leaves little room for anything else. (Well, maybe with the exception of the whir and click of hundreds of camera shutters as you stand among the photographers. 🙂 This shot catches a goose calling in the air.
It used to be that shots like this were next to impossible without an investment of several thousands of dollars and considerable practice time. In fact a dozen or more photo gurus make quite a bit of money each Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge (or in the weeks surrounding the Festival) teaching people to capture at least an occasional image like this one, and several of the big-name camera and lens companies, and one camera retailer have gear on display, for loan, and for sale at the Festival. I hear the gurus instructing their students on how to manually set up their expensive automated cameras (over-riding the automation), for the light and motion at different times of day and in different situations…landing birds, soaring birds, gliding birds, rising birds…with background…against the sky…etc.  I teach there too, but I shoot with a Point & Shoot camera with as much automation as possible…and that is what I teach. This shot is in Shutter preferred, since catching the action is the goal, but it is in auto everything else, including focus. It is amazing how well the most recent Point and Shoot superzooms do with birds in flight. It seems to get easier with each generation. (And, of course, with practice…but there is no where better than the Bosque to practice birds in flight!) The investment in gear is less than $600…putting it within the reach of a whole new group of potential photographers. And is it a lot of fun!
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f7.1. Processed in Lightroom and one half bird edited out on the right in iPixio.
Sandhill Cranes Display Call
Sandhill Cranes, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
Cranes display courting behavior year round…and mated pairs show what appears to be ritual affection in any season. This is the “display call”. The male leads and the female answers. If you have not heard it, it is one of the more prehistoric sounding calls of any bird…slightly harsh on the ear, but charged with life…echoing back and forth between male and female voice. (The male is slightly deeper and louder…the female lighter, and not so raspy.) When 15 pairs in a flock of 200 cranes get going at the same time, it is a memorable experience. 🙂
Early morning sun picks out every detail here. Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Northern Harrier
Northern Harrier. Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
Because the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is a working event for me, all of my photos from Bosque are early or late…before the Expo Tent warms up, or after it closes for the day at 5PM. This female Northern Harrier was hunting the marshy area on the two way connector between the north and south loops of the tour road early one morning. I stopped the car and popped out with the camera to try to catch it in flight. The bird only gave me a few chances as it worked up and down the marsh…and all too soon it drifted out of range. This shot, though I would have preferred to keep both wingtips in frame, is satisfying to me because of the direct eye contact. That is a real hunter’s stare. Fortunately for me, I am not Harrier prey. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 1200mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f6.3. Processed and cropped slightly for scale in Lightroom.
White-crowned Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
My friend and fellow photographer, John Van’t Land, posted a shot of a White-crowned Sparrow yesterday, with the note to the effect that he can never see too many White-crowns. And I agree. They are delightful, perky little birds, and their flocks, when they arrive from the high alpine regions where they nest to winter in the “lowlands” of the west (we got them at 6500 feet in Rehoboth New Mexico when I lived there and they were certainly abundant at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in Socorro New Mexico at 4500 feet during the Festival of the Cranes) they are always a cheerful sight to see. This shot is in the brush near the Visitor Center at Bosque. My daughter Sarah and I were chasing Gimbal’s Quail (without success…we saw many, photographed none) when this small flock of White-crowns blew by and stopped to pose.
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/250 @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom. Cropped slightly on the right for composition.
Sandhill Fight after Dawn
Sandhill Crane in flight, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
One of the delights of Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge and the Festival of the Cranes is to be by one of the ponds where the Sandhill Cranes spend the night, and to see them fly out just before and just after dawn. The light in the Rio Grande Valley of central New Mexico is unique in November, and the way it highlights the Cranes against the mountains makes for memorable sights and memorable shots.
As a photographer, it is a challenge to balance the existing light with shutter speeds that will stop (or at least “slow”) the Cranes in flight. This shot was taken in Shutter Preferred, with the shutter set to 1/400th, in the earliest sun. That pushed the ISO to and acceptable 400. Before dawn I was shooting at 1/250th and ISO 800-1000. Also acceptable for the light conditions, though 1/250th leaves the wing tips blurred. It full daylight I push the speed up to 1/640th with gives me ISO 100, and excellent detail. Still, the atmosphere of this shot, with the glowing light of dawn on both the cranes and the mountains behind, has an attraction that many full daylight shots miss.
Nikon P900 at about 1600mm equivalent field of view. f6.3. Processed in Lightroom.
Roadrunner! (and road-running photographers)
A “coolage” of two shots. Greater Roadrunner. Bosque del Apache, NWR, Socorro, NM
This frumpy looking Roadrunner sat beside the road at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in Socorro New Mexico one early overcast morning…looking cold and just slightly miserable. I rolled down the window and switched off the car for some shots. The roadrunner did not seem to mind, until a pick-up coming up behind me drove between me and the roadrunner. What? I was leaning out the window with the camera. The bird was right there on the side of the road in plain sight. What was the guy thinking? It was another photographer too, with his big lens balanced on the dash in front of him. Of course the bird flushed…stood up tall the way roadrunners do, and scuttled off into the brush at the side of the road to be seen no more. There is a moral to this story. As a photographer I try to be as considerate of other photographers, birders, and just plain people as possible (not to mention the wildlife). It is always a privilege to see something photoworthy, and I know I do not “own” that privilege. It is not mine, and I want to share it with others. So I try not to get in anyone’s way…even if it means loosing the shot. I can only wish that other photographers were as courteous. Photographers sometimes have a bad reputation among the birding community, and among the public at large, for pushing in to get the shot, no matter the cost to others’ enjoyment of the moment. Some seem to feel that the investment in camera and lens gives them the right to be pushy. Some seen to have no sense of boundaries…pushing not only in front of others, but also so close to the wildlife that it flushes. Of course, to moderate my protest, I was parked in the road to get my roadrunner pic…I just wish the photographer behind me had given me another minute and another few shots. So it goes.
Two images combined in Coolage after processing in Lightroom. 1800mm equivalent (I moved the car forward between shots). Large shot ISO 500Â @ 1/125th and small shot ISO 400 @ 1/160th. Nikon P900.