Posts in Category: wildlife
Red Again
Red Squirrel. the yard in Kennebunk, ME
I can’t resist posting another Red Squirrel pic. (See yesterday’s Generous Eye post.) He was back on the deck yesterday for a half hour or so, entertaining us again. When I open the big glass sliding door out to the deck when there is a Gray Squirrel at the feeders, it scampers as fast as it can go…especially now that my war against feeder raiders is well known among the neighborhood squirrels. Often just looking out the door is enough to send the squirrel flying. The Red is completely different…sort of the chickadee among squirrels. It stops what it is doing to look at me, but then just goes on about its business. This shot was taken with the squirrel on the deck rail about 8 feet from the deck door. I had to open the door, and poke the camera out to take it, but the squirrel just sat there and looked at me while I got into shooting position. I took a dozen shots before he decided to go back to the feeders for one last snack before scampering off the deck and into the yard next door. Talk about bold!
Since the squirrel was well inside the minimum focus on the Nikon P900, I had to run to the bedroom for my P610. This uncropped image was taken at, as I say, about 8 feet…at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 280 @ f6.5. 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.
American Kestrel
American Kestrel, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
Early in the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, my friend and colleague Rich Moncrief, who was working the observation decks in the early morning, got some crackerjack pics of an American Kestrel in great light. I was sooo envious, as the Kestrel is among my favorite North American birds (and photo envy is one of my few remaining faults :). The Kestrel. the smallest of our North American falcons, might even be tied for first with the Green Kingfisher, the smallest of our Kingfishers. There were a lot of Kestrels on the refuge this year, and, of course, I kept an eye out for them. I had several photo ops, and took a lot of frames, but nothing to compare to Rich’s shots. On Friday morning, Sarah (my daughter) as with me for an early round of the tour loops, and she made it her mission to find Kestrels. This one was our second, near the end of our round. We had just photographed another down the road, but we stopped to hike back to the photo blind to see if there were ducks behind it. No. On our way back to the car, this Kestrel flew up into trees along the tail. The light could not have been better, and I pushed the Nikon P900 out into Perfect Image Zoom to fill the frame. Not a perfect shot but enough to cure my photo envy!
Nikon P900 at just under 4000mm equivalent field of view. Handheld at 1/800th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed 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.
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. 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.
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.