Posts in Category: wildlife
In Sync. Snow Geese
Snow Geese. Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
It always takes me a couple of days at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge to get my flight shot hand in. Practice! And there is no better place to practice flight shots. The Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese are always in the air, and relatively close. One of the amazing things about the Geese is how closely they fly…and how synchronized their wings are.
Nikon P610 at 1200mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/800th @ ISO 100 @ f6.3. Processed and cropped slightly in Lightroom.
Snow Geese!
Snow Geese panic, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
Hundreds in the air at once. A Harrier put them up. It is an experience you never forget.
Nikon P900. Processed in Lightroom.
Cranes in Winter!
Sandhill Cranes, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
Well not quite winter…but definitely snow on the mountains this morning at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge and the Festival of the Cranes. I stood on the Coyote deck for a half hour waiting for, and trying for, this shot. There was one spot of sun on the snowy mountains, and occasionally Sandhill Cranes moving up the refuge would pass in front of the spot. Photo in the making. 🙂
Nikon P900 at just under 1000mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 400 @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom.
Festival of the Cranes (posting schedule)
Sandhill Cranes, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM.
Friends and followers. I am at the Festival of the Cranes, at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge for the next 6 days. One of the things about Bosque is that you want, as many days as possible, to be on the refuge at dawn. This is especially important when, like me, you are actually “working” the festival, and have most of your daylight hours already committed to “inside” activities. So, for the next week or so, my posting schedule for Pic for Today is going to be skewed. Most days my post will not arrive until late in the day…perhaps even evening. So we will kick it off with this special edition afternoon post.
Sandhill Cranes are not the Cranes the Festival was named for…back in the 80s the Sandhill flock at Bosque del Apache included several “fostered” Wooping Cranes. They all eventually died out, including the only offspring…a single hybrid Sandhill/Wooper. However, the festival remains…now as a continuing celebration of Bosque’s winter population of Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese. Â It is, according to some authorities, the oldest birding festival in the US. It is a big deal in Socorro…filling every available hotel room most years…and fostering a range of local spin-offs including a craft fair, an art fair, and lots of community dinners offered by churches and civic organizations.
The Sandhills are majestic, prehistoric looking and sounding birds, beautiful feeding or in flight. This shot is with the Nikon P900 at about 950mm equivalent field of view. Sports Mode to catch the action.
So, watch for the Pic for Today posts later in the day for the next while. I promise it will be worth the wait.
Yellow Crowned Night Heron. Happy Sunday!
Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Estero Llano Grande SP and World Birding Center, Weslaco TX
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light.” Jesus
The Yellow-crowned Night Heron is one grumpy looking bird. In fact all Night Herons, perhaps because of their large heads and the way they suck their necks down between their shoulders, have the same look of gloom…if not outright doom. “It is not easy,” they seem to say, “being a Night Heron.” The fact that they invariably have a little tuft of feathers caught at the tip of their beaks from preening does not help any. They are, of course, much more active, as the name implies, at night, when they hunt. I will admit I have never seen one at night. They might be a very different bird. When I see them they are resting…off duty, so to speak…and their general funk might be just my interpretation of their half-asleep state. I might look a little grumpy myself if some intruding human got close enough to my perch to wake me in the middle of the night…err…this is a difficult metaphor to keep straight but you see what I mean. Of course, the generous eye gets beyond first impressions to sees the beauty in the bird, and something of it’s nobility. In this wide-eyed specimen the eye alone is enough to redeem the bird. The eye compels us to take in the elegance of the gray and black (carefully preened) plumage, the golden crown, and the strength of the beak. Yes, like all God’s creatures, the Yellow-crowned Night Heron has its own beauty. The generous eye is always rewarded by the light that fills all creation.
Happy Sunday!
King of the Hill: Dragonfly Style
Roseate Skimmer and Blue Dasher, Estero Llano Grande State Park and World Birding Center, Weslaco TX
I was already focused on the Roseate Skimmer assuming obelisk position (attempting to cool itself in the hot Texas sun), when the Blue Dasher flew in and tried to knock the skimmer off its perch. It made repeated attempts, and, at one point, actually latched on to the skimmers leg. It was over before I could remember to hit the video record button, but I got two shots of the action. The skimmer held on to the perch…and the Blue Dasher settled for a similar perch a few inches away. I have a second shot of them both obelisking.
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 220 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom. The second shot is more complicated. Since the two bugs were not in the same plane of focus, I could only get one in focus at a time, even zoomed out to 700mm equivalent with both dragons in the frame. I took two rapid shots, one with the Roseate Skimmer in focus, and one with the Blue Dasher, and then combined the two images in Photoshop so that both dragons are in focus. Final processing was in Lightroom.
Roseate Skimmer and Blue Dasher
Silver Emperor Butterfly
Silver Emperor Butterfly, National Butterfly Center, Mission TX
This is a collage of 5 shots of the Silver Emperor Butterfly, taken yesterday at the National Butterfly Center in Mission Texas. As though the butterfly were not spectacular enough with its rich brown body, yellow wing tips, and bold while band, in the right light the male shows a bright blue iridescence along both edges of the white. You can see a bit of it flashing in several of these shots. The name comes from the back-side view, and the silver color of the body and wing band. Again, if the angle of the light is right, it looks as metallic as the spots on a Fritillary. Note the green tongue showing in the two head on shots. All together one fine looking butterfly…and just rare enough to cause a stir whenever one is found on this side of the Rio Grande.
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Squirrely!
Grey Squirrel, The Yard. Kennebunk ME
We have more squirrels in our yard this year than I can ever remember seeing. They are after the acorns, of which we also have more than I can ever remember seeing…and of course they are after my birdseed and suet blocks. I have to admit, squirrels are cute…when they are not on my feeders. This one popped up while I was testing my newly repaired Nikon P900 and I could not resist.
As I mentioned yesterday, I am in Texas at the moment, and hopefully tomorrow will have some butterflies or birds to show. But for now, you are stuck with this squirrel 🙂
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/100th @ ISO 800 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Greater Yellowlegs in the Autumn Afternoon
Greater Yellowlegs. Kennebunk Bridle Path, Kennebunk ME
I waited patiently yesterday for some light…for a bit of sun to break through the overcast…before risking a photoprowl. It is hunting season, and though Sunday hunting is banned in Maine, I never really feel safe in the woods until the guns are put back in their cases in early December. Fortunately, I am in Texas and New Mexico for more than 2 full weeks in November…so I generally have lots of pics to post anyway.
This is a Greater Yellowlegs, in the marsh pools along the Bridle Trail in an isolated section of Rachel Carson NWR, in Kennebunk Maine. The late afternoon light makes the image warm, makes the shadows long, and picks out the detail in the plumage. Nikon P900 (back from repair!) at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 320 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
The Song of the Great Blue Heron! Happy Sunday.
Great Blue Heron, Back Creek Marsh, Kennebunk ME.
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light.” Jesus
Of course, Great Blue Herons are not song-birds. They do not sing. They rarely make and sound at all, and when they do it is a guttural grunt, not only un-song like, but un-bird like. But they have a song. It is in the way they move, they way they hunt, they way they are. It is the silent stalking, the slow march across the marsh. Majestic, written and arranged for strings and orchestra. By Vivaldi perhaps. As much dance as song. Even silent, you can see as you watch the Heron hunt in the shallow waters of the marsh that it is hearing the music in its mind…that it moves to a song all its own. And then with a swell of strings, it spreads its great wings and lifts off…keeping time even as it flies. It is the song of the Great Blue Heron. And if you have watched one closely, with generous eyes, you will know what I mean, and hear it, at least in your dreams.
All creation sings the glory of the creator God…the God who creates in love. That is the light we are filled with…the generous eyed ones…the ones who hear the Heron song with the ears of the spirit…and who celebrate such beauty. Happy Sunday!