Posts in Category: Rio Grande
Face off!
Sandhill Cranes, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro New Mexico
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is an ideal place to practice action wildlife photography. The Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese are always doing something. These two cranes are having a dispute over…well, it is hard to say. This group of cranes had a lot of this kind of action while I was watching but I never could determine the cause. This is two adults. It is not breeding season. Who knows what was going on, but it makes a dynamic image.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program Mode with continuous focus. Processed in PhotoShop Express on my Android tablet.
Stars of the show!
Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro New Mexico
The Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge south of Socorro, New Mexico is over for another year. This image captures both of the stars of the show. Sandhill Cranes above, and Snow Geese below. The Geese fly considerably faster than the cranes. I was tracking the Cranes for a shot when the Geese photo bombed. And that is the only way it could have happened. I could not have gotten this shot intentionally. 🙂
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program Mode (my saved Birds in Flight Mode…with wide area and continuous focus, and minimum shutter speed ISO set). Processed in Photo Mate3 on my Android tablet.
Geese rising… Happy Sunday!
Snow Geese, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro New Mexico
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
Though it is the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache NWR near Socorro New Mexico, it is probably the Snow Geese that keep people coming back. Standing beside a field of Geese when they startle and rise all at once is an experience that inspires wonder and delight in almost everyone who sees it. The Geese are beautiful. The action is spectacular. The sound of the calls and the wings is overwhelming. The energy is undeniable. Once experienced it wakens the appetite for more. I talked to one couple, originally from Cincinnati Ohio, who moved to Albuquerque in part because of their experience at Bosque del Apache. It is that impressive. Impressive enough to change the course of a life.
And of course, the generous eye is always looking for experiences like the Geese rising…life-changing experiences. Experiences that speak directly to the spirit in us…and speaks the greatness of the Spirit that creates all in love. Awe inspiring experiences. If your eye is generous you will find them everywhere. Bosque del Apache is just a very obvious, and accessible, example.
So, happy Sunday, and may you find your Geese rising experience today! It just may change your life.
(I caught this image with the Sony RX10iii and processed it in Photo Mate 3 on my Android tablet.)
Snow Geese at dawn
Snow Geese, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge south of Socorro, New Mexico
One of the most popular activities at the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is, believe it or not, to get up at 4am to be at the Refuge in time to stand in the cold beside a body of water in the dark and wait for the sunrise. Generally, if you have picked your spot correctly, just before the sun crests the horizon, the Snow Geese will rise from the water and fly off to feed in fields deeper in the Refuge, followed shortly but the Sandhill Cranes. Seeing the Geese and Cranes rise in the dawn light is what brings the folks out that early, and it is indeed an experience not to be missed. I do it once at least on each visit. Yesterday I actually taught a workshop and had 4 other intrepid souls with cameras beside me at the pond in the dark, and were amply rewarded.
This is a small flock of Snow (and Ross’) Geese moving just as the first light came into the sky. Sony RX10iii. Program Mode. Processed in PhotoShop Express on my Android tablet.
Snow Geese Rising
Snow and Ross” Geese, Bosque del Apache NWR near Socorro New Mexico
After my morning workshop at Bosque del Apache’s Festival of the Cranes (Intro to Point and Shoot Nature Photography) I went out for a quick drive around the Refuge Tour Loop. There are not a lot of Snow and Ross’ Geese in yet (too warm still north of here), but what there were were all on the main Flight Deck Pond near the entrance station. I pulled over to get a few pics. I was isolating a Snow Goose with 1200mms (using Clear Image Zom) when the Geese suddenly rose and took flight. I swung the camera up and caught this close up of the rise. The circled long enough so I got many more shots of them in the air, but this one catches the sheer energy better than most. 🙂
Sony RX10iii at 1200mm equivalent field of view. Program Mode. Processed in PhotoShop Express on my Android tablet.
Blue Dasher at Santa Ana
Blue Dasher, Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, Alamo Texas
We are in New Mexico to visit our daughter and work the Festival of the Cranes, but yesterday was a travel day so today’s Pic still comes from Texas. The birding was somewhat slow at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge south of Alamo Texas when I visited last week, but there were lots of Butterflies and Dragonflies. This Blue Dasher posed nicely on its twig, giving me a good close up portrait of the face and wings.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program Mode. Processed in PhotoShop Express on my Android tablet.
Redwings in the Cattails
Young male Red-winged Blackbirds, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
This is a rather odd photo…but I like it. There were 30 or more young male Red-winged Backbirds in the stand of cattails along the boardwalk over the diving duck pond at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, just before dawn, making a total racket. They were well hidden, so this is the best I could do for a shot. Still, I think it is effective, capturing the situation pretty well…and a graphics…as an image…it has a lot of visual interest, between the colors, textures, and shapes. Or that is what I think 🙂
Nikon P610 at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/80th @ ISO 400 @ f5.6. 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.
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.
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!