Posts in Category: Rio Grande
Snow and Snow Geese
Can you tell where the snow in this Bosque del Apache NWR panorama leaves off, and the Snow Geese begin? Most of what you see in the corn field is geese! I would estimate something over 10,000 in this field alone. View the image as large as your monitor allows. 🙂
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F. Sweep Panorama mode. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 using the new HDR Scene filter.
Bosque del Apache Snow
Only once before in my memory, close to 25 years ago it must be, has snow fallen during the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache NWR. This year, Sunday morning we woke to several inches on the ground and snow still falling. The roads between our hotel in Socorro and the refuge were snow packed and icy and the refuge loop, while manageable, was snow covered and even drifted in spots. Of course I had to get out there to find Cranes and Snow Geese in the snow. I, along with maybe 50 other intrepid photographers, found them at the far north end of the loop, in what they call the farm fields, and along the west side of the loop as it turns back, facing the mountains, now hidden in snow clouds. The snow on the ground, reflecting back, made the most of the light even with snow still in the air. In the hour I spent there, the snow clouds began to clear off the mountains, providing a dramatic backdrop.
This is an in-camera HDR from the Samsung Smart Camera WB800F. I find it amazing that the HDR software in the camera is sophisticated enough to capture a scene like this with movement. It must have correctly selected the moving Cranes from a single image. I used the HDR Scene filter in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 to bring up the mountains even more, and hold some drama in the still heavy clouds. Finally I used a Photo Editor Smart Blur brush and the Note stylus to smooth out some of the HDR noise in the clouds. All in all this is one of my favorite shots from the Bosque, not only from this trip, but from all the years I have photographed there. And that is saying something. 🙂
Landing Light : Happy Sunday!
One of the things I love about Bosque del Apache and the Festival of the Cranes in November is the amazing New Mexico light. We did not get it this year. The skies were cloudy at best. As I write this it is snowing. There was barely enough light on any day for photography. Still the birds are here. Time to get creative and push the technology to the limits.
Even a few years ago a shot like this…low light action at ISO 1600 and 1/320th of a second…would have been unthinkable with even the best full fledged DSLR cameras. Yesterday, an hour after sunrise with flakes of snow in the air, I was able to catch this Crane coming in to land with a small sensor super-zoom camera. And I had a 12×8 inch print made on the demo Canon printer at the Festival that looks good enough to hang on the wall. Amazing!
And I like the shot. I like the forms and textures…the grace of the bird…the colors of the fall grains and mountains, even in the dull light.
Canon SX50HS in Sports Mode. Exposure as above, at 1200mm equivalent field of view @ f6.3. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
And for the Sunday Thought : the light is what it is, and no amount of wishing will change it. If you are a photographer you can pack your gear and wait for better light, or you can get out there and see what can be done with the light you have. You never know. Even at the edge of what your gear is capable of, there might be a very special image waiting. And of course that is a great spiritual lesson as well. If you make the most of the light God gives you every day, you can expect blessings every day. That has been my experience often enough to provide a firm foundation for a life of faith. 🙂
Bosque del Apache Thrill
We are at the festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache NWR this week. We got here Wednesday and did a quick loop around the refuge. My daughter Erin, if she was ever here, was here as a two year old, so this is really her first experience of the Bosque. And, as is only fitting, we drove up along the corn fields the refuge folk have prepared for the Geese and Cranes just as a flock of 4 or 5 thousand (maybe more) Snow Geese panicked and took to the air. This is classic Bosque. The swirling Geese panicking are the one sight, the one experience, of the Bosque, that, once seen, compels people to return season after season. And it does not matter how often you have seen it, each time it happens, you get that same quickening of the senses and the spirit! The thrill of the Bosque!
The light was somewhat subdued, but I swung the control dial on the Canon SX50HS to Sports Mode and shot several sequences of the swirling Geese. This is the densest shot from the series, as the Geese were still rising off the ground.
Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
Red-bordered Pixie
Though the best known US colony of Red-bordered Pixie butterflies might be next to the Burger King in Edinberg Texas, I came across a few at the National Butterfly Center. One was an orange-fringed and very worn specimen, but two were full reds, and appeared quite fresh. This one was tucked back in the foliage high in a small tree. Not the best light but it is such a spectacular bug!
Pixies are Metalmarks though they appear quite atypical for the family. They are only found in South Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley floodplain. Finding the few I found at the NBC was one of the highlights of my visit to the gardens…one of the highlights of my visit to the Valley in fact.
Canon SX50HS in Program with – 1/3rd EV exposure compensation and iContrast. 1800mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
Texas Wasp Moth: Happy Sunday!
I first saw this creature at the National Butterfly Center among the butterflies that also frequent the Mist Bush. This shot is from the butterfly gardens at the Bentsen Rio Grande State Park World Birding Center Visitor Center. I thought it was a wasp. It looks like a wasp, but like no wasp I have seen. A wasp in fancy dress? Art deco wasp? Clown wasp? Like maybe a wasp from somewhere far south of the border where they are not afraid to flash bright colors? A tropicana wasp? Take another look.
And then, while researching the White-tipped Black Moth that I also photographed at the NBC, using some photo keys to moths of the Rio Grande Valley, I found that there are moths that do not look my idea of a moth at all. When it came to identifying this bug, I thought of those odd moths I had seen, and typed “wasp like moth Rio Grande” into a Google search. Texas Wasp Moth came right up on top.
What an outrageous creature! I mean, look at those disco booties and the way too colorful feet…and what what is with the matching orange and black stripes? Then consider the totally unnecessary white accents, and the frivolous bright yellow tips on the antennas? Who designed this thing? 🙂
Canon SX50HS in Program with -1/3rd EV exposure compensation and iContrast. 1800mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
And for the Sunday Thought: Well we are already started on it. Who designed this thing? Who has sufficient whimsy? Who has that kind of sense of humor…because I know this bug makes me laugh. And the fact that it is not even a wasp at all, but a harmless moth in an over-the-top costume, well that just caps it. I might have trouble getting by the stinging wasp thing, but as a moth, this is just a wonderful, amazing, delightful creature. Or that is what I think.
And of course I know, rationally, that it was not designed for my amusement or delight. But that whole beleaving, faith-based, seeing-wonders, wonderfilled side of me has to suspect that it was designed for someone’s amusement and delight. It is such a good joke! Too good a joke to have happened without intent. A lovely joke! A joke created and delivered with love. A living joke, that can only have come from the heart and the mind…from the loving intent of the creator of life. Or that is what I think. And thinking that makes me happy. I enjoy being able to share the joke…the delight…the wonder…the whimsy of the Texas Wasp Moth…with its author…and with you.
Now come on…doesn’t this non-wasp bug just make you simile! That is a good thing. Or that is what I think. 🙂
Happy Sunday!
Mocker in the Morning.
While hunting butterflies at the National Butterfly Center, I came around the end of one of the taller plantings to find another butterfly watcher sitting quietly on a bench about 20 feet away. Nothing odd in that. But between he and I, this Northern Mockingbird bird sat out in the sun, just sitting, not 10 feet from either of us. I had to zoom back to normal 1200mm equivalent from my butterfly working 1800mm to get the whole bird in the frame. Even stranger, the stranger and I stood talking about the bird for several moments before I walked on. The bird was still there, sunning itself, apparently unconcerned about what we humans were up to in its garden.
Granted, if it lives in the NBC garden, it sees a lot of humans, especially at the height of butterfly season in the late fall, so it is pretty used to us…but still, that is a pretty bold behavior for a Mocker.
Canon SX50HS in Program with – 1/3rd EV exposure compensation and iContrast. 1200mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
And the bird was still sitting there when I walked away.
Bordered Patch, with bling!
Of the 8 Snouts in tropical America, the American Snout is the only Snout that occurs regularly in the US, mainly along the border with Mexico, but it has been reported as far north as Southern Canada. They go through periodic explosions, keyed to the cycle of drought and wet in the Southwest and southern Texas. I don’t know if this was an explosion year, but there were certainly Snouts everywhere in the Rio Grande Valley in the highest numbers I have seen in my 10 years of visiting there in November. I am talking about 6 of every 10 butterflies you looked at were Snouts. 🙂
Embarrassment! This is not an American Snout at all. I was photographing Snouts in the Bush below and just assumed this was the underside. It is in fact a Bordered Patch. Which of course has its own interesting story. Paint my face red. 🙁
This shot is from just after the National Butterfly Center gardens opened for the day at 8 AM…before the sun crept up over the sheltering belt of tall trees to the south-east to warm and dry the vegetation. If you look closely you will see that the butterfly is still covered with dew…tiny drops of water like jewels…the bling from my title. I took a lot of pictures of Bordered Patches this trip, and this is my favorite.
Canon SX50HS in Program with -1/3rd EV exposure compensation and iContrast. 1800mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
White-tailed Kite
This bird was the Black-shouldered Kite when I started birding…but only in the US. Elsewhere it was the White-tailed Kite, and the AOU changed the name to reflect the more common usage. However you call it, it is one of the most elegant raptors, both in coloration and in action. Seeing one hovering, as this bird is, or hanging higher on the wind with its wings motionless (kiting) is a thing of wonder. I caught it at the National Butterfly Center on the US boarder south of Mission TX, hovering over the bare ground north of the gardens, looking for prey.
This shot demonstrates one of the things I really like about the Canon SX50HS. I was at the Butterfly Gardens, obviously, to photograph butterflies, and I had the camera set to full zoom to do so from a comfortable distance. 1200mm equivalent brings you right in on butterflies from under 6 feet! When I saw the kite hovering, it was the work of seconds to spin the control dial to Sports, get on the bird, and shoot off a sequence of rapid images. Twice. I got three keepers from the two sequences…and more that were close duplicates. I know of few other cameras that flexable. 🙂
Camera as stated. Sports mode. 1200mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014. Cropped slightly for scale.
And a second shot.
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Our first full day in the Rio Grande Valley, after setting up the ZEISS booth at the Municipal Auditorium, my colleague and I did a quick run out to Estero Llano Grande World Birding Center. It was a deeply overcast day, but there were birds about. This Golden-fronted was just off the deck at the Visitor Center. Everything is more colorful in the Valley. Even the woodpeckers!
Canon SX50HS in Program with – 1/3rd EV exposure compensation and iContrast. 1800mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.