Monthly Archives: November 2012
Roseate Skimmer, Quinta Mazatlan
Between a week in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas for the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival and a week in the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico for the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache, I have added over 1000 images to weiw.lightshedder.com. So, expect some catch up over the next few weeks as we move through Thanksgiving and into a few weeks in the home and Virginia offices. 🙂
This is a Roseate Skimmer, on of my favorite Dragonflies, from the grounds of Quinta Mazatlan in McAllen Texas. This, like many of the odonata I saw in the Valley, is a very worn bug…possibly a migrant from further north. There are winter texans…I suppose there are winter texan odonata.
Canon SX50HS. Program with auto iContrast and Shadow Fill. 1800mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 640. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Early HDR: Bosque del Apache NWR
I woke up Sunday morning in Socorro to wet streets. It had evidently rained heavily during the night. The Rio Grande Valley and all of New Mexico certainly needs the rain. On the dive out to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, the landscape, still under massive clouds, looked fresh washed…all the colors sharpened and deepened. It was especially effective on the browns and oranges of late fall.
I could not resist stopping at one of the wildlife viewing areas along the road into the refuge and setting up my hyper-light weight travel tripod for some HDRs. I like the tones in this one, the sweep of the clouds, and the leading lines of the two roads. It is looking straight north up the Rio Grande Valley.
Canon SX50HS. HDR Mode. (The camera takes three shots at three different exposures and combines them in-camera for a single extended range image. Hence the need for tripod.) 24mm equivalent field of view. f4 @ 1/250th @ ISO 80. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness using my new “soft-hyper” preset.
Sunset on the Flight Deck: Bosque del Apache. Happy Sunday!
For me Bosque del Apache has always been a very special place. I love the water and the mountains, the concentration of wildlife, the feeling of community among staff, the Friends of Bosque group, and the large group of full and part time volunteers. I like the small college town feel of Sucorro, which overlays the essential Hispanic cowboy and farming culture.
I like the fact that, year after year, the spectacle of the geese and cranes at dawn and sunset continues to attract crowds of people…not so much birders…as regular folk who make the drive down from Albuquerque and Santa Fe, or who include the Bosque in their vacation plans, just to stand to the edge of the road, the edge of a pond, or on the Flight Deck as the sun rises or sets and watch and listen. It is often cold, and people are bundled up, with hats and scarves and gloves…cold even in heavy winter coats…but they are there, waiting for the cranes to come in or the geese to rise.
And when it happens there is an energy that sweeps the crowd…a kind of glee…an obvious and overflowing delight. I love to watch the people coming off the Flight Deck…the uniformity and yet the vast variety of grins! You see the grin in the eyes of even those most muffled in scarves.
And that is just the spectacle of the birds. If you are at Bosque for a week in November (or almost any month) you are just about guaranteed one spectacular dawn and one spectacular sunset: the kind that touch the very deepest places of awe in us. The sun rises and the sun sets everyday…but there are sunrises and sunsets that are simply something to see! And you hear it in the crowd. “Now that is really something!” That is about as close as we can get to describing what such a sunrise or sunset does to us. Something. Something universal and powerful. Something that makes us glad to be alive. Something that fills us with thanksgiving. Something very close to the root of awe in us.
I finished at the vendor’s tent (I am, after all, at Bosque to work) just in time on Friday to get out to the Flight Deck for the sunset fly in of the geese. The Deck itself was already packed shoulder to shoulder with people and I had no intention of attempting to worm my way to a spot on the rail. I parked further down and planned to shoot the incoming geese and cranes from the edge of the pond. But then the sky happened, and the sunset bloomed. I took several shots from the road, out over the cars, but it really needed the reflecting water of the pond, and the only way to get that was get out on the Flight Deck. I found a spot at the rail on the boardwalk leading out to the deck that worked…that gave me the expanse of water and sky I had seen in my mind’s eye.
The Canon SX50HS has a hand-held night scene mode which I am experimenting with for sunrises and sunsets, and I used it here. It takes three very rapid shots and combines them in-camera. There is just enough exposure blending to extend the range of the image…to capture a realistic foreground as well as the drama of the sky. Just my normal processing in Lightroom produces among the most natural sunrise and sunset shots I have yet managed. Of course I had to try it here.
I took a lot of shots and worked hard to keep the Flight Deck itself out of the images, but actually, it this one where I intentionally included the end of the deck and the people on it as part of the composition that really captures the experience best for me.
And for the Sunday thought: for me awe is an essential element of faith…I don’t believe I could believe in, or put my faith in, a Creator who was not awesome in every way…who did not inspire a feeling of root awe in me in every encounter…in every aspect of the Creator’s person, presence and works…and in relationship to me. Wonder is required, and wonder is my most basic emotion. Followed closely by thankfulness. “I have seen the face of God and yet I live!” The most wonderful thing about the awe of God is that we can experience it, more that than, we can participate in it, in its full awesome glory and yet live to tell about it. The most wonderful thing is that we are made to tell about it…that telling about it is, at least in part, what we are created to do.
Wonder and thanksgiving are the compounded elements of love…and ultimately it is love I feel in a sunset like this one…and it is the Creator’s love I am inspired to tell about. I have been overwhelmed by beauty and splendor, and yet I live! That is love in its most essential form. Or that’s what I think.
Bosque Sunrise
On every trip to Bosque del Apache for the Festival of the Cranes it is mandatory to get out at least one dawn to see the geese rise…and to experience the Bosque dawn itself. That means leaving your hotel in Socorro before 6am. But it is almost always worth it. You have to decide whether to stop at the ponds on the way into the refuge beside the road, where the geese rest for the night, and try to catch them when they rise. They are closer there than anywhere else on the refuge. Or, if you want the sunrise across the water, you continue on the the main tour loop and drive out to the Flight Deck Pond. It seems as though there will masses of people there already no matter which you choose or how early you get there…but there is always room for one more, if you are willing to park and walk.
These are shots from the Flight Deck Pond. As it turned out, most of the geese were else where this particular dawn…but the dawn itself was typical of one of the November cloudless days on the Bosque.
And the geese did rise. I wanted to catch them against the dawn sky, but most of the flocks came up further north. Still.
And of course once the geese are gone, you still have the Sandhill Cranes wading in the reflection of the sunrise in the water.
All shots Canon SX50HS. 1) and 3) are Sports Mode. 2) is Hand-held Night Shot Mode (the camera takes three very rapid exposures and combines them…I am finding that it comes as close to capturing the real visual range of a sunrise or sunset as I have yet been able to do.) 4) is just a long tel-shot with –1/3 EV exposure compensation.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. 2) cropped as needed for composition.
Snow Geese Rising
One of the sights you do not want to miss is the Snow Geese at Bosque del Apache rising in a mass panic. If you stand and watch a field full of geese for long enough it will happen. There is a sudden increase in noise in the flock and then within seconds the whole flock rises into the air and the sound of wings and geese honking…and the sight of all those white and blacks wings flashing…the swirl of birds in intricate motion is enough to freeze the grin on your face! I can still vividly remember the first time it happened to me at Bosque, low these 25 years ago. And it is still as awesome every time it happens again. And that is the word: awesome!
Of course I have attempted to photograph it whenever it happened. As cameras have improved, so have my results. This, I can honestly say, is the best so far. I love the way every bird is sharp. I love the depth of the flock. And there is a lot to like beyond the technical in the image. The Cranes on the ground certainly add some perspective…and a few still points to emphasize the motion of the geese. You really should view it as large as you monitor allows by clicking the image.
Canon SX50HS in Sports Mode. 750mm equivalent field of view. f5.6 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 200. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Sandhills Landing at Sunset
One of the things you do at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge during the Festival of the Cranes is to attend the sunset fly-in of the Cranes. The Sandhills spread themselves up and down the length of the refuge during the day, and beyond its boundaries to the fields of cooperative farmers who are paid to leave a certain percentage of grain in the fields after harvest to feed the Cranes, but just before and just after sunset the Cranes fly in to a few chosen ponds and fields on the refuge to spend the night. For the most part they stand in water all night, as protection from predators. The high desert light of the upper Rio Grande valley, and the surrounding mountains make the incoming flight of the Cranes into a spectacle that rarely fails to draw a crowd to the parking lots and overlooks provided by the refuge.
If you look up and down the levee, you can see a fair fraction of the Canon’s recent production of 600mm lenses 🙂 as well as everything from phone cameras to superzoom Point & Shoots. It seems that everyone is compelled to attempt to capture the vision of the cranes coming in in the pre-sunset light.
I try it every year, with mixed success, but this year my new Canon SX50HS made job much easier. Sports gives me almost instant focus on moving subjects, and 5 frames per second capture for up to 10 frames with focus between frames. It also pushes the ISO up to provide higher shutter speeds. It is brilliant for birds in flight and, as it happens, Cranes landing in the last pre-sunset light.
Canon SX50HS in Sports Mode. 1-3) 1200mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/640-1/100th @ ISO 800. 4) 600mm equivalent. f5.6 @ 1/640th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. Except for 3), cropped top and bottom for effect.
I am not sure I am going to get back for another sunset on this trip to Bosque, but even if I don’t, I am really happy with these images! They are all linked to the full screen lightbox versions…and they look even better there. 🙂
Texas Blue Spiny Lizard
Our local guide for the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival River Pontoon trip on the Riverside Dreamer alerted us early to her favorite part of the trip. It was an unassuming spot. An old pump station and a section of river bank reinforced with broken chunks of concrete and old truck and tractor tires. The boat slowed and drifted in closer, and sure enough, there were a couple of Texas Blue Spiny Lizards basking in the sun on the debris, a few feet above the water. The tbsl is very similar to the more common Collared Lizard of North Texas and the rest of the southwest, but is restricted to the Texas section of the upper Rio Grande Valley. In fact these specimens are south of their normal range. This gentleman is about 10 inches tip to tail…the largest lizard to inhabit Texas.
Canon SX50HS. Program with auto iContrast and Shadow Fill. 1200mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 200. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. Cropped for composition. This was shot from a moving boat…which is testimony to the SX50HS’ image stabilization.
White-tailed Kite
So, to do this justice, you need to click the image and open it full screen in the lightbox viewer (or click here). The sky was dull overcast yesterday at Estero Llano Grande World Birding Center, but when I saw this White-tailed Kite “kiting” out over the tropics section of the center (the former trailer park), I had to try. The Canon SX50HS has a much improved Sports mode, and I got of two bursts of 10 rapid sequence shots. The best part of the mode is that the auto focus seems to be tuned for moving subjects…and picks up birds in flight very well.
Of course the Kite is an ideal subject, as it hovers in one spot while hunting. And at least yesterday it was hovering not kiting…its wings were in constant motion to hold it in one place.
Canon SX50HS in Sports Mode. 1200mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 250. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. Cropped for image scale (in Lr) and pasted up in PhotoShop Elements.
Texas Black Saddlebags
Actually this might not be a resident Texas Black-saddlebags. BSBs are long distance migrants and this specimen looks well worn. It could conceivably even be one of the BSBs I saw emerge at my pond in Maine earlier this summer. Wouldn’t that be strange and wonderful.
The BSB is the single most abundant dragonfly I am seeing on this trip to Texas…even Wandering Glider is a distant second. There are BSBs everywhere I have been in the past 5 days, and in large numbers. Impressive.
Canon SX50HS. Program with auto iContrast and Shadow Fill. 1800mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 200. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Harris’ Hawk, Old Port Isabella Road, TX. Happy Sunday!
On my Friday field trip at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival I helped Bill Clark (perhaps the most widely recognized raptor expert in North America) lead a trip along Old Port Isabella Road looking for Alpomado Falcon and other raptors. This Harris’ Hawk was on a electric pole right over the road, and actually let us drive right under it. We stopped at several distances for good looks, and, in my case, for photos out the van window. It would have been off before the van behind us had their looks if we had presumed to open a van door to get out…but as it was it could not have been more cooperative.
It certainly saw me leaning out the window!
Harris Hawks’ are communal hunters…cooperative hunters…you might even say pack hunters. A group of Harris’ will quarter a field together trying to flush game, and they work together to pursue and even head off potential prey. That fact makes them the ideal starter bird for falconers…as the falconer just assumes the roll of the dominant bird in the hawk’s pack. Which is, of course, how the first wild canines became domesticated.
Canon SX50HS. Program with auto iContrast and Shadow Fill. 1800mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 250. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
And for the Sunday Thought. It is both exhausting and refreshing to spend several days in the field with folks who share an interest in all things bird. Birders are easy to be with…if you are one. It might drive a non-birder crazy in short order. Part of my job is to teach others how to speak birder…so I am very aware of the language of birding and the underlying attitudes toward the world. A shared experience and a shared response lead to a shared language…and to an easy relationship. It builds community across very different personalities…across quite disparate views on any number of subjects beyond the scope of birds.
And of course, it is the same in the spirit. A shared experience and a shared response lead to a shared language and an easy relationship. The language of the spirit is easy to recognize by anyone who has ever spoken it…and it cuts across denominations, and even, in my experience, across religions to make it possible for very dissimilar people to easy in each other’s company…to experience a community that transcends personality and culture.
I can recognize another birder when I see on, after only moments of talk. And I can recognize those who have been touched by the spirit in the same way. A shared experience and a shared response. That is all that matters.
Happy Sunday.