View allAll Photos Tagged BosquedelApacheNWR
Sandhill Cranes dropping in for the evening against a fiery New Mexico sky.
Bosque Del Apache NWR - San Antonio, NM 12/3/24
My first look at a Greater Roadrunner was a challenging endeavor as these guys are like shooting Kinglets amped up on Red Bull. While we encountered several Roadrunners during our time at Bosque, most of our long and slow pursuits didn't pay off.
I'm so glad I was shooting with the 300mm f2.8 ED IF ais this morning, as I had many of the geese in the pond fly straight at me when they took off. My scope takes about 3 1/2 turns from macro to infinity, but the 300mm is less than one turn, so I was able to manually focus the lens fast enough for geese flying head on. It was a VERY fun morning!
- Rose Kennedy.
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One of the highlights of last year was our very short visit to the stunning Bosque Del Apache wildlife sanctuary. Bosque was a location that has been on my must-visit list ever since I heard about it, and it turned out to be worthy of every praise. We were lucky to schedule our visit to line up with the peak in migration, but that didn’t quite work out the way we planned. While the sandhill cranes were arriving en masse, the snow geese were late to arrive, probably due to warmer temps for the time of the year.
While we didn’t get to spend the kind of time we wanted at this beautiful location, I was still happy to be at such a beautiful place witnessing one of the truly magnificent wildlife events. This was also the first time I ever saw sandhill cranes up close, and I recommend it to everyone. We spend quite a bit of time observing the birds, and I hope to return one day soon.
Love the complimentary tones of the Meadowlark and golden grasses. Given the territorial overlap of the Western and Eastern Meadowlarks, I'd welcome your thoughts on which species this one may be.
Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis). Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. Socorro Co., New Mexico.
Greater Roadrunner
Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, NM
While a regular on the southwest desert scene, the roadrunner is still unique to me. They can run as fast as 25 mph (40 km/h).
The annual Festival of the Cranes took place during the time we were at Bosque del Apache last year, and my husband attended one of the scheduled events - a demonstration prescribed fire on the refuge. I chose to photograph ducks instead, and captured this image of three Northern Pintails zooming by as the "Pintail-green" fire truck that had just left the burn passed by in the distance. It was interesting that the next day there were hundreds of Sandhills on the freshly burned field. This was taken with my Nikon 300 f2.8 lens on a GH4 using manual focus.
To the more seasoned nature photographer, I suppose what I relate here is old hat. For me, it was a surprise.
When I was reviewing the photos taken of this sunset, I discovered that every one of them was covered in spots. I couldn't figure out how this could have happened as I'm diligent in keeping my lenses clean and resigned myself to a lot of postprocessing, spot removal. As I went further in the series, however, I noticed the "spots" were rising higher and higher in the frame and, finally, in some photos, silhouettes... dragonflies, mosquitos and others still unidentifiable, turning gold in the setting sun. The wind must have been blowing in the right direction as I was not aware of them at the time, yet there they were over the pond... thousands of them.
Before we ever got to White Sands however, we detoured to live bird heaven - a place known as Bosque del Apache NWR, on the Rio Grande river as it wends it way south of Albuquerque.
Bosque is home to thousands of larger birds in the winter. The Rio floods nearby fields and the birds make quite a living feeding off of ground food there. There were an estimated 3-5 thousand snow geese up the road from here (more on them in a few days), but I'm starting with the lone heron we spotted, in a pond. I got one shot before he disappeared - so this is it.
My forever thanks to my bud Stacy Hanna for the loan of her Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 lens. It came in handy amongst all the 500 or 600 lens at Bosque - when all you have is a 24-70 normally.
Phainopepla, male
Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, NM
The word “Phainopepla” has Greek origins meaning “shining robe.” The Phainopepla is the only Silky Flycatcher in the US, its nearest common ancestor is the Waxwing.
Say’s Phoebe
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, NM
From its backlit morning perch, a Say’s Phoebe scans the brush for insects starting to move about in the warming sun.
Cornell Cool Fact: Paleontologists have discovered fossils of the Say’s Phoebe in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas dating back to about 400,000 years ago (the late Pleistocene).
"Among our most familiar birds, Red-wings seem to sing their nasal songs in every marsh and wet field from coast to coast. They are notably bold, and several will often attack a larger bird, such as a hawk or crow, that flies over their nesting area. The red shoulder patches of the male, hidden under body feathers much of the time, are brilliantly displayed when he is singing. Outside the nesting season, Red-wings sometimes roost in huge concentrations. To defend his territory and attract a mate, male perches on high stalk with feathers fluffed out and tail partly spread, lifts leading edge of wing so that red shoulder patches are prominent, and sings. Also sings in slow, fluttering flight. One male often has more than one mate." Source: audubon.org
- Thomas Campbell.
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While at Bosque del Apache, we saw a countless number of birds, as well as quite a few new lifers but the coolest of all enounters were of a much more common bird. We saw what seemed like a group of flightless birds crossing the road while on the self-drive tour of the park. I initially thought peafowl, but another photographer there confirmed that they were wild turkeys. It was my first time seeing turkeys in the wild. They walked into the meadows soon after, and it wasn't easy to get images through the vegetation, but I was determined to get my first turkey images. My persistence paid off; I was able to get some excellent environmental portraits of the birds in beautiful light.
Mule Deer
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, NM
This buck wandering through the woods was still sporting a nice set of antlers. Other bucks and some elk bulls that I encountered on the refuge still had antlers as well, though it seems a bit late in the season for either species to still have them.
I’d been watching a coyote stalking a large group of ducks in shallow water, but he had disappeared into the tall marsh grass just behind the ducks. Anticipating a blast off, I focused in the area of the ducks, and began shooting in burst mode when the ducks took off. I kept shooting, not able to see any detail behind the group, and after about ten seconds I heard someone say “He got one!”. I quickly found and focused on the coyote, and took a number of shots of him leaving the then deserted pool with his kill. It was only at that point that I wondered if I could have been so lucky to capture a photo of him during the chase, and was thrilled to see that I’d gotten about four shots with him charging through the water with what seemed to be a specific duck in his sights. It's probably just because of the splashing water and that he was slightly behind my point of focus, but he has an almost "spirit dog" appearance to him. Digiscoped using manual focus.