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Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias). Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refiuge. Socorro Co., New Mexico.
Snow goose flying overhead heading into its feeding ground in a cornfield at Bosque Del Apache NWR in New Mexico.
Canon EF 500 mm f/4 L IS lens mounted on a gimbal head and Gitzo 1320 tripod.
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Great Blue Heron, adult
digiscoped through Leica APO Televid spoting scope with Leica C-Lux 2 camera Bosque Del Apache NWR, NM 11/17/07
As I was filming the arriving cranes I noticed hawks in a tree on the distant shore. When one left the perch, another took it over. Towards the end both hawks seem to push and shove to see who would get the perch.
Video captured at Bosque del Apache in New Mexico on Dec 3, 2021.
Every time we go to Bosque del Apache I wind up seeing most of it through the camera's lens. This time, I told myself, it would be different. We've already got lots of Bosque photos (enough to make a set) but I've missed really seeing it. So this time I'd bring the camera but do more looking than shooting. And for the most part I did, but had to try for a shot or two...
There's not a lot going on at Bosque del Apache during the day, the big shows happen early (the fly-out) and late (fly-in). There are a few hikes in the area that we've done too many times already and one we hadn't . We'd been putting off hiking the Chupadera Trail because 1: It's on the longish side for us, and 2: Until recently, the trail stopped short of the top. Volunteers have been working on #2, and now the trail goes all the way to the top of Chupadera Peak. We did, too. It was one of those completely overcast days (that's two in a row, we must be on vacation), not good for pictures but comfortable for hiking.
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A highlight of a winter visit to Socorro is the return of the Sandhill Cranes and Light Geese to the wildlife management areas on the Rio Grande, most notably the Bosque del Apache NWR.
Every evening the birds return from the feeding grounds and flock together in protective manmade ponds. Known as the "fly-in", it's truly a spectacle as the elegant birds drift in in groups of varying numbers.
We try to make it down there at least once a year if we can.
I'm taking a break from posting the summer photos. At the rate I'm going, it's gonna take the rest of the year to get 'em done anyway, so why not take a break and post something timely?
This is a series from a weekend getaway to Socorro.
at the Bosque del Apache visitor center, and it's a beautiful piece of work. The cranes fly, the mountain lion chases the deer, and this is only part of it!
I said to myself on the way into Bosque del Apache that this time I would LOOK at the birds and NOT take pictures. Yeah, right.
So once again, there are lots of photos to wade through. But modern technology can be wonderful and in htis case looking at pictures on flickr is better than sitting through one of your uncle's endless slide shows, you can just skip over the uninteresting bits. Skip away :^)
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December 26, 2012 - Getting away for the holidays, and interrupting the posting of the Thanksgiving photos, which interrupted the posting of the summer photos. It's going to be a long Winter, maybe I'll catch up...
Sandhill Cranes
digiscoped @ Bosque Del Apache NWR, NM 11/17/09
Leica APO Televid 65 mm scope, w/ D-Lux 4 camera and matched adapter (digital adapter 4)
Curve-billed Thrasher
digiscoped @ Bosque Del Apache NWR, NM 11/17/09
Leica APO Televid 65 mm scope, w/ D-Lux 4 camera and matched adapter (digital adapter 4)
About 18 tiny quail chicks ran across the sidewalk at the Bosque del Apache visitor's center. They took shelter under some dense shrubs, but I managed to find an opening to photograph them
Later arrivals started landing closer to where I was.
Video captured at Bosque del Apache in New Mexico on Dec 3, 2021.
Sandhill crane flock feeding at sunset, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, near San Antonio, New Mexico.
Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens). Dark morph juvenile. Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. Socorro Co., New Mexico.
Chestnut-collared Longspur (CCLO), along HWY 1, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro County, New Mexico, January 19, 2014, by Stephen Fettig
The count at the entrance station white board was 37,400 light geese. We thought we'd seen quite a few until we got to the goose pond, then our jaws dropped. This is showing maybe 1/3 or 1/4 of the pond - the number of geese in there was unbelievable, a true "Bosque del Apache scene".
tech note: It was a dark day by New Mexico standards. The ponds and all around us were in shadow for most of the day although there were occasional openings in the sky, always "over there" or "over there".
So: this is a multi-image HDR composite, and I still needed to process it in three layers to bring the clouds, mountains and geese into the same range. Not my best work, but the scene was terrific, worth trying to preserve.
from the Chupadera Trail, partway up Chupadera Peak.
The main reason to visit Bosque del Apache is to see the birds, the show is incredible from late November to the end of February. But during the day the birds scatter to feed, the main events are when they fly out in the morning and back in in the evening. During the day there's plenty of time to poke around and do some hiking.
(map shows "taken from" location in the Chupadera Wilderness)
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December 23, 2012 - Zooming away for the holidays