Larry Ditto Nature Photography

Four of us were at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico in early December to photograph wintering waterfowl, sandhill cranes, ducks and resident mammals.  During our three days of photography, we saw some snow, some clouds and a day and a half of bright sunshine.  There were many chances to work on flying birds, especially in the early morning and sunset hours as birds left and returned to roosting areas.   In the mid-day hours, we saw coyotes, roadrunners, great horned owls, finches, ducks, crows, bald eagles, hawks…  

Photographs of sandhill cranes landing in formation are difficult to get, but it's really cool when they drift in with landing gears down.

The trip was timed to coincide with a full moon; so we had a lot of fun trying to incorporate flying cranes and geese with the rising and setting moon.  We were fortunate to have some of the clear weather while the moon was up. 

We were looking to the west for birds silhouetted against the orange sky as they landed. Luckily, I remembered to look back to the east for approaching birds and saw this group as they flew in front of the rising full moon.

Here are more photographs from the trip…

This coyote has learned to use touring vehicles as a diversion when he is stalking birds. As the birds pause to watch the tourists, the coyote races in from the other side. I've seen him do it twice and heard of another occasion. Once, he got a mallard. As you can see from his expression, he missed his bird on this day.

An adult and two young snow geese landing into a stiff south wind. This put them landing right at my camera as I faced north along the south end of the refuge tour loop.

 

The trick to getting shots of flushing ducks is to watch their body language. This mallard let me know he was about to fly by bobbing his head several times.

 

This male mallard was a head bobber, too.

 

American and lesser goldfinches were feeding on sunflower seeds along the Bosque del Apache auto tour route. The trick was to align my vehicle with an active bird and a clean background and get a few shots before the next car spoted "my" bird.

 

Most of the photographers working this stretch of roost pond were shooting with telephoto lenses. I chose a wide angle to include the mountain background and birds sweeping over me as they left the pond to feed.

 

On a cold, New Mexico morning, even the owls look for a warm spot to nap. Luckily, this great horned owl selected a sunny perch facing the auto tour loop. Even with two dozen photographers banging away, this bird was undisturbed.

 

When the roost ponds were calm, some nice reflection shots were possible as birds drank, preened and interacted before settling in for the night.

 

At Bosque del Apache, photographers can line up next to the roost ponds. Often, birds fly right at the camera on take off.

 

I switched from the wide angle lens to a large telephoto for a shot of these yelping snow geese leaving an ice-covered pond.

 

I like the look of curled primary feathers on the wings of this sandhill crane as it flew by me on takeoff.

 

Next week, we will check out some photos taken during my recent South Texas Ranch photo tour.

Have a Merry Christmas,

Larry

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 9:59 am and is filed under Newsletter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.