{"id":3067,"date":"2014-12-16T14:31:09","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T20:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/?p=3067"},"modified":"2014-12-16T15:00:10","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T21:00:10","slug":"annual-bosque-del-apache-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/2014\/12\/16\/annual-bosque-del-apache-visit\/","title":{"rendered":"Annual Bosque del Apache Visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just before Thanksgiving, I led a group of photographers on the annual Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge instructional photo tour.\u00a0 On the first morning, after capturing a few images of mallards and wood ducks in Albuquerque, we headed south 80 miles to Socorro, New Mexico and then on to the refuge for an afternoon session.<\/p>\n

It was the first time I’ve shot the area before Thanksgiving and the temperatures were warmer than\u00a0expected.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The birds were off the roost and heading out\u00a0in a hurry to feed\u00a0each morning.\u00a0\u00a0 On\u00a0colder, post-Thanksgiving days,\u00a0the birds\u00a0tend to\u00a0start the day later, after sunrise.\u00a0\u00a0That slight delay\u00a0gives photographers more\u00a0opportunity for the great flight shots only Bosque can offer.\u00a0 Nevertheless, it was a great week and the photographers were thankful\u00a0they missed\u00a0those mornings with\u00a0cold fingers and frosty noses that\u00a0often come\u00a0with the\u00a0early December photo sessions.<\/p>\n

Here are\u00a0samples of the great\u00a0photo opportunities\u00a0available in autumn\u00a0along the Rio Grande in\u00a0central New Mexico\u00a0:<\/p>\n

Click on an image to make it larger and sharper.\u00a0 Then click on the right side of the photo to advance through the slide show.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Male<\/a>
Male wood duck landing in flooded cottonwoods near Albuquerque.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Male<\/a>
Male wood duck takeoff.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Sandhill<\/a>
Sandhill Crane in flight during early morning against a clear sky.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photographers<\/a>
Photographers at sunrise as snow geese “blast off” for the refuge farm fields.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

***<\/p>\n

Lesson #1, don’t shoot with your mouth open.<\/p>\n

I carry my 24 – 105\u00a0 mm wide angle lens and Canon 5D camera slung over one shoulder for those times when\u00a0big flocks of geese erupt\u00a0at close range.<\/p>\n

\"Small<\/a>
Small groups of snow geese can be captured at the roost ponds with larger telephotos.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

*** It’s all in the wing position; wings pointing to the camera leave the birds looking “wingless” and weird.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Bosque\u00a0flock is a mix of white birds (top), blue color morph (middle)\u00a0and smaller Ross’s goose (bottom).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u00a0blurred parts of this image above to\u00a0highlight three birds.\u00a0 Everyone wants to know “what are those dark birds” and “why are some of the geese so small?”<\/p>\n

\"Snow<\/a>
Snow goose going to roost at sunset\u00a0is set off against distant,\u00a0sunlit cliffs\u00a0on the White Sands Missile Range.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Mallards<\/a>
Mallards headed for a shallow wetland to\u00a0on grass and weed seeds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Canada<\/a>
Canada Geese on takeoff.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Note the size difference of Canada Geese and the lone Green-winged Teal.<\/p>\n

\"American<\/a>
American Goldfinch feeding on sunflower seeds along the auto tour drive.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Sandhill<\/a>
Sandhill Crane pair in flight.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Cranes<\/a>
Cranes above the desert croplands.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Sandhill<\/a>
Sandhill Cranes landing at sunset.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Photographer<\/a>
Photographer working the cranes coming to roost at sunset.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Cranes<\/a>
Silhouetted cranes after sunset.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Landing<\/a>
Landing gear down for\u00a0approach to\u00a0the roost.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Sunset<\/a>
Sunset on the last day as cranes descend.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One happy photographer made 10,000 images during our 3 day shoot.\u00a0 There must be some great photos in that batch!<\/p>\n

Next week, we’ll take a look at some Oklahoma wildlife.<\/p>\n

Larry<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just before Thanksgiving, I led a group of photographers on the annual Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge instructional photo tour.\u00a0 On the first morning, after capturing a few images of mallards and wood ducks in Albuquerque, we headed south 80 miles to Socorro, New Mexico and then on to the refuge for an afternoon … Continue reading Annual Bosque del Apache Visit<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3067"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3091,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3067\/revisions\/3091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}