Bosque del Apache WMR - 2017

Scott pretty much cover the trip details...except it was only 684 miles each way. Minor details.

I had two camera bodies with me, one crop sensor and one full frame. I was using a 100-400 Canon lens on the crop body, sometimes with a 1.4x teleconverter. The FF I used a 24-70 lens at first then pretty much went to a 70-200. I shot some video with both, but mostly on the full frame. That will take longer to process. I also had a couple of tripods, half a million batteries, a flash, some filters. I only used the big tripod and was starting to wish I had a gimbal head. I'm planning on getting a Sidekick to use with my existing ballhead.


Here's a first group of my pictures, more landscapes than birds in this set.

Our arrival, near sunset.





Sunset the second evening:



Sunset our last evening there.



My great blue heron image:

Sunrise the second day. We shot lots of sunrises and sunsets, but the clouds were really only good the night we arrived. They were okay on the first full day. And yes, that is ice. It thawed by the afternoon, but reformed overnight.



I commented in Scott's thread that we had a lot of the same pictures because we were near each other all the time. Well, sometimes 8 feet can be a huge difference. And sometimes bad timing on getting stuff out of the truck... On the second day of shooting, we were near a great place to get pictures of eagles, but had just pulled up. One flew up and landed on the dead tree. Both of us were firing away at 10fps and 11fps as it came in...except I was 8 feet to the right and my shots of the landing had brush in them and I was losing focus on some shots. And Scott won that round. However, I walked up on the viewing platform as Scott dug around for his tripod. I was in perfect position as he took off again.





And to wrap up posting for the night, here is my shot at the wood duck. Heavily cropped. You have to stay on the road and I had to walk down to a clear area to shoot down the ditch.

Astounding how clear the shots are . Just like being there (minus the 12 degrees).

Gorgeous shots, Rusty! You're second shot posted is an absolute stunner IMO! The eagle taking off is really nice.

I'm curious to know how packed Bosque was. Were there 50 people in line at certain stops or were people spread out for the most part?

Not crowded at all. In the morning at the Flight Deck area there were probably 30-40 people spread out, but nobody was elbow to elbow. The rest of the place was spread out. Sometimes people would stop to see what we were shooting, but lots of time they would drive by.

I suspect in mid-November during the Crane Festival it is bad, but we were there between semesters at the college and between Christmas and New Year's. We had awesome rooms at the Econo Lodge. They were suites for $60 a night.

As for crowds, for grins we would see vehicles behind us, so we would pull over at some random spot and get out with the big lenses and both point them in the same general direction just to see who all and how many would also stop, point and gawk at----------nothing.

Nice shots!

Amazing photos ...... I'm envious of the talent you & Scott behold. Looks like a great adventure and amazing location.

Had a good time too. I'm going to drag my daughter there with me next year about the same time. You and Erik need to put it on the calendar.

WoodButcher said:

Not crowded at all. In the morning at the Flight Deck area there were probably 30-40 people spread out, but nobody was elbow to elbow. The rest of the place was spread out. Sometimes people would stop to see what we were shooting, but lots of time they would drive by.

I suspect in mid-November during the Crane Festival it is bad, but we were there between semesters at the college and between Christmas and New Year's. We had awesome rooms at the Econo Lodge. They were suites for $60 a night.

Click to expand...

Awesome! I guess if you're down with the cold, that seems like the perfect time to go. Thanks!

M38A1 said:

As for crowds, for grins we would see vehicles behind us, so we would pull over at some random spot and get out with the big lenses and both point them in the same general direction just to see who all and how many would also stop, point and gawk at----------nothing.

Click to expand...

Nice . . .
Congratulations.

Okay, time for a wrap up. Since I have posted my bird pics yet, here are some and I'll add a link to the gallery with the rest of my shots. I've manage to take 3500 images and delete down to less than 1500. And 49 that have been uploaded to Smugmug. I'll probably add another 5-10, but that is all.

Snow geese making a strafing run:



Sandhills coming in about the same time:



My favorite sandhill crane shot:





Pepe le Pew:



This was neat, but there was nothing on this pond. The only blind on the refuge. Flip up panels to view through.



A couple of pintail ducks.



A very "busy" image with the trees, red wing blackbird flock, the canada geese and the reflections of all of them. But I really liked it.



Before you eat a duck, you must pluck a duck...those are feathers falling.



And tell the world who is king!



A family unit having dinner after flying in.



Lots of golden hour shots were taken over our 3.5 days.



Transition from golden hour to blue hour:



And blue hour:



Last lingering light:



Northern harrier:



Duck's head, it's what's for dinner:



More snow geese:



Hey, there were plants too. Mesquite bean, I believe.



The harrier on the dead snow goose. Three shots. 400mm on crop body camera for the first two, same lens with 1.4x teleconverter in the third. However, the first is uncropped so you can see what is going on in the rest of the pond. The other two are cropped in the same amount to show the difference in how close the teleconverter gets you.







Almost forgot this deer. Second is the animated gif of him shaking off after a little swim.



View attachment 63008

Oh, the gallery link is: https://woodbutcher.smugmug.com/Bosque-Del-Apache-2017/

Thanks for sharing. The deer shaking off cracks me up.

Two ducks taking pics of extended family. Great job.

Wonderful images Rusty. Both of you had a very successful trip. Thanks for sharing the images and tech details.
I’m in for next trip.

The shot with the TC looks nice!

Interesting that in the EXIF info, it only shows that you were using a 100-400mm lens and has no info about the teleconvertor. However, it shows the focal length as being 560mm.

Tourmeister said:

The shot with the TC looks nice!

Interesting that in the EXIF info, it only shows that you were using a 100-400mm lens and has no info about the teleconvertor. However, it shows the focal length as being 560mm.

Click to expand...

If you click on the image, you'll end up on smugmug looking at that picture. The I button at the bottom has more accurate EXIF info and shows the 1.4tc being on the lens. The heron with the frog is a TC image too, as are some of the birds.

Just a follow up. Scott had posted a picture in his thread of all the ducks flying in a huge group. It happened a couple of times while we were sitting there, but I only shot it once. Today, as I made a final pass through my images, I noticed why they were flying.

Anybody see the reason?



Might be more obvious in this shot:

It's like a giant flying buffet

I think i see a hawk among them. Are those mallards?

P.s. the shake your booty gif was great !

That was a mixed bag of just about every flavor of duck on the Refuge. I found the fact that so many different types of ducks would co-mingle amazing. And that's a beautiful score for the win with the hawk in there.

You process your pictures sooooooo much better than me. I think I need a lesson from you.

Stunning pictures of the pájaros!

I'll have to put the area on my bucket list.



Keep up the great work!

RB

Yep. Don't know how I missed seeing that hawk when I first went through those shots. I actually found one day/camera that I hadn't finished sorting through and saw that.

If you click on the image you can see it full size on Smugmug.