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M38A1
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Late December 2017, WoodButcher and I were commiserating about how much vacation we had to burn before the end of the year or lose it. In true Rusty/Scott mode, a plan was 'hatched' in short order to make a quick run to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in San Antonio, NM. I had been there once about two years ago to pick up a motorcycle I purchased from a fellow TWT member who worked on the Refuge. She said "you have to stay and see the birds before you leave", but alas, that trip a stopover was not in the plan.
With reservations confirmed, Rusty and I launched from my house and we pointed NNW with our gear and a lot of cold weather gear. Forecasts were indicating chilly evenings around 30, and warming to the mid-60's for the duration of our excursion. The trip was about 800 miles and 13 hours. As we approached San Antonio, we had planned on just heading the 20mi North to Socorro and check in to the hotel. With maybe 20min before sunset, we decided to head down the highway to the refuge and there we saw a large number of vehicles parked outside the actual Refuge with a LOT of birds coming in for landings. We parked and grabbed some gear.
Now for a bit of my background. I've hunted birds but I've never photographed them. In fact, initially to my eye they were all just 'birds' with some larger than others. By the end of the fourth day, I had a reasonable idea what some were. For shooting, I had my D4s and D700 FF bodies with a 35mm f/1.8, a 70-200 f/2.8 and a rented 200-400mm f/4 affectionately known as the 'beast'. A tripod was also tossed in for good measure.
Here's a few random shots from our first evening. Most were shot high ISO as the sun was setting under some wonderfully colorful clouds. These had to be silhouette shots as the sun was in the West and we were facing West due to the orientation of the pond.
The sun sets fast and you lose the light. But wow - what light...
A pair of Sandhill Cranes coming to roost for the evening...
Sandhill Cranes
When the light had finally moved past ISO 10,000, we decided it was time to shut down, pack up and head to Socorro for our check-in. We concluded when the sun was gone, the picture taking was done. And so did everyone else. In all honesty, these aren't that great due to the noise in the images. But we learned a valuable lesson which would come in handy on our last day regarding this.
So the next day, we got our first "lift-off". Back to the original pond we shot last evening, the sun was to our back this time and the results were quite different.
Snow Goose
Lift Off - Snow Goose with Sandhill Cranes remaining behind
When we finished the launch, we headed to the visitors center where Rusty purchased an annual parks pass. From there we went inside the Refuge and simply drove the allowable roads 'looking'. Along the way we saw a Mule Deer walking down the road. He stared at us for a bit, proceeded down the road then into some brush and hopped in one of the irrigation canals much like a rice paddy. He swam across that 15' or so and climbed out only to turn around and stare at us.
Some unidentified ducks flying down one of the canals in early morning sunlight. Light was the biggest factor in a good vs bad shot with these subjects.
Northern Shoveler (hen)
Pintail
Canada Goose
American Kestrel, Adult female
This little Roadrunner was just hanging out by the canal
A pair or Ross's Goose
This was a treat from the "Flight Deck" area. We observed two Bald Eagles in a tree several hundred yards out in a tree in the middle of one of the pond areas. We also saw another big bird who was what we believed taunting the two Bald Eagles. Turns out, that was an immature Bald Eagle (most likely offspring of the two mature ones) and the 'parents' were teaching it to hunt or stay out of their area. The scene unfolding was quite fascinating. Rusty has much better shots of this encounter..... Here's the adult and immature in the same shot. These are BIG birds.
A couple of Sandhill Cranes coming to roost finished out our first full day.
Stay tuned....
With reservations confirmed, Rusty and I launched from my house and we pointed NNW with our gear and a lot of cold weather gear. Forecasts were indicating chilly evenings around 30, and warming to the mid-60's for the duration of our excursion. The trip was about 800 miles and 13 hours. As we approached San Antonio, we had planned on just heading the 20mi North to Socorro and check in to the hotel. With maybe 20min before sunset, we decided to head down the highway to the refuge and there we saw a large number of vehicles parked outside the actual Refuge with a LOT of birds coming in for landings. We parked and grabbed some gear.
Now for a bit of my background. I've hunted birds but I've never photographed them. In fact, initially to my eye they were all just 'birds' with some larger than others. By the end of the fourth day, I had a reasonable idea what some were. For shooting, I had my D4s and D700 FF bodies with a 35mm f/1.8, a 70-200 f/2.8 and a rented 200-400mm f/4 affectionately known as the 'beast'. A tripod was also tossed in for good measure.
Here's a few random shots from our first evening. Most were shot high ISO as the sun was setting under some wonderfully colorful clouds. These had to be silhouette shots as the sun was in the West and we were facing West due to the orientation of the pond.
The sun sets fast and you lose the light. But wow - what light...
A pair of Sandhill Cranes coming to roost for the evening...
Sandhill Cranes
When the light had finally moved past ISO 10,000, we decided it was time to shut down, pack up and head to Socorro for our check-in. We concluded when the sun was gone, the picture taking was done. And so did everyone else. In all honesty, these aren't that great due to the noise in the images. But we learned a valuable lesson which would come in handy on our last day regarding this.
So the next day, we got our first "lift-off". Back to the original pond we shot last evening, the sun was to our back this time and the results were quite different.
Snow Goose
Lift Off - Snow Goose with Sandhill Cranes remaining behind
When we finished the launch, we headed to the visitors center where Rusty purchased an annual parks pass. From there we went inside the Refuge and simply drove the allowable roads 'looking'. Along the way we saw a Mule Deer walking down the road. He stared at us for a bit, proceeded down the road then into some brush and hopped in one of the irrigation canals much like a rice paddy. He swam across that 15' or so and climbed out only to turn around and stare at us.
Some unidentified ducks flying down one of the canals in early morning sunlight. Light was the biggest factor in a good vs bad shot with these subjects.
Northern Shoveler (hen)
Pintail
Canada Goose
American Kestrel, Adult female
This little Roadrunner was just hanging out by the canal
A pair or Ross's Goose
This was a treat from the "Flight Deck" area. We observed two Bald Eagles in a tree several hundred yards out in a tree in the middle of one of the pond areas. We also saw another big bird who was what we believed taunting the two Bald Eagles. Turns out, that was an immature Bald Eagle (most likely offspring of the two mature ones) and the 'parents' were teaching it to hunt or stay out of their area. The scene unfolding was quite fascinating. Rusty has much better shots of this encounter..... Here's the adult and immature in the same shot. These are BIG birds.
A couple of Sandhill Cranes coming to roost finished out our first full day.
Stay tuned....
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It was a rolling bird blind.
