Bosque del Apache NWR, New Mexico

On December 16, 2011 we made our yearly trip to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in San Antonio, New Mexico.  Bosque is a nature photographer’s paradise!!!! Every winter thousands of Sandhill Cranes, Snow Geese, and many other migrating birds make Bosque their winter home.  New Mexico’s amazing sunsets, multicolored mountains and bright blue skies make for very special settings to do photography.

Sandhill Cranes leaving their roosting ponds early in the morning. New Mexico's Chupadera Mountains in the background.

“Bosque del Apache translates to ”Woods of the Apache.” Native Americans often lived at this river-side forest.  The area was populated  by the Pueblo Peoples centuries before the Spanish explorers came here.  The Spanish established the Camino Real  (the Royal Road from Mexico City to Santa Fe) in the sixteenth century.  The Camino Real ran right through the present-day Refuge.” 1

The refuge is about 58,000 acres and it runs parallel to the Rio Grande River.  The refuge is located on the northern edge of the Chihuahuan desert.  Water is diverted from the Rio Grande to create extensive wetlands, farmlands, and riparian forests.  These make conditions ideal for wintering birds that come here.

Beautiful Red/Orange skies are common over Bosque del Apache NWR.

We normally started photographing at what are known as the crane ponds.  Here hundreds of Sandhill Cranes roost every night and you can photograph them as they leave their roosting site to go look for food.  It makes for a wonderful setting to photograph the cranes.

Sandhill Crane in flight.

Leaving the roosting ponds in search for food.

A pair of Sandhill Cranes in flight.

This year I tried something new one of the mornings that I was at the crane ponds.  The morning was cloudy and grey and very little light was coming through the clouds.  I decided to slow down my camera by lowering the iso to 100 in order to get blurry images.  I wanted to show movement on my photographs and I was able to accomplish it.  Images are a bit different from what I normally shoot but I really liked the end result.  Below are three of the images from that morning.

Sandhill Cranes taking off. Low ISO setting to show movement of birds.

Cranes in flight. I panned with the birds and a slow shutter speed gave the image the desired effect.

I like to call this one "Rush Hour Traffic"

After shooting the cranes in the morning we enter the refuge loop and we drive around searching for wildlife to photograph.  We saw mule deer, coyotes, hawks, eagles, Canada geese and many other residents of the refuge.  Even if not photographing, driving around observing all that wildlife makes for a pleasant and peaceful time.  One of the best things about our trips to Bosque is the time spent with good friends enjoying the great outdoors.

Canada Geese

Pintail Duck in flight.

Pair of Snow Geese banking.

Thousands of Snow Geese moving from corn field to corn field in search for food.

Late afternoon shot of Snow Geese flying with the San Pascual Mountains in the background.

We would finish our days of photographing at the same place were we started, the crane pools.  Now we are targeting the cranes again but as they come back to roost for the night.  you can get amazing backlit silhouettes of the birds as they fly in to roost.  The gorgeous sunsets in New Mexico gives you the ability to capture amazing colors as the birds come in to the ponds.

"Come in tower.....requesting permission to land!!!"

Crane Silhouettes.

Crane landing at roosting pond.

Getting ready to roost for the night.

The Crane Ponds.

As you can see the photography is always good at Bosque del Apache.  Every year I come back very satisfied with the images I’m able to obtain.  Going to Bosque is one of my favorite things to do and I always look forward for our yearly trip.  The photography is awesome but the time spent with good friends enjoying the outdoors is what I really look forward to.  This year Dr. Beto Gutierrez, Tan Gutierrez, and Joe Roybal accompanied me on this trip.  We had a wonderful three days spent at Bosque del Apache.  Joe took the photo below of Dr. Beto, Tan and me.  Yes it was really cold and this Central American boy has to wear all kinds of gear in order to stay warm.

A very cold morning (22 deg. F) at Bosque del Apache. From left to right, Myself, Dr. Beto and Tan Gutierrez.

Until next time. Good shooting and hoping the good light follows you around! Take care my friends.

1. taken from the Friends of Bosque del Apache NWR website.

Raptor Day!!!

On November 19 we headed out to two ranches here in South Texas looking to photograph raptors. Our first stop was the The Martin Refuge – Javelina Ranch.  Patty Raney, the ranch guide and photographer, invited me to photograph at the ranch.  Our plan was to photograph at the Javelina in the morning and then move to Santa Clara Ranch in the afternoon.

Harris Hawk at Santa Clara Ranch

Crested Caracara at the Martin Refuge

The Javelina Ranch has one of the best blinds, if not the best, for photographing Crested Caracaras.  Within minutes of setting out our bait (chicken leg quarters), dozens of Caracaras showed up to the setup.  I believe at one point we had over 16 at the same time.  In all my outings here in South Texas I don’t think that I have ever seen such a large number of Caracaras come to bait and come in so quick.  We had birds coming in from the left, the right and straight at us.  What a wonderful setup!!! I cannot imagine anyone visiting the ranch and not coming out with some fantastic images.  Here are some of my photographs from that morning:

What a great morning we had at the Javalina.  Congratulations to John and Audrey Martin and to Patty Ranney for keeping such a wonderful place and to make it available for photographers.  To learn more about the Javelina Ranch, visit their website at: http://www.martinrefuge.com/

As planned we moved to Santa Clara Ranch that afternoon.  Patty was targeting a Green-tailed Towhee that she had seen at one of our blinds so she photographed at our afternoon blind #4.  I was still all excited about raptors from that morning that I went to the raptor blind.  At Santa Clara the raptor blind is mounted up on 4 telephone polls so the blind sits roughly 5 feet off the ground.  It was built this way to get nice muted green backgrounds when photographing raptors.  While we don’t have the high numbers of birds that the Javalina Ranch has, we do have a nesting pair of Harris Hawks that nest close by that are pretty regular to our blind.  In the last 6 months we see them all the time when we sit at our setup.  This day I was actually surprised because we had the Harris Hawks show up and we also had 3 Crested Caracaras show up to the setup to feed on the beef kidneys that I had set out for them. Below you will see some of my images from that day.

Well as you can see it turned out to be a pretty spectacular day for photographing raptors here in South Texas.  I was actually very excited this day because it was also the day that I used my new Nikon D7000 camera for the first time.  The D7000 with the Nikkor 500mm lens and the Sigma 150-500 was able to produce some fantastic shots.  I am really amazed on how well this new dslr worked for me.  The high ISO capabilities of the camera are incredibly good.  The 3-D focus tracking for shooting birds in flight was something I had never used and I am really amazed on how easy it was to obtain nice flight pictures in tack sharp focus.  Nikon outdid themselves with this camera.  For information on the Nikon D7000 click here.

For information on the Santa Clara Ranch go to our website at: http://www.santaclararanch.com.

That is all for now folks and remember to get up early in order to get the good light for your photographing adventures.