Hooded Merganser Head-on Portrait

A Drake (male) Hooded Merganser swimming strait towards us during my Best of Bosque workshop last December. I had committed to the 600 f/4 lens with 2X extender so I was really getting worried that it would get too close when it made eye contact - smile.

These birds are able to catch fish by direct underwater pursuit, remaining submerged for up to 2 minutes. They resurface to swallow their prey, turning it around so it is swallowed headfirst. This method avoids injury from the spiny fins of some types of fish.

Female Northern Pintail in flight

A winter paradise for Snow Geese, Sandhill Cranes and many other birds, Bosque del Apache is located along the Rio Grande River near Socorro, New Mexico. Touted as the Crown Jewel for bird photography by many, Bosque does offer some incredible images, but there is so much more to the area than just this one place. After many, many years of visiting the refuge and surrounding areas, I've decided to offer another photographic workshop there . This is, by far, the very best New Mexico has to offer in the winter; we will visit Bosque del Apache NWR when the conditions are right, but you will also have the opportunity to join me and learn where all of the other amazing, and somewhat secret spots are. We will visit some of my old haunts, blinds and secret locations.

Snow Goose (blue morph) Landing Head-on

The dark color of the blue morph Snow Goose is controlled by a single gene, with dark being partially dominant over white. If a pure dark goose mates with a white goose, the offspring will all be dark (possibly with white bellies). If two white geese mate, they have only white offspring. If two dark geese mate, they will have mostly dark offspring, but might have a few white ones too.

The oldest Snow Goose on record, a blue morph, was shot in Idaho in 2020. It was 30 years, 8 months old and was originally banded in Arizona in 1990.

Sandhill Crane in flight Silhouette

The single most important parts of a successful silhouette (to me) are ensuring that the wings, neck/head/bill, legs and feet are free and clear of each other - I see so many images with the head or bill intersecting a wing or the body. The best way to achieve this is to invest the time in the field in the best location.

I still have a couple of openings due to cancellation for my Dec. 5-9, 2022 Best of Bosque trip. Learn more HERE.

Raven Silhouette

As I prepared this image, I could not get Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven out of my mind. “Other friends have flown before— On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before.” Read The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe @ The Poetry Foundation HERE.

Mallard drake in flight dorsal view

A drake Mallard offers a dorsal view while in flight during my Better than Bosque workshop in New Mexico last December.

Migrating mallards have been clocked flying at 88.5 kilometres per hour (55 miles per hour), slightly faster than the average waterfowl. While they usually cruise at an altitude of less than 10,000 feet, they can get much higher. In 1962, a mallard was struck by a commercial airliner at 21,000 feet—a record altitude for a bird-aircraft collision at the time.

Neotropic Cormorant

A Neotropic Cormorant lands directly towards me. If truth be told, I was really hopeful of a similar image of a Redhead, Widgeon or Canvasback, but this is, without a doubt, my favourite image of a Neotropic Cormorant.

Northern Pintail in flight

“My recent trip (Dec. 2016) with Chris Dodds to the Bosque del Apache reserve was a roaring success! Five full days of shooting opportunities were exactly what I bargained for, and great lessons were learned. Specifically, high-quality results come with time, patience, and attention to detail. My experience with Chris gave me a taste of all three in a truly relaxed and fun atmosphere.

Each and every one of our five days offered welcome variation in conditions to provide a broad package of opportunities. I left the workshop with a full portfolio of portraits, flight shots, behaviors, and great shots of those magnificent “blast offs” of thousands of white geese and elegant cranes, all under excellent light conditions for bird photography. Chris is a master at choosing and teaching about the best positioning for photos (clouds, sun, wind, behavior etc.) It was a busy time, with all the instruction I wanted, and that’s exactly how it should be!

I most admired Chris Dodds’ active coaching combined with openness to questions at any time. Chris was often right next to us shooting away and teaching-by-example, but his clear priority was to boost the abilities of each participant, no matter whether they were beginners or pros. It is a rare ability to coach a well-experienced photographer one moment, and then patiently help a newbie with a point-and-shoot learn how to set up their tripod!

I’m busily planning another trip or two with Chris!”

— Darrell Vodopich, Waco, Texas

Wood duck in flight

This was one of the memorable adrenaline pumping moments during last December’s Better than Bosque workshop in New Mexico. I was using my 600 f/4 lens with a doubler for some distant floating Widgeons, so the challenge was not clipping the wings as this Wood Duck landed directly towards us. Most certainly one of my favourite images from the trip!

Join me Dec. 5-9, 2022 Better than Bosque workshop in New Mexico. CLICK HERE for more information.

☞

Join me Dec. 5-9, 2022 Better than Bosque workshop in New Mexico. CLICK HERE for more information. ☞

Sandhill Crane Silhouette

The first image from a newly discovered folder of silhouettes from my Better than Bosque workshop last December. I am looking forward to digging through the rest ;)

Learn more about my Better than Bosque workshop HERE.

Common Murre Bridled Form

Some Atlantic adult Common Murres in breeding plumage have a "bridle": a white eyering with a white line extending behind it. The Common Murre (Bridled) is a race or sub-species of the Common Murre, which is seen in North America. Although the Common Murre is seen in the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, this race is only seen in the Atlantic waters. It can be easily recognized by its bold white facial markings. It also has different coloured eggs than the Common Murre. Both races live among each other.

Bald Eagle Snowshoes

Exposing for snow

Exposing for the snow is so much easier than most photographers think: Simply set your camera to manual mode, select your desired shutter speed and aperture and then adjust the ISO until the in-camera light meter reads plus 1 & 2/3 while filling the frame with the white snow. Pop off a test image and see the histogram will be populated all the way to the right without touching - so easy!

Bald Eagle Frosty Stare

I am absolutely positive this Eagle was wondering what the heck I was doing belly crawling up to it in the snow. It let me get up to minimum focusing distance of the Sony 200-600mm lens which is 2.4 meters (7.87 feet). Which is close enough to have made a great full-frame image with an iPhone.

Atlantic puffin in flight with fish and golden light

Another from my recent Deluxe Puffins Galore Lighthouse Adventure in Quebec. An Atlantic puffin with a bill full of capelin in golden light against out-of-focus golden cliffs. This has quickly become one of my favourite images from one of my favourite places! There is no better place in the world to photograph than Puffin Paradise in Quebec, Canada.

If you would like to photograph Atlantic Puffins flying with fish in golden light while eating gourmet food yourself, then consider joining me next August. Wait! Did I mention that we live in a recently renovated lighthouse? Spots are filling quickly. My trips are timed perfectly so the babies are big enough that they need constant feeding but ends just before the adults abandon the babies to fend for themselves.

Join me next year for my Deluxe Puffins Galore Lighthouse Adventure. Learn more HERE.

Bald Eagle Calling in Golden Light

A Bald Eagle calling in first light can be a goosebump-inducing moment. We had some pretty epic cloudy bright conditions for most of my first workshop but were looking forward to the “mostly sunny” forecast. We crossed the bay before sunrise, landed on the beach and waited for the sun to rise - smile!

For such a large bird, the Bald Eagle’s voice is surprisingly weak. Its call is compared to a snickering laugh and consists of seven or eight notes sounded quickly and haltingly in a way that sounds very laboured. It can be written to sound like ki-ki-ki-ki-ki-ki-ker.

Bald Eagle on the run

A Bald Eagle runs across a fresh blanket of snow with its wings spread wide. With a maximum wingspan of 2.44 m (88 in = more than 7 feet) there is no doubt that they are impressive raptors to get close to.

We were at the boat before sunrise and quickly sailed across Kachemak Bay in time for the Eagles on the fresh snow. As the light intensity grew through the clouds, the fresh blanket of snow reflected light to illuminate every detail on the Eagles dark feathers. “Snow as fill” is a term I coined about 30 years ago during an owl shoot - smile.

Bald Eagle Vertical Portrait

Those eyes! The eagle eye is among the sharpest in the animal kingdom, with an eyesight estimated at 4 to 8 times stronger than that of the average human. Although an eagle may only weigh 10 pounds (4.5 kg), its eyes are roughly the same size as those of a human. Eagles have a highly developed sense of sight which allows them to easily spot prey. Eagles have excellent 20/5 vision compared to an average human who only has 20/20 vision. This means Eagles can see things from 20 feet away that we can only see from 5 feet away.

Bald Eagle Landing in snow

A Bald Eagle landing in the snow during my Eagles Galore Workshop in Alaska. We had fresh snow reflecting the soft overcast light against the underside of the Eagles which resulted in some incredible details in the dark feathers.

Bald Eagle Calling

For such a large bird, the Bald Eagle’s voice is surprisingly weak. Its call is compared to a snickering laugh and consists of seven or eight notes sounded quickly and haltingly in a way that sounds very laboured. It can be written to sound like ki-ki-ki-ki-ki-ki-ker (Stalmaster, 1987). The function of this strange vocalization is unknown so further research on the function of the vocalization is needed. Young Bald Eagles make different sounds than adults. After hatching, the nestlings make a single-note tonal peep (Gilbert et al., 1981). As the bird ages, its sounds become more complex and have a greater volume variance and by day thirty of their life their call has similar characteristics to the adult Bald Eagles’ call even though there is no direct evidence that offspring learn their calls from adults (Buehler, 2000). Since there is no direct evidence, further research is needed to determine whether Bald Eagle song is learned or innate. To test this, scientists could raise a Bald Eagle in captivity without interaction with any other birds. They could then observe whether this Bald Eagle grew to have the same call as other adult Bald Eagles or if it was different or if it did not learn a call at all. The cheeping call of the nestling serves as a way to beg for food, an alarm call, and communication with adults (Kussman, 1977). After four weeks, the young Bald Eagles also develop wail and Peal calls. The peal call is often given in response to humans approaching the Bald Eagles and is a high-pitched cry that has three to five notes that sound like a gull followed by six or seven rapid notes. This peal is described to sound like, kwit-kwit-kwit-kwit-kee-kee-kee-kee-ker (Buehler, 2000). Another unique call the Bald Eagle is the call that females make when they are ready to mate. This sound is soft and high-pitched and repeated multiple times. The male also has a unique call that serves as a defence mechanism, it is a high-pitched peal to signal when other birds or humans approach. They will use this to fend off attacks at communal feeding sites also (Buehler, 2000). READ MORE HERE @ Vassar Collage The Gall Lab.

Join me for a dream Photo Tour: Eagles Galore March 5-9 or 10-14, 2023 in Homer, Alaska.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

🦅

Join me for a dream Photo Tour: Eagles Galore March 5-9 or 10-14, 2023 in Homer, Alaska. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE 🦅

Atlantic puffin in flight

Puffins lead long lives for birds—often more than two decades. The oldest known puffin lived to be 36. The species’ maximum age is difficult to gauge because dated leg bands often corrode in the puffins’ salty habitat, or become illegible as the puffins nest in rocky environments. In fact, it’s hard to track which puffins were ever banded at all.