Sandhill Crane Landing

A Sandhill Crane lands directly toward us during my Best of Bosque workshop last December. The vast majority of Sandhill Cranes fly in family units with two adults and one juvenile, so isolating a single bird is always the challenge :)

I still have a couple of openings for my Dec. 5-9, 2022 Best of Bosque Workshop due to cancellations. Join me for an incredible adventure to photograph Cranes, Geese, Ducks and so much more!

Coyote

We had some awesome Coyote encounters during my Best of Bosque workshop last December. The record-breaking drought in the west meant much fewer flooded wetlands for migrating birds, so all of the wildlife was concentrated around the limited flooded zones: Much like during the dry season in Africa, where there is an abundance of prey, there are also predators lurking.

Eared Grebe with reflection

Still water on a cloudy and windless day was perfect to create images with reflections. This is an Eared Grebe from my Best of Bosque workshop last December.

Among the most skillful of all diving birds, grebes not only plunge headfirst underwater; they also can sink slowly out of sight by compressing their feathers and driving out trapped air, thus making themselves less buoyant. Grebes, in fact, are so well adapted to life in the water that they seldom fly, and many birders have never seen one on the wing.

Northern Pintail banking in flight

A Northern Pintail banks in flight in preparation for landing. Photographing the ducks in flight during my Best of Bosque workshop is so much fun and very rewarding when things work out. As they land, they tend to bank and change flight path suddenly making it challenging.

Join me at Bosque del Apache from December 5-9 for an awesome photographic adventure. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE HERE

🦆

Join me at Bosque del Apache from December 5-9 for an awesome photographic adventure. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE HERE 🦆

Snow Goose Landing Head-on

After a cold and productive morning shoot, we decided to stay out and use the harsh light to practice tracking birds in flight. I always take advantage of any opportunity to hone my reflexes, but rarely push the trigger in harsh light: the difference on this day was the wind was directly from behind us when we pointed out shadows at the birds. So, far from a masterpiece, but I do love this head-on landing shot with the Snow Goose calling and the out-of-focus cottonwood trees in the background.

Sandhill Crane Calling Silhouette

A silhouette of a Sandhill Crane calling with the high desert mountains in the background. Join me in New Mexico from Dec. 5-9 for my Best of Bosque workshop. Learn More HERE.

Wood Duck on Golden Pond

A Drake (male) Wood Duck pops from the liquid gold-like reflections from the autumn Cottonwood trees during my Better than Bosque workshop last December. Join me Dec 5-9 for an incredible adventure. Learn more about my Better than Bosque workshop HERE.

Sandhill Crane Landing at Last Light

After a cold morning start and a brutally harsh sunny day, we were rewarded with the warmest, sweetest last light and hundreds of Sandhill Cranes landing in front of us.

Join me for my Best of Bosque Workshop December 5-9 in Socorro, New Mexico (near Albuquerque). Learn more HERE.

Northern Harrier

A female Northern Harrier from my Best of Bosque workshop last December. Perhaps a somewhat unconventional composition with the bird higher in the frame than the middle; I could have added canvas or changed the aspect ratio, but I rather like the empty space below the bird in this frame.

Unusual among hawks, Northern Harriers use their sense of hearing to help locate prey. They have an owl-like facial disk to help with directional hearing and soft feathers for a quieter flight.

Ross's Goose in flight

A Ross’s Goose from last December’s Best of Bosque workshop. Picking out and targeting the Ross’s Geese amongst the more abundant Snow Geese is always a fun way to pass the time as thousands of Geese continuously blast off when predators disturb them.

Snow Goose Autumn Flight

I just love the bright orange foliage on the cottonwood trees!

There are still a couple of spots available for my Dec. 5-9 Best of Bosque workshop. We will spend five full days with tons of Sandhill Cranes, Geese, Ducks and other birds with the hope of Coyotes and Bobcats as well. Learn more and sign-up for my Dec. 5-9 Best of Bosque Workshop HERE.

Northern Shoveler

A non-breeding drake (male) Northern Shoveler from my Best of Bosque workshop last December. Many of the dabbling ducks use their flat bills to strain food items from the water, but the big spatulate bill of the Northern Shoveler is adapted to take this habit to the extreme. Flocks of shovelers often swim along with their big bills barely submerged in front of them, straining food from the muddy soup of shallow waters.

Ring-necked Duck

Here is another duck from last December’s Best of Bosque Workshop. This is a drake (male) Ring-necked Duck on a liquid gold pond - smile!

Lesser Goldfinch

Here is another from last December’s Best of Bosque workshop. It is a great example of the Sony Alpha 1 high ISO performance. Setting my exposure with a shutter speed of 1/5,000s allows me to capture anything that decides to make an appearance - I am able to photograph action and stationary birds, without any concern for noise in my images. The key is to ensure proper exposure. In this case, I was working the abundant and active Northern Pintails landing when this Lesser Goldfinch arrived in front of me - smile.

Redhead

Earlier today, I posted a Canvasback with a brief word about how to tell the difference between the two species. Have a look here: https://www.naturephotographyblog.com/blog/canvasback

Canvasback

Canvasbacks are often confused with redhead ducks, even by an expert bird guide. However, they are quite easy to distinguish if the bird guide knows to look for their dissimilar physical characteristics. Both the birds are found in the same geographical range, but the canvasbacks are quite a lot larger than redheads. Canvasbacks have a sloping profile and a sharp bills, while redheads look more like a duck with their blue or grey-coloured bills and round heads. The males of the canvasback species have a bright-coloured chest and belly, while redhead males have a gray-coloured chest and belly.

Pied-billed Grebe

Among the most skillful of all diving birds, grebes not only plunge headfirst underwater; they also can sink slowly out of sight by compressing their feathers and driving out trapped air, thus making themselves less buoyant.

Grebes, in fact, are so well adapted to life in the water that they seldom fly, and many birders have never seen one on the wing.

Learn more about my Best of Bosque workshop CLICK HERE

🦆

Learn more about my Best of Bosque workshop CLICK HERE 🦆

Sandhill Crane Pair Silhouette

What can I say? I am a sucker for silhouettes. The biggest challenge once I found a suitable location with some vegetation to frame the image, was getting the pair with opposing wing positions.

Mandarin Duck

Closely related to the Wood Duck (the only other member of the genius Aix), many people think that the Drake (male) Mandarin Duck is the most beautiful duck in the world; it’s easy to see why!

A native of East Asia, specimens frequently escape from private collections and there are isolated feral populations in America.

We are able to find and photograph one most years during my Best of Bosque workshop Dec. 5-9.

Sandhill Crane Full Moon Silhouette

A mated pair of Sandhill Cranes silhouetted against the full moon from my Best of Bosque workshop. This image was created in-camera with a single exposure. I used creative license and adjusted the black point, contrast and white balance dramatically. I am very excited that there will be a full moon in the middle of my Dec. 5-9 workshop on Dec. 7 :) Click HERE to learn more or sign-up for my Dec. 5-9, 2022 Best of Bosque workshop adventure.