Bosque Del Apache Trip Report, Dec 2008; Part 2

Go here for part 1.

- part 2 -

On christmas day, we started from our hotel early in the morning before dawn broke and reached the refuge by 5:30 am. It was a cold morning with winds exceeding 20 mph. The winds were so overpowering it didn't matter what the measured temperature were.

Face frozen and fingers aching to the bone, me and my friend waited on the flight deck patiently after we setup our tripod and camera while thinking back in our minds how great california must be that morning compared to this. But soon that temporary nostalgia was broken when we saw the light break through the thick clouds.

What a moment!. The sunrise we saw was fantastic, infact it was the best sunrise we saw in our whole trip or for that matter best ever I've seen. I was glad that I carried a wide angle lens with me, otherwise shots such as this wouldn't have been possible.
You can see here hundreds of snow geese against a sky lit by sunrise. The colors in these images are not photoshopped. This is what we really saw. Shot with my 100-400 mm lens.
Minutes later, the snow geese took off in an instant, much before than I had anticipated. Right before they took off, I was just fiddling with some settings on my camera and the blast off happened. Felt so unlucky that moment but I'm still happy with what I got.
Once the geese took off, the only remaining birds to be found are few sandhill cranes that usually hang around a bit longer than the geese. They make up for great silhouette shots.
During this time, I would experiment with different exposure compensation settings and shutter speed settings to capture the scenery as best as I could. I wish I could have gotten a lower angle but standing on the flight deck I can't go much lower.
Pretty soon, the sun rises above the horizon and the flight deck gets very quiet with no activity. Its time to move to another location.

There are three main loops that you can cover by car while you're inside the refuge. One is the tour loop where the flight deck is. The other two loops are the marsh loop and the farm loop. Each loop has several points of interest where there is a special lookout area. Often times we would pullover our car by the side of the loop to watch the wildlife as we spot them. Depending on the day and time, the level of activity may vary in each spot. It isn't easy to say there is one particular popular spot, all of them were equally interesting.

On several days, we often found a roadrunner on the tour loop which worked along the sideways of the road. This guy/gal was very easily approachable and gave us some good shots. We also spotted Ruby-crowned Kinglets, American Kestrels, several Red-tails, Northern Harriers and Bald Eagles. Other birds found were Say's Phoebe, several Northern Pintails, Northern Shovelers, Pheasant (not sure what kind), one Ferruginous Hawk, White-crowned Sparrows, Golden-crowned Sparrows and Song Sparrow. Of all three loops we took, tour loop always turned out to be more productive one, if you're counting the number of species.

By 11 a.m the activity goes down quite a bit, so we would return back to our hotel to rest, have our lunch and be back for the sunset.

- to be continued -

Bosque Del Apache Trip Report, Dec 2008; Part 1

Dec 24th, 2008

- part 1 -

Ever since I first saw the famous 'Fire in the Mist' photograph from Arthur Morris, I knew I wanted to visit Bosque Del Apache wildlife refuge someday. Alas, that wish came true during this christmas holiday. Me and a good friend of mine flew to Albuquerque on 24th morning to spend the next few days photographing the migratory birds that call Bosque Del Apache as their wintering home.

After we reached Albuquerque, we picked our rental car and drove straight to the refuge. We didn't stop at our hotel in Socorro which was on our way, because neither of us wanted to miss an opportunity to photograph the "fly-in". I had called earlier and informed our hotel not to expect us until late in the evening. It takes about an hour and 20 minutes drive from the airport to the refuge. Socorro is a very small town about 20 minutes before the refuge and is the nearest town to the refuge where you will find a place to stay and eat.

We reached the wildlife refuge by 4 p.m and pulled into the visitor center to pickup the map and some local information on what spots to visit the next morning. However the visitor center was closed much earlier, the day being the christmas eve. We engaged in a conversation with few locals who stood outside. We knew beforehand that there were a couple of auto-loops around the refuge that we could take, but we were trying to figure out which spots would give us the best opportunity to stop and photograph. We didn't have a lot of time to explore ourselves as the sunset was fast approaching. We decided it would be best to ask the locals who knew better, and they offered us to take us to the flight deck. The flight deck is a wooden platform that extends well into the lake giving some great views for photographers to shoot from.

I thanked the friendly folks who took us there, then grabbed my camera and as I walked into the flight deck, I am invited suddenly by tens of thousands of snow geese some just standing a few feet away to some as far as the eyes could see.
A few minutes later, the sun begins to set behind the hills and the cloud scattered sky starts to paint the canvas with its wide palette of colors that no camera sensor is capable of capturing it accurately, except for your own eyes.
Hard to take my eyes off the scene, I stood there taking mind photographs. It was just beautiful. I had to remind myself I do have a camera in hand, so off I went clicking. On the opposite side of the hills, the geese had gathered much closer to each other and more sandhill cranes were flying in. The cranes and snow geese "fly-in" in large numbers at sunset to this spot to spend the rest of the night. By the time we got there, the fly-in was almost over with only the last of remaining birds flying in. By this time, the flight deck that we were standing on, was as crowded as the lake itself with all other nature enthusiasts, birders and photographers standing next to each other, the only difference being we were not as accommodating as the birds itself when it came to sharing the space, and often rubbing elbows into each other. We left the place after it got dark. We want to be back early the next morning to watch the spectacular "fly-out" or sometimes appropriately referred as "blast-off". Every morning, at sunrise, tens and thousands of birds take off in succession one row after another. They would make a sound that could even rival a Boeing 747 flying close to you. I was joking to my friend after I returned from the trip that every time I close my eyes I could ear the blast off sound. This place really left a lasting impression.

- to be continued -

Shoreline Blast Off!

Even after a year, going out in the field looking for birds is never quite the same experience for me as the previous day. And once in a while, you hit upon a sight that blows your mind away. This thanksgiving weekend, a Northern harrier did his early morning rounds over the Charleston slough area, in Mountain View looking for his special thanksgiving breakfast. Its the usual routine every morning for the Harrier, but sure enough, today wasn't an easy task by any means as he had to single out a single meal among thousands of possible choices and be successful at the hunt. Usually he gets just one attempt at it and if he fails, he would scare the heck out of all birds and they all would escape quickly.

Miles away thousands of Willets, Avocets, Sandpipers & Dowitchers who had been very busy until then foraging for food to feed their little tummy, all of a sudden spots the approaching predator. Panic spreads across each individual at the speed of thought. Now only thing that matters is saving their life.

I'm watching this scene a mile away from the other side of the slough. A suspenseful music runs through my mind and in anticipation I point my camera at the flock of birds. In an instant, as I expected every single bird takes off from the field at the same time. There is a huge commotion and the noises they made could be heard miles away. Passers by on their regular morning walk, stopped at the breathtaking sight of these birds taking off. People are stunned. It looks like a wonderful sight, but i'm thinking what sort of panic must be going over the poor minds.



I'm still mesmerized just at the thought of what kind of power must a single Norther Harrier or a Red-tailed Hawk or any other Raptors posses among the animal kingdom.

Although this was purely a reaction to a panic situation, this mass takeoff does actually help those poor little birds that are in the bottom of the food chain. As different species of birds fly as a group, they create a mixed pattern of colors made from their wings in motion. This serve as an useful tactic, to confuse any predator who is watching them from above. It makes it harder for them to single out any one bird as the patterns change. Often times this strategy works very well, as it did this time I watched. As far as I could see the Harrier was not successful in catching any bird.

On the other side of the Shoreline lake, the situation was much more peaceful. A young White-crowned sparrow perches on to a nice bush as she begins to bathe herself under the beautiful sun. A relaxing long weekend for her.. I hope yours was too :)

Does this seem familiar ?

Yeah. The things that a bird photographer has to go through...!

BABP meeting

Tomorrow is Bay area bird photographer's meeting day (first of the season this yr) at the Lucy Evans nature interpretive center in Embarcadero rd, Palo Alto @ 7:30pm. You can find more details here.

http://www.scvas.org/index.php?page=text&id=babp

Hope to see you there.