Images from Bosque del Apache NWR

Here are a few images from one of our favorite places, Bosque del Apache
National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. It's about that time of the year, when
the cranes and geese return in numbers.

Most people go there to photograph snow geese (which often number 30-50,000)
and sandhill cranes (usually 8,000 - 12,000) at close range and there are a
couple of photos of these species on the site, but I wanted to show the
diversity of birds there so have included a disproportionate share of images of
other birds. Even with that I still left out bald eagles, most of the ducks
and wading birds, several species of hawks, mule deer, coyotes chasing geese, a
badger and two bobcats and dozens of smaller bird species. It's a pretty
amazing place, especially if you look beyond the geese and crane spectacle.

Most of these were shot in November or December but the avocet and ibis were
there in early April and aren't common earlier (at least I never saw them).
The ferruginous hawk is also uncommon, but everything else you see in these
images is there most of the winter.

Four of the Bosque shots were with 70-200 mm or 300 mm Canon L lenses, the rest
with the 500 mm f/4 IS L, usually with a 2x or 1.4x teleconverter. The White
Sands shot was with a 43 mm lens using 6x7 medium format. Half the Bosque
photos were shot from the vehicle using a window brace, the rest were taken
after we approached on foot. All images were shot on Velvia (about 1/3) or
Provia 100F, sometimes pushed one stop. I'll be there next week testing out
the new Velvia 100F to see if it's a suitable replacement for Provia.

Hope you enjoy these. If you see any mis-identifed birds (or have problems
with the site coding) let me know, we're not very knowledgeable birders. If
you'll be there next week drop me an email.

http://members.aol.com/hiltonfotography/bosque/

Bill

WOW! nice , liked the two Harriers squabbling , very nice.
thanks
Gary

"Bill Hilton" wrote in message
...
Hope you enjoy these. If you see any mis-identifed birds (or have
problems
with the site coding) let me know, we're not very knowledgeable birders.
If
you'll be there next week drop me an email.

http://members.aol.com/hiltonfotography/bosque/

Bill

Just Beautiful.

--
Pete Rissler
http://web1.greatbasin.net/~rissler/

Stunning photos, Bill! I'm headed to Bosque in three weeks so it was very
exciting to see your photos. I believe the two hawks fighting over the dead
goose are young Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis). They don't show the
white rump of the harrier and the patagial wing mark, indicative of a
red-tail, is showing on the bird facing forward. It's the dark spot on the
upper edge of the wing just to the right of the head of the bird with its
back to us.

Arlene Ripley

From: "Cate"

Stunning photos, Bill! I'm headed to Bosque in three weeks so it was very
exciting to see your photos.

Thanks Arlene, and to the others who posted or sent emails.

I believe the two hawks fighting over the dead
goose are young Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis).

Uh-oh, my wife told me to stick to generic names to avoid embarassing myself,
and call them "ducks" or "hawks" (or better yet "waterfowl" or "raptors") to
avoid this problem. And any brown or grey bird smaller than a robin I'm
supposed to ID as an LGB (Little Grey Bird) ...

They don't show the white rump of the harrier and the patagial
wing mark, indicative of a red-tail, is showing on the bird facing forward.

Since I don't know what a "patagial" mark is, and since there are almost as
many red-tails as harriers at Bosque, I bow to your obvious expertise! I
checked in Sibley's book and it does indeed look like they are red-tails.

Here are a couple other hawk shots from Bosque ... the first one I'm sure is of
harriers since you can see the white band ...

http://members.aol.com/hiltonfotogra...ting_goose.htm
(moments later a bald eagle swooped in and ran both these hawks off ...)

This second one I'm not so sure anymore, I thought it was a harrier but may be
wrong. Whaddya think?

http://members.aol.com/hiltonfotogra..._goose_dry.htm

Good luck on your trip Arlene, we'll probably go back in December for a week
ourselves.

Bill

dy (Bill Hilton) wrote:

http://members.aol.com/hiltonfotography/bosque/



Bill,

Your work is among the best I've seen recently. If you aren't getting
paid for some of these images it's time to start. First class stuff!
---
David Meiland
Friday Harbor, WA
http://davidmeiland.com/

**Check the reply address before sending mail

"Bill Hilton" wrote in message
...

Since I don't know what a "patagial" mark is, and since there are almost
as
many red-tails as harriers at Bosque, I bow to your obvious expertise! I
checked in Sibley's book and it does indeed look like they are red-tails.

It is the dark patch along the front of the underside of the wing. In the
illustrations in Sibley, it's shown on the underwing of the flying bird just
to each side of the head.

Here are a couple other hawk shots from Bosque ... the first one I'm sure
is of
harriers since you can see the white band ...

http://members.aol.com/hiltonfotogra...ting_goose.htm
(moments later a bald eagle swooped in and ran both these hawks off ...)

Yes, harriers.


This second one I'm not so sure anymore, I thought it was a harrier but
may be
wrong. Whaddya think?

http://members.aol.com/hiltonfotogra..._goose_dry.htm

Another juvenile red-tail. This one shows the other characteristic of a
red-tail -- the dark "belly band" just under the white chest feathers. There
is a lot of geographic variation in red-tails, so ID can be more difficult
than one might assume.


Good luck on your trip Arlene, we'll probably go back in December for a
week
ourselves.

Maybe we'll run into each other -- I'll be the one with the Canon 10D and
the 100-400 IS lens (and you'll be the one I'll be envious of g).

Arlene

The Red-tails shot (from the thumbnail page) is exceptional. The obvious
thing to me to say it wasn't a Harrier is the lack of the "owl-like facial
disk." And in my experience, I can approach Red-tails much closer than
Harriers. However, you also have very close shots of Harriers. Is it
because they weren't about to leave their kill?

Merced NWR in the California Central Valley is another good place to see
Snow and Ross' Geese (many 10's of thousands). One morning I was watching a
huge flock (20k?) which suddenly took off and flew right over me (my car got
bombed 6 times). As I had only a telephoto handy, I didn't get that awesome
shot. Next year.

--
- Alan Justice

"Bill Hilton" wrote in message
...
Here are a few images from one of our favorite places, Bosque del Apache
National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. It's about that time of the year,
when
the cranes and geese return in numbers.

Most people go there to photograph snow geese (which often number
30-50,000)
and sandhill cranes (usually 8,000 - 12,000) at close range and there are
a
couple of photos of these species on the site, but I wanted to show the
diversity of birds there so have included a disproportionate share of
images of
other birds. Even with that I still left out bald eagles, most of the
ducks
and wading birds, several species of hawks, mule deer, coyotes chasing
geese, a
badger and two bobcats and dozens of smaller bird species. It's a pretty
amazing place, especially if you look beyond the geese and crane
spectacle.

Most of these were shot in November or December but the avocet and ibis
were
there in early April and aren't common earlier (at least I never saw
them).
The ferruginous hawk is also uncommon, but everything else you see in
these
images is there most of the winter.

Four of the Bosque shots were with 70-200 mm or 300 mm Canon L lenses, the
rest
with the 500 mm f/4 IS L, usually with a 2x or 1.4x teleconverter. The
White
Sands shot was with a 43 mm lens using 6x7 medium format. Half the Bosque
photos were shot from the vehicle using a window brace, the rest were
taken
after we approached on foot. All images were shot on Velvia (about 1/3)
or
Provia 100F, sometimes pushed one stop. I'll be there next week testing
out
the new Velvia 100F to see if it's a suitable replacement for Provia.

Hope you enjoy these. If you see any mis-identifed birds (or have
problems
with the site coding) let me know, we're not very knowledgeable birders.
If
you'll be there next week drop me an email.

http://members.aol.com/hiltonfotography/bosque/

Bill

From: "Alan Justice"

in my experience, I can approach Red-tails much closer than
Harriers. However, you also have very close shots of Harriers. Is it
because they weren't about to leave their kill?

Hi Alan,

On the one that's really a harrier shot (hey, I got it right one time out of
three!) there was actually a bald eagle on the goose when I drove by, which of
course flew off when I stopped. For those who know Bosque this was near the
Chupadera Deck on the east side of the Farm Loop.

It looked like a plump juicy goose even to me (I hadn't had breakfast) and
there were other raptors around so I set up with the 2x on the 500 mm on the
platform and waited. After a few minutes a crow landed on the ice and nibbled
at the goose, then soon a half dozen crows, then a harrier claimed it for a
bit, then a second harrier flew up and they squabbled for a bit. The light was
not really right, too much sidelighting, but better than nothing.

Finally after about an hour the bald eagle got tired of waiting and flew back
to reclaim the goose. By now the light was too high and harsh and I had added
a 1.4x converter for 1,400 mm at f/11 so the eagle shots aren't that
exceptional. Hard to get sharp images with that setup from a platform, plus
the bird was moving too much.

The eagle was only there a minute when someone else on the road saw it before I
could get the 1.4x off and came running up the platform shouting "Wow, that
looks like a bald eagle!", which ran it off for good.

In November they usually have only 3-5 eagles listed in the daily bird counts
but in January when the rivers freeze and the eagles can't catch fish elsewhere
they have as many as 60-70 feeding on the geese, but they are wary and hard to
shoot up close.

Bill

In message
dy (Bill Hilton) wrote:

Here are a few images from one of our favorite places, Bosque del Apache
National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. It's about that time of the year, when
the cranes and geese return in numbers.

Hope you enjoy these. If you see any mis-identifed birds (or have problems
with the site coding) let me know, we're not very knowledgeable birders. If
you'll be there next week drop me an email.

http://members.aol.com/hiltonfotography/bosque/

Excellent shots, Bill.
I'm soooo jealous.

Tx.

Liz

--
What boots up, must come down.