Bosque del Apache...Again!!!

I returned to Bosque more as a social than a photographic destination because a few of my photographic traveling friends decided to meet there this year. Bosque is a challenging place to photograph mostly due to the lighting conditions. Most rewarding photo ops are early at dawn or sunset when the lighting levels are low and the reds overwhelm the rest of the color spectrum. Another issue, is that the prime locations for shooting mostly face the east in the morning and the west at the end of the day, so one finds himself shooting against the sun. The Sandhill Cranes that winters is what makes Bosque famous; you can visit last year's blog by going to the older posts at the end of the page.

There is something primordial about this bird that attracts me, it has remained unchanged for millions of years and its peculiar calls is reminiscent of other similar species. I have seen several species of cranes

around the world but my favorite is the black crowned crane in East Africa.

I appears that the interest in cranes is worldwide, just as in Bosque, there is another in Spain (DESDE MI CHAJURDO: "Festival de las grullas" ) that I found out from Anastacio's Fernandez blog. I happened to be in the festival in Bosque last year by cheer coincidence, there may have been at least a million dollars of long lenses lined along the marshes paralleling Route 1.

There are other migrating birds in Bosque, with the snow geese being to be most numerous. What great spectacles of nature is seeing at these
birds in unison noisely exploding into the air early in the morning to fly to feeding areas near the park. It is quick and if one is not ready, the action will be missed.

Bosque offers a refuge from hunting, but I could hear the shotgun of hunters firing at the birds from areas surrounding the park. Ironically some of the areas were hunting was taken place, are owned by the Federal of State government but were opened to hunting. At least a larger buffer area should be provided "free of hunting" to allow the birds to gain altitude and spread throughout the countryside.

There also bald eagles, harriers, smaller falcons, grebes, herons, cormorants, quails, songs birds; more than 371 species of birds have been recorded in Bosque. I was able to photograph perching on a tree above; a first one for me.

Mule deer was easily seen, although shy, they would expose themselves if you took the time. I saw a young deer next to a ditch at the end of a day, I suspected that he wanted to drink, I waited, and was rewarded. But all that flies in Bosque does not have feathers as confirmed below.

Usually the tradition at Bosque is to wake up early at dawn and run to refuge to get a choice photographing spot. After the birds depart the refuge, one cruises the park roads for a while and then go to San Antonio or Socorro for breakfast. Afterwards to the hotel to edit the images or catch some sleep. In the afternoon one returns to Bosque to photograph the birds landing at the swamps to spend the night. This year, I skipped the siestas and roamed the roads in the vicinity photographing other items of interest.

Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge

After several days of roaming across the Atlantic Coast southern states, I ended my travels in Chincoteague, Virginia in early November. Now I find myself with thousands of images and wonder: Do I like to travel or photography better? I still have 63 gigabytes of Alaska images that I have not even look at. Maybe photography is the instigator to travel.
I used to visit Chincoteague in the early 1970’s when I started photographing birds but it has changed somehow for the worst and slightly for the better. In the old days one was not limited inside the park to specific roads as today but the roads were not all asphalted and one was not allowed to get off the vehicles. The town outside the park was just limited to the area around the bridge leading to the mainland and consisted of two main streets and one place to stay. Today all roads are asphalted with multitude of hotels and businesses catering to the tourists.

In the summer the beach is crowded with bathers but at this time of the year, the beaches are only visited by the migrating shore birds and a few fishermen. I noticed that the wildlife is easier to approach as they seem habituated to the presence of humans without been shot at. So despite the economic development, I would say that the wildlife has not been adversely affected yet.

I was rewarded during this visit with two new species of mammals that I have never seen before; the river otter above and the grey squirrel below. There were a couple of otters and these worked the shores of the ditches on both sides of the road leading to Maddox Boulevard. One of the otters captured an eel and ate it in plain view.

I ran into a gray fox squirrel while walking in the Woodland Trail, I was surprised as to their larger size and grey color. I saw wooden boxes in the trees along the trail and though that they were there for wood ducks nests, later on I found out they were for the squirrels. I also learned that they are about 300 squirrels in the island and it is a threatened species better known as the DELMARVA fox squirrels.

Lots of migrant snow geese and other species spend the winter here; in the day I was there I saw an estimated 1200 geese in the ponds. What is unreal is that could approach these birds within 30 feet even though they are hunted as soon as they leave the boundaries of the park; is like if they know the difference between a shotgun and my telephoto lens. It is magnificent to listen to their calls while landing.

I ended the day with a White-tailed deer running across the Snow Goose Pool and started my 3 hours drive home.