Edie and I had visited the refuge five years ago for a short visit on the way to California, and I had promised myself I would get back as soon as possible. I had missed several opportunities after that so I was getting excited to finally return. We left Michigan on Monday and arrived at the Bosque Bird Watcher's RV Park Wednesday afternoon. The park is nothing fancy, owned by a cute little white-haired grandmother, and best of all is located right next to the sanctuary. After setting up I drove into the park to familiarize myself with the opportunities. The areas that worked well before, such as the flight deck, had very little activity. It became apparent I was going to need to do a lot more exploring in the next few days to locate the best shooting sites.
I had hoped to get some beautiful blood-red sunrises, colorful sunsets, or best of all "fire in the mist" images but every morning and evening except one were rather ordinary, cloudless, and sunny skies with little interest. The one cloudy morning yielded a bit more interesting image but without the fiery shades I wanted.
North winds blew the entire time which limited the best flight photographic conditions. The Snow Geese congregated at the two north crane ponds before sunrise and then would leave within the next hour after sunrise. Only once did they leave with any sort of "Blast-off". The "Blast-off" is a much anticipated event that occurs when some event disturbs them. It could be a coyote, noise, or just some quirk of goose psychology. Sounding like a freight train, they leave enmass. Within seconds it is all over. It is one of the great spectacles of nature. The worst situtation, especially if you want to photograph the blast-off, is when the geese leave in small groups until they are gone. Once gone the geese spread out to feed in the fields.
Once the sunrise blast-off has either occurred or gone bust the usual procedure is to return to the main sanctuary and look for other opportunities.
No comments:
Post a Comment