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

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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.

Sandhill Crane Landing in Golden Light

A Sandhill Crane lands in the very fist golden rays of high desert (5,000ft) light. You always know that you are in for a treat when the light and wind align from behind you :)

Join me Dec 5-9 for my Best of Bosque workshop adventure. Learn More HERE.

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Join me Dec 5-9 for my Best of Bosque workshop adventure. Learn More HERE. 🪶

American Wigeon

One of the hardest aspects of duck photography to convey to workshop participants is to find a spot with the right light and background and wait: resist the urge to follow or chase the ducks around the pond as they forage. They will come back to the best light/background if you stay still and wait :)

Say's Phoebe

Say’s Phoebe at sunset during my Better than Bosque workshop last December. Just a simple image in beautiful light with a beautiful background.

The Say's Phoebe breeds farther north than any other flycatcher and is seemingly limited only by the lack of nest sites. Its breeding range extends from central Mexico all the way to the arctic tundra.

Wood Duck Portrait

Here is a portrait made with the Sony FE 100-400MM F/4.5-5.6 GM OSS and 1.4X teleconverter @560mm. I love the versatility this combination offers with a short minimum focusing distance when the subjects get close :)

Wood Duck

One of the highlights of my Best of Bosque workshop is spending time with dozens of Wood Ducks. This one reminds me of part of a poem that I heard years ago:

“The wood duck’s roman helmet crowns his head
in royal graduated colours green
and on his chest of armour crimson red
through bands of black and white with purple sheen” - Author unknown

Although they come too close to photograph, I prefer working in the super-telephoto range to isolate single ducks more easily.

Join me for my BEST OF BOSQUE photographic adventure/workshop dec 5-9, 2022

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Join me for my BEST OF BOSQUE photographic adventure/workshop dec 5-9, 2022 🦆

Hooded Merganser Head-on Portrait

A Drake (male) Hooded Merganser swimming strait towards us during my Best of Bosque workshop last December. I had committed to the 600 f/4 lens with 2X extender so I was really getting worried that it would get too close when it made eye contact - smile.

These birds are able to catch fish by direct underwater pursuit, remaining submerged for up to 2 minutes. They resurface to swallow their prey, turning it around so it is swallowed headfirst. This method avoids injury from the spiny fins of some types of fish.

Female Northern Pintail in flight

A winter paradise for Snow Geese, Sandhill Cranes and many other birds, Bosque del Apache is located along the Rio Grande River near Socorro, New Mexico. Touted as the Crown Jewel for bird photography by many, Bosque does offer some incredible images, but there is so much more to the area than just this one place. After many, many years of visiting the refuge and surrounding areas, I've decided to offer another photographic workshop there . This is, by far, the very best New Mexico has to offer in the winter; we will visit Bosque del Apache NWR when the conditions are right, but you will also have the opportunity to join me and learn where all of the other amazing, and somewhat secret spots are. We will visit some of my old haunts, blinds and secret locations.

Snow Goose (blue morph) Landing Head-on

The dark color of the blue morph Snow Goose is controlled by a single gene, with dark being partially dominant over white. If a pure dark goose mates with a white goose, the offspring will all be dark (possibly with white bellies). If two white geese mate, they have only white offspring. If two dark geese mate, they will have mostly dark offspring, but might have a few white ones too.

The oldest Snow Goose on record, a blue morph, was shot in Idaho in 2020. It was 30 years, 8 months old and was originally banded in Arizona in 1990.

Sandhill Crane in flight Silhouette

The single most important parts of a successful silhouette (to me) are ensuring that the wings, neck/head/bill, legs and feet are free and clear of each other - I see so many images with the head or bill intersecting a wing or the body. The best way to achieve this is to invest the time in the field in the best location.

I still have a couple of openings due to cancellation for my Dec. 5-9, 2022 Best of Bosque trip. Learn more HERE.

Ross's Goose

Ross’s Goose facts:

A tiny goose with black wingtips, the Ross’s Goose (Chen rossii, Oie de Ross) is about 40% smaller than the more abundant white phase Snow Goose. The Snow Goose is larger and has a larger bill without the greenish base and has a black grin patch along it’s bill edge (black “lips”). It breeds in the central Arctic and winters primarily in central California, but it is becoming more frequent farther east. It is named in honor of Bernard R. Ross, a Hudson’s Bay Company factor at Fort Resolution in Canada’s Northwest Territories.

Raven Silhouette

As I prepared this image, I could not get Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven out of my mind. “Other friends have flown before— On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before.” Read The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe @ The Poetry Foundation HERE.

Mallard drake in flight dorsal view

A drake Mallard offers a dorsal view while in flight during my Better than Bosque workshop in New Mexico last December.

Migrating mallards have been clocked flying at 88.5 kilometres per hour (55 miles per hour), slightly faster than the average waterfowl. While they usually cruise at an altitude of less than 10,000 feet, they can get much higher. In 1962, a mallard was struck by a commercial airliner at 21,000 feet—a record altitude for a bird-aircraft collision at the time.

Neotropic Cormorant

A Neotropic Cormorant lands directly towards me. If truth be told, I was really hopeful of a similar image of a Redhead, Widgeon or Canvasback, but this is, without a doubt, my favourite image of a Neotropic Cormorant.

Northern Pintail in flight

“My recent trip (Dec. 2016) with Chris Dodds to the Bosque del Apache reserve was a roaring success! Five full days of shooting opportunities were exactly what I bargained for, and great lessons were learned. Specifically, high-quality results come with time, patience, and attention to detail. My experience with Chris gave me a taste of all three in a truly relaxed and fun atmosphere.

Each and every one of our five days offered welcome variation in conditions to provide a broad package of opportunities. I left the workshop with a full portfolio of portraits, flight shots, behaviors, and great shots of those magnificent “blast offs” of thousands of white geese and elegant cranes, all under excellent light conditions for bird photography. Chris is a master at choosing and teaching about the best positioning for photos (clouds, sun, wind, behavior etc.) It was a busy time, with all the instruction I wanted, and that’s exactly how it should be!

I most admired Chris Dodds’ active coaching combined with openness to questions at any time. Chris was often right next to us shooting away and teaching-by-example, but his clear priority was to boost the abilities of each participant, no matter whether they were beginners or pros. It is a rare ability to coach a well-experienced photographer one moment, and then patiently help a newbie with a point-and-shoot learn how to set up their tripod!

I’m busily planning another trip or two with Chris!”

— Darrell Vodopich, Waco, Texas