Wood Duck Vertical in Golden Light

During my recent Better than Bosque Workshop in New Mexico, we had fun with numerous wood ducks in golden light on windless mornings. It is hard to get a perfectly straight head-on image of a duck! I used the pre-capture functionality of my Sony a9 III at 120fps to ensure that I got a picture with both eyes visible and a more or less symmetrical composition.

Wood Duck Vertical in Golden Light (Aix sponsa, Canard branchu, WODU) from my Better than Bosque workshop. Near Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. Image Copyright ©Christopher Dodds. Sony a9 III Mirrorless camera & Sony FE 600mm f/4 G Master OSS Lens with Sony FE 2X Teleconverter @1,200mm ISO 2,500, f/8 @ 1/5,000s. Full frame image. Manual exposure.

American Coot

Though commonly mistaken for ducks, American coots are only distantly related to ducks, belonging to a separate order, the family Rallidae.

Noisier and more quarrelsome than their relatives, the rails, American coots are known for their unmelodic medleys of cackles, grunts, and croaks. The young have a remarkable means of escaping danger: at the first warning from an adult, chicks dive underwater and grasp a plant stem in their bill, anchoring themselves to the bottom until the threat has passed.

American Coot (Fulica americana, Foulque d'Amérique AMCO) from my Better than Bosque workshop. Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. Image Copyright ©Christopher Dodds. Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless camera & Sony FE 600mm f/4 G Master OSS Lens with Sony FE 2X Teleconverter @1,200mm ISO 3,200, f/8 @ 1/5,000s. Manual exposure. The full-frame image was cropped to a 5 x 4 aspect ratio.

Snow Goose Landing in Last Drops of Golden Light

The light was spectacular, and the Snow Geese were plentiful. For most of the afternoon, the wind blew into our faces when we were positioned with our shadows pointed toward the birds with the sun at our backs. The worst combination: the birds landing toward the wind or away from us. All we saw was the south end of northbound birds - smile! The sweeter the light got, the more the wind shifted in our favour. What a perfect ending!

Snow Goose Landing in last drops of golden light (Chen Caerulescens, Oie des Neiges, SNGO) from my recently concluded Better than Bosque workshop. Bernardo Wildlife Area (Ladd S. Gordon Waterfowl Complex), Bernardo, New Mexico, USA. Image Copyright ©Christopher Dodds. Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless camera & Sony FE 600mm f/4 G Master OSS Lens with Sony FE 2X Teleconverter @1,200mm ISO 6,400, f/8 @ 1/5,000s Manual exposure. Full frame image.