More Bosque-Part One-the Blue Heron

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Geez, I hope you all realize that I'm pretty much using this blog as a place to keep track of my progress with the new camera. I realize that my pictures might not be of interest to a lot of readers, but for a while, this will be it.

If pictures aren't your thing, please check in every once in a while and eventually, I'll get back to travel, recipes and all that other stuff.

But for now, it's photography.

We had a great day today, and I'll be posting the pictures in three separate entries.

The first is the Blue Heron.
This guy just loves to pose

Then,
when you get too close,
he flys away.

For some reason,
I just love this shot.

And away he goes.

Then he comes back and poses.

And even stays still for closeups.

If I haven't bored you yet,
take a look at Part Two,
the Landscape.

More Bosque-Part Two-the Landscape

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Spring is coming,
and the land around here
is alive and beautiful

Many of the trees appear almost dead,
but have buds all over them.

The weather today
was a balmy 70 degrees.
The colors of the surrounding
areas are changing daily.
Just look at the variety
in this small area.


I wish you could have heard
the thousands of birds
singing in this blind.


One more shot of this gorgeous land.

If you like these pictures,
look at Part Three,
the Hawk

More Bosque-Part Three-the Hawk

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The final part of today's entry deals with the Hawk. Or maybe it's the Falcon. We've looked in our numerous bird books, at iBird Pro on my iPhone, and on the internet. And we still aren't sure.

Whatever this beautiful bird is, both Terry and I are fascinated.

He seems to hang out in the same are of the Bosque and we've established a pattern of going and looking for him most every day.

He's so photogenic, it's hard to resist.

I'm working on trying to understand the relationship between aperture and shutter speed and ISO. I know what they all mean, but figuring out how they relate to each other and which ones to use is my problem.

Today I had my first success, and I wish I could tell you I knew how I did it. But I think I finally got some long shots that are pretty much in focus, with a minimum of noise (grain).

This is my favorite shot of the day.
(click to enlarge)

Then,
like always,
he flew away.

Once again,
the color of the landscape
seems to set everything off

to perfection.

On our way home,
we found this fellow sitting in a tree
right by the side of the road.

As we watched, he buried his head.
It makes him look so shy and demure.

Then he looked up again,
what a beauty.

And just then,
we looked up and saw this.

It's really a wonderful time of year
here at Bosque del Apache.

the Bossy Goose

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We spent a bit of time in the Bosque today. There are ducks and geese all over the area, so I tend to kind of ignore them when it comes to taking pictures.

But today, we heard a tremendous racket and went to investigate.

This is what we found.

This guy was the all time bully goose,
screaming at ALL the other geese.

If you click to enlarge

You can see that
not only is he screaming,

But he's sticking his tongue out,

Like he's blowing raspberries

We watched him for quite a while,
then he flew away.
But not before one final
raspberry.

Quite an interesting day!

I love going into the Bosque,
you never know what you'll see.

A Day at the Bosque

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I thought I'd share what it's like to spend an afternoon at Bosque del Apache (which stands for Woods of the Apache).

After a long cold winter,
it looks as if Spring
may be ready
to burst forth.

No leaves,
but look at these buds.

This heron seems to like this spot.
We see him near here
almost every time
we go into the Bosque.

He stays for a while,
letting us take his picture.

Then he takes off.

Usually we don't see a lot of deer,
but this afternoon, here they are.

And they're pretty friendly . . .

Or at least
not too skittish.

The Canadian Snow Geese
haven't moved north yet.

As we round the bend,
once again we see the Falcon.

I'm really fascinated with this bird.

It's like he's here
just for me
and my new camera

This isn't a perfect shot
but I love the pose.

He makes me want to fly.

As always, you can click any image
to see a larger version.

Any visit to the Bosque
is never complete
without a few Sandhill Cranes.
They're getting scarce,
but if you look hard,
there are still a few around.

Don't these guys look like
they're packing up
to leave?

It truly is a magical place.

I recommend everyone
try to visit
at least once.

This is our fourth year and
I'm sure we'll return.

Just One Picture

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Not as sharp as I'd like,
but I love the face.
(You can click to enlarge).

This may be
the most magnificent bird
I've ever seen.

A New Language-Day 3.1-the Bosque

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I'm breaking this days pictures into two posts because I wanted to keep the set of heron photos all to themselves.

But I need to say something
about the light
yesterday afternoon.

It's like there's
Magic afoot.

I really don't ever recall
this color
anywhere else.

Or reflections like this.

Or this kind of tranquility.