Ansel's Spring Walkabout

A very special place I have saved for last...

Click any image below for a larger view

Cinnamon Teal-male                                                           Ring-Necked Pheasant-male

These two pictures below are my first and last view of my three days at the Bosque

The Bosque Del Apache is one of the most sought after locations for bird watchers and wildlife bird photographers.  The prime season is Winter with the Festival of Cranes occuring the week before Thanksgiving.  Why am I here in the Spring?  I wanted to see what it was like after all the major birds had left.  Was I disapointed...No!  Enjoy the many pictures and over the next few days I will be adding identification to the various birds.

Bosque del Apache is Spanish for "woods of the Apache," and is rooted in the time when the Spanish observed Apaches routinely camped in the riverside forest. Since then the name has come to mean one of the most spectacular national wildlife refuges in North America. Here, tens of thousands of birds--including sandhill cranes, Arctic geese, and many kinds of ducks--gather each autumn and stay through the winter. Feeding snow geese erupt in explosions of wings when frightened by a stalking coyote, and at dusk, flight after flight of geese and cranes return to roost in the marshes.

In the summer Bosque del Apache lives its quiet, green life as an oasis in the arid lands that surround it.

Cinnamon Teal-male

Black-necked Stilt

The picture below is a 180 degree shot of the Marsh Pond

Panorama by Ansel Boyce Photography ©2005

The equipment utilized for this phot shoot consisted of two Nikon D1X digital cameras, one Minolta dImage digital and a small Casio digital for those emergency shots.  A number of lenses were used with the three most used being a 600mm Nikon with a 1.4x and a 2.0x telephoto adapter, a 200x400 Nikon VR zoom utilizing a 1.4x telephoto adapter and a 70x200 Nikon VR zoom utilizing  at times a 2.0x telephoto adapter.

Northern Shoveler-female                                          Cinnamon Teal-female

Northern Shoveler-male

Red-Winged Blackbird-male

Red-Winged Blackbird-female                                   Black Phoebe

Turkey Vulture

Canada Goose

Canvasback

                                                                                                        Mallard

Lesser Scaup

Green-windged Teal

                                                                                                        White-faced Ibis

Cattle Egret

Great Egret

Swainson's Hawk

Ring-Necked Pheasant-male

                                                                              Ring-Necked Pheasant-female

Meadowlark

                                                                              Killdeer

Bufflehead

Snow Goose

Great Blue Heron

                                                                                                        American Coot

Ruddy Duck-female

                                                                              Pied-billed Grebe

Double-crested Cormorant                                        Great-tailed Grackle

Gadwall-male                                                                        Gadwall-female