Bosque – Spring Visit

As we ambled down the Rio Grande Bosque trail this morning, my birding partner and I were commenting on how few birds we were seeing.  The ones we saw or heard were not posing for pictures either.  Gloom was descending over the high hopes we had for the outing.  We debated whether or not to head for home but decided to carry on.  Then, about half mile further up the trail the bosque exploded with birds.  We couldn’t keep up.  There must have been an insect surplus in this one area and we stayed for over a half hour taking pictures while the birds fed happily on some unknown (to us) banquet.

Here are some of the shots from today.  The Lark Sparrow and the Lucy’s Warbler were both new sightings for me.  The shot of the day was the Bank Swallow in flight.  These birds fly at seemingly supersonic speeds up and down the Rio Grande hunting food.  To get one in my camera sights was no mean feat and to get this passing shot was nothing less than a miracle.   It turned out to be a good day to hunt birds with the camera.