A pretty sizeable group of Sandhill Cranes is hanging out just down the road from our house on a particular gravel bar in the Rio Grande. They start flying into it around 4:30-5:00 pm. I’m trying to figure out a way to get in there and get set up to photograph them arriving with the right sun angle and Sandia mountains behind. Not easy with the brush on the west river bank. They are pretty spooky too – after all, they do get hunted here in NM. While I can’t imagine shooting and eating one myself, they are sometimes referred to here as “the rib-eye of the sky”. So far I can’t get within 100 yards without arousing suspicion. I’ll keep trying to get a good camera shot while trying not to disturb these magnificent birds while they are feeding.
They were just starting to arrive at the gravel bar yesterday in the first picture below. A half hour later after working my way through willow thickets to approached them, there were probably a couple of hundred of them grazing away at the bar. What a sight! What were they eating? Before I could set up closer, they got nervous and most of them took off. They came back in small groups and I managed a few shots before it got too dark. See pic at dusk. As always, light, or lack of it, is the photographers most formidable challenge. While light is a huge challenge, it is unfortunately just one of many. To get a bird to put itself into a perfectly framed background with the proper lighting and then applying the correct camera settings and timing the shot is tough to say the least.
That said, sometimes majic happens. Below, one crane demonstrates the apprehension felt when an airplane pilot lands in difficult conditions with a bunch of folks watching and judging. Also, notice how the sunlight accentuates the flickers face as he perches in the shadows behind a cottonwood branch. And, the white-crowned sparrow just at the moment that he takes a bite of a winter meal.
Earlier in the afternoon, I practiced with different camera settings as I struggled to capture ducks as they screamed up and down the river past me. Most of the images were throwaways but I did manage to stop a beautiful pair of northbound Mergansers at 1/2500th of a second. I also spent some time upland from the river trying to catch some smaller birds including sparrows, warblers and nuthatches. The different camera settings for different habitats, lighting conditions, species of birds, etc., keep a photographer on his toes and at the controls at all times. Finding the perfect balance is an elusive objective.
Sandhill Cranes at gravel bar in Rio Grande
Sandhill Cranes at dusk over Rio Grande
Common Mergansers over Rio Grande
Sandhill Crane landing with tailwind
Sandhill Crane landing landing with onlookers
White-breasted Nuthatch Male
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Northern Flicker Male Face in sun
White-Crowned Sparrow eating