Birds of the Bosque

I haven't been able get out much this week so far. We had one snow day and several days with the temperatures in the teens. If I were in a national park I'd still go out, but I've done these temperatures several times this year and it's not pleasant. Plus, I learned my camera has an operational limit on the low temp side, which I know has been exceeded many times already. These wood ducks are from several weeks ago. Traveling 2 miles further upriver than anytime before, I came across this area where the land juts out into the middle of the river. On the far side of the river were at least three beautiful wood ducks; there may have been more but without binoculars I just couldn't tell. Male wood ducks are iridescent chestnut and green, with ornate patterns on nearly every feather. Females have a distinctive profile and a delicate white pattern around the eye. They are one of the only duck species equipped with strong claws that can grip bark and perch in tree branche...

I've talked about the importance of light and the golden hour before. The golden hour(s) being the first hour after sunrise and the last hour before sunset. Light is everything in photography and enables your subject to 'pop' in the photograph. On the same day as the previous post on the sandhill cranes, I was in the right spot at the right time. There were several Canada geese that floated lazily by, in front of me, with the high reeds and cattails on the river. Everything was golden: the reflection off the river, the reeds and cattails, and the light was just too perfect not to capture the shot. I wasn't really in this particular spot to capture pictures of geese. I was waiting for the eagles to appear but unfortunately they never came. I was trying something different: waiting in one place patiently, not walking around like I usually do. So, taking pictures of whatever showed up was kind of the modus operandi.