Perspectives

Cassin’s Sparrow - Bitter Lake NWR, Roswell, New Mexico

This morning I returned to Bitter Lake NWR to see what else I could photograph. I wanted to focus on some of the songbirds as I thought they might be a little bit easier to approach. I was partially right but only with a few individual birds. I saw a ton of Lark Sparrows and got a few photos as well as this one very cooperative Cassin’s Sparrow. In addition, I picked up another couple new species with Brewer’s Sparrow and Say’s Phoebe.

This evening it was a bit cloudy and I had a call I had to make so while I did swing through Bitter Lake again, I never got the camera out. Tomorrow is my last day here and I will begin with an early shoot at Bitter Lake and then try the migrant trap in Melrose before moving on to Lubbock where I pick Carrie up on Tuesday morning.

Wilson’s Phalarope (female) - Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico

I never thought I could enjoy 2 hours of laying face down in stinky, slimy, sticky mud like I did this afternoon.  I also now have some killer images of Wilson’s Phalarope and American Avocet, two birds I don’t have in my files, as well as Black-necked Stilt and Least Sandpiper.  Turns out it was a brilliant idea!

Basically I spent the afternoon exploring the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge here right outside of Roswell.  The refuge itself is famous for the huge numbers of ducks, geese, and cranes that spend the winter here but spring and fall shorebird migration is quite impressive itself.  Only 3 days ago I had never seen a Wilson’s Phalarope despite many attempts.  Then I saw one as it flew by me at Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge.  Today I probably saw over a thousand and photographed quite a few!

I saw a small group foraging in a small pond off the back of the refuge in the hunting area.  The pond was small enough that I could photograph them fairly easy if I could get to the edge of it.  So I headed back to my truck, grabbed a dinner plate, a big bean bag, and my lens.  After changing into long pants and a long sleeve shirt, I headed back to the pool and out onto the mud.  I put the dinner plate down, put the bean bag on top, and the lens on that making a nice convenient support that enabled me to slide it across the top of the mud, sort of.  It wasn’t ideal but it worked and tomorrow I will dig up my screw for my real ground plate.

The birds flushed when I first laid down but over the next two hours of me laying on my stomach basically motionless, they eventually came back and I was able to capture a few images from absolute ground level creating quite a wonderful perspective.  The above image is one of my favorites from the morning.  Tomorrow I may try it again but will be photographing songbirds in the morning I think.

Lesser Prairie Chickens - Milnesand Prairie Preserve, Milnesand, New Mexico

This morning was my last morning on the lek and it was quite a good morning. I had lots of fighting going on right in front of me though I am a bit disappointed by the background. The birds were fighting right between me and a huge water tank and unfortunately, you can see the tank fairly clearly. In any case, I still love the images I came away with.

I also realized I haven’t posted much in the way of a standard portrait and one of the things I have been after is a nice headshot of one of the males while he is displaying. Again, this morning proved productive and I had a hen walk right by my blind escorted by a parade of displaying males and Bingo!

I am now headed off to the Roswell area to visit Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge. The winds are shifting around and its much cooler than it was the past few days (29 when I got in the blind this morning) but I think the weather will be alright for a couple days camping. Don’t know if I will have internet access so can’t promise any blogs but will see what I can do.

Coyote - Milnesand Prairie Preserve, Milnesand

Tonight the wind continued and I just didn’t have the energy to fight the wind. I still went out to a lek for a bit but didn’t even have a chance to photograph anything in about an hour so I gave up and came home to relax and get some rest since I am headed back on the road tomorrow. The above image is a Coyote from this morning that wandered through.

Lesser Prairie Chickens - Milnesand Prairie Preserve, New Mexico

Once again the wind this morning had dropped way down so I was able to set up my blind around 5:00 at a new lek.  By the time I was settled in and set up around 5:30 I was totally surrounded by displaying chickens.  Shortly after sunrise, two birds started a fight on a raised mound off in the distance a tiny bit and the above image is the result.  It is a crop from a horizontal image but I simply love it.  Getting this image makes the entire morning though if I had to nitpick it I would wish for the fence in the background to disappear but hey, its part of the story.

Other highlights this morning included a couple of coyotes that passed through and I got some decent shots of them in the landscape.  Several Cottontails (Desert rather than Eastern I think), burrowing owls, and Black-tailed Prairie Dogs also made an appearance throughout the morning.