Wind!
Bullock’s Oriole - Oasis State Park, Portales, NM
The theme for today was wind and I am afraid it is going to continue for the next few days. Fortunately, the morning was fairly calm though birds weren’t very cooperative. I did manage to finally chase this Bullock’s Oriole down as it was checking these old seedpods for food. Truly a spectacular bird.
By midday, I headed down to Milnesand, a small town, more of a crossroads, where I will be based for the next few days. I met up with Tish McDaniel from The Nature Conservancy who heads up the local Lesser Prairie Chicken program. We spent the next couple hours touring the property and then I headed off on my own to photograph. By this point, winds were sustained probably around 30 mph with gusts around 40mph. Needless to say, setting up a blind was a bit of a joke. I ended up shooting from my car and had a bit of luck but for the most part was disappointed. Unfortunately, the wind is supposed to continue for the next few days so photographing is going to be quite difficult but I have a few ideas on how to make it work. Hopefully tomorrow I will have a good prairie chicken shot to post.
