A Bird Photography Weekend at Bosque del Apache NWR, December 2022

By December 28, 2022January 4th, 2023Birds, Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

I had been discussing the possibility of re-visiting Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico for the last several months with Skip Stubbs, and we finally decided to commit a weekend and get out there. It had been 12 years since I was last there and I was looking forward to it.  The goal was to watch and photograph large gatherings of sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) and snow geese (Chen caerulescens) that over-winter in the refuge set between the Chupadera Mountains and San Pasqual mountains along the Rio Grande.  And to spend time hanging out with old dive friends whom we had not seen since the before times.  Bosque del Apache NWR is easy to reach being just an hour south of Albuquerque.  We have always stayed in the town of Socorro and this time was no exception.  The dining options were somewhat limited compared to our last time there, still the six of us managed to gather each night in a different restaurant for decent food and drink and good conversation (mostly about diving trips we had all shared in the past).

The birds were a little different than I remember.  In past years we would arrive well before dawn to find thousands of snow geese in the main “impoundment” (a pond maintained for the benefit of the birds, so that they can overnight in water out of reach of predators) and would await their mass “fly out” as sunrise.  This year, however, we found that the snow geese over-nighted elsewhere, but for some reason would fly in to the main impoundment just before sunrise.  So, we watched incoming geese in the many hundreds rather than departing geese in the many thousands.  Right around sunrise we would leave the Flight Deck area and head to the “crane pools”.  Only one crane pool was full this year.  In these pools sandhill cranes would spend the night, arriving the night before at dusk and departing in small groups as the morning sun warmed them, heading out to corn fields to forage throughout the day.  The surface of the pool was typically frozen, meaning these cranes had stood all night in ice.  This year the crane pool was where I had the most fun and took the most photos.  It is honestly like shooting fish in a barrel, the photography is so easy with so many birds and such perfect light and wind angles.

Once most of the cranes had left their overnight pool, we would take a leisurely drive around the “loop”, the main roadway through the refuge, just looking for birds.  We saw a few eagles, a number of northern harriers and javelina, and of course many cranes.  But since the corn in the refuge had “failed” due to drought (according to one of the refuge staff), many of the birds foraged outside of the refuge this year. This may have explained why it seemed the bird numbers were down this year on the refuge loop compared to what we had experienced in the past.  We would take a break midday, then return for another loop through the refuge in late afternoon.  Finally, we would end up back at the crane pool, watching the cranes arrive at the end of the day to spend the night standing in shallow water.  Repeat the next day.  It was a pretty successful strategy for surveying the bird and animal activity in the area and one we used in past years as well.

In the years since I had last been in Bosque del Apache I have cycled through a number of cameras, and had largely switched from Canon to Nikon. (I shoot Nikon for all of my underwater subjects, and any topside situation shorter than 200mm).  However, I have always maintained one Canon camera for my super-telephoto (it happens to be a 200-400 right now) and currently that is a Canon R5.  This camera, coupled with the amazing 200-400 lens, is a game changer for me. Bird photography has never been so easy. The camera simply gets the bird in sharp focus nearly all the time.  I could go into what settings I use for the Canon R5 for birds in flight but won’t do that here, the point is: the R5 is great and has made photographing birds much easier for me than ever before.

Below are some of my favorites from this year at Bosque del Apache.  You can see lots more from past years here.  Cheers and thanks for looking!

Sandhill crane spreads its broad wings as it takes flight in early morning light. This sandhill crane is thousands present in Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, stopping here during its winter migration, Grus canadensis, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill crane spreads its broad wings as it takes flight in early morning light. This sandhill crane is thousands present in Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, stopping here during its winter migration.
Image ID: 38713
Species: Sandhill crane, Grus canadensis
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill cranes landing in water ponds at dusk, spending the night standing in water as a protection against coyotes and other predators. Motion blur, Grus canadensis, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill cranes landing in water ponds at dusk, spending the night standing in water as a protection against coyotes and other predators. Motion blur.
Image ID: 38716
Species: Sandhill crane, Grus canadensis
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill cranes in synchronous flight side by side, matching their wingbeats perfect as they fly over Bosque del Apache NWR, Grus canadensis, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill cranes in synchronous flight side by side, matching their wingbeats perfect as they fly over Bosque del Apache NWR.
Image ID: 38723
Species: Sandhill crane, Grus canadensis
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill Cranes Fly Over Bosque del Apache NWR, Grus canadensis, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill Cranes Fly Over Bosque del Apache NWR.
Image ID: 38720
Species: Sandhill crane, Grus canadensis
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Snow geese fly in huge numbers at sunrise. Thousands of wintering snow geese take to the sky in predawn light in Bosque del Apache's famous

Snow geese fly in huge numbers at sunrise. Thousands of wintering snow geese take to the sky in predawn light in Bosque del Apache's famous "blast off". The flock can be as large as 20,000 geese or more.
Image ID: 38715
Species: Snow goose, Chen caerulescens
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Snow Geese in Flight, Bosque del Apache NWR, Chen caerulescens, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Snow Geese in Flight, Bosque del Apache NWR.
Image ID: 38717
Species: Snow goose, Chen caerulescens
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Snow Geese in Flight, Bosque del Apache NWR, Chen caerulescens, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Snow Geese in Flight, Bosque del Apache NWR.
Image ID: 38714
Species: Snow goose, Chen caerulescens
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill cranes in synchronous flight side by side, matching their wingbeats perfect as they fly over Bosque del Apache NWR, Grus canadensis, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill cranes in synchronous flight side by side, matching their wingbeats perfect as they fly over Bosque del Apache NWR.
Image ID: 38718
Species: Sandhill crane, Grus canadensis
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Northern Shoveler in flight, Bosque del Apache, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Northern Shoveler in flight, Bosque del Apache.
Image ID: 38721
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Snow Geese in Flight, Bosque del Apache NWR, Chen caerulescens, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Snow Geese in Flight, Bosque del Apache NWR.
Image ID: 38724
Species: Snow goose, Chen caerulescens
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill cranes landing in water ponds at dusk, spending the night standing in water as a protection against coyotes and other predators. Motion blur, Grus canadensis, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill cranes landing in water ponds at dusk, spending the night standing in water as a protection against coyotes and other predators. Motion blur.
Image ID: 38725
Species: Sandhill crane, Grus canadensis
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill crane spreads its broad wings as it takes flight in early morning light. This sandhill crane is thousands present in Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, stopping here during its winter migration, Grus canadensis, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill crane spreads its broad wings as it takes flight in early morning light. This sandhill crane is thousands present in Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, stopping here during its winter migration.
Image ID: 38726
Species: Sandhill crane, Grus canadensis
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Snow geese resting, on a still pond in early morning light, in groups of several thousands, Chen caerulescens, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Snow geese resting, on a still pond in early morning light, in groups of several thousands.
Image ID: 38737
Species: Snow goose, Chen caerulescens
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill crane and corn fields, Bosque del Apache, Grus canadensis, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill crane and corn fields, Bosque del Apache.
Image ID: 38740
Species: Sandhill crane, Grus canadensis
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Snow geese resting, on a still pond in early morning light, in groups of several thousands, Chen caerulescens, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Snow geese resting, on a still pond in early morning light, in groups of several thousands.
Image ID: 38722
Species: Snow goose, Chen caerulescens
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Snow Geese in Flight, Bosque del Apache NWR, Chen caerulescens, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Snow Geese in Flight, Bosque del Apache NWR.
Image ID: 38719
Species: Snow goose, Chen caerulescens
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill Cranes Fly at Sunrise, leaving the pond on which they spent the night, Bosque del Apache NWR, Grus canadensis, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill Cranes Fly at Sunrise, leaving the pond on which they spent the night, Bosque del Apache NWR.
Image ID: 38728
Species: Sandhill crane, Grus canadensis
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill Cranes in Flight at Sunrise, Bosque del Apache NWR. At sunrise, sandhill cranes will fly out from the pool in which they spent the night to range over Bosque del Apache NWR in search of food, returning to the pool at sunseet, Grus canadensis, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill Cranes in Flight at Sunrise, Bosque del Apache NWR. At sunrise, sandhill cranes will fly out from the pool in which they spent the night to range over Bosque del Apache NWR in search of food, returning to the pool at sunseet.
Image ID: 38729
Species: Sandhill crane, Grus canadensis
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill Cranes, Bosque del Apache NWR, Grus canadensis, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill Cranes, Bosque del Apache NWR.
Image ID: 38732
Species: Sandhill crane, Grus canadensis
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill cranes will spend the night in ponds as protection from coyotes and other predators. The pond is often frozen in the morning, Grus canadensis, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill cranes will spend the night in ponds as protection from coyotes and other predators. The pond is often frozen in the morning.
Image ID: 38745
Species: Sandhill crane, Grus canadensis
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Snow geese fly in huge numbers at sunrise. Thousands of wintering snow geese take to the sky in predawn light in Bosque del Apache's famous

Snow geese fly in huge numbers at sunrise. Thousands of wintering snow geese take to the sky in predawn light in Bosque del Apache's famous "blast off". The flock can be as large as 20,000 geese or more.
Image ID: 38756
Species: Snow goose, Chen caerulescens
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill cranes landing in water ponds at dusk, spending the night standing in water as a protection against coyotes and other predators. Motion blur, Grus canadensis, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill cranes landing in water ponds at dusk, spending the night standing in water as a protection against coyotes and other predators. Motion blur.
Image ID: 38757
Species: Sandhill crane, Grus canadensis
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill cranes in synchronous flight side by side, matching their wingbeats perfect as they fly over Bosque del Apache NWR, Grus canadensis, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Sandhill cranes in synchronous flight side by side, matching their wingbeats perfect as they fly over Bosque del Apache NWR.
Image ID: 38764
Species: Sandhill crane, Grus canadensis
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

Snow geese fly in huge numbers at sunrise. Thousands of wintering snow geese take to the sky in predawn light in Bosque del Apache's famous

Snow geese fly in huge numbers at sunrise. Thousands of wintering snow geese take to the sky in predawn light in Bosque del Apache's famous "blast off". The flock can be as large as 20,000 geese or more.
Image ID: 38772
Species: Snow goose, Chen caerulescens
Location: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, New Mexico

About Phil Colla

I am a natural history photographer. I enjoy making compelling images in the ocean, on land, and in the air. I have maintained the Natural History Photography blog since 2005 and my searchable Natural History Photography Library since 1997. Here are some tear sheets and behind the scenes views. Thanks for looking!