High Plains Drifter

Less than a couple weeks ago I got my new Nikon 80-400mm lens shipped to me and since then, I have been itching at every opportunity to get out and shoot with this thing. You can read a review on this lens here. It serves as a great “starter” wildlife lens covering a large focal range, which is what I like…. which allows me more landscape creativity as well. Last Thursday I drove out to Quivira NWR about an hour and a half drive from Dodge City for my first real “shoot” with this lens. I arrived just before sunrise at the Big Salt Marsh portion of the reserve on the north side. “Wildlife Drive” is probably the best area to see birds of all sort on the reserve. It’s the dead of winter, so only the winter nesting birds that make Quivira home are all that’s out there… but that’s quite bit… all sorts of waterfowl including mallards, wood ducks, snow geese, Canada geese, etc etc. Of course, predator birds love this, so they are out in force as well, providing a great opportunity for photography.

I arrived on scene to the mass exodus of birds leaving the morning roost. Thousands and thousands of Starling littered the sky in a poetic choreography. These birds have a maneuverability that I’ve never seen before. They usually fly in huge flocks in the winter time from what I have read. So when the morning light is limited just as the sun comes up, I’m in “birdscape” mode at the wide end of the telephoto lens. I remained on Wildlife Drive for a couple hours after sunrise getting quite a few shots in. I was fortunate to have a Northern Harrier pass low pretty close to my surveying the ground and was able to get in a good couple of shots of him. After a couple hours, I already shot close to 90 pictures, and only had about 20 left on the memory card. I just have one 1GB card with me, but I also have my laptop with me. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my card reader with me, so I pretty much bagged this trip at about 930am or so. The first time out there to Quivira was a great experience. I am off work on Martin Luther King Jr day, so I plan to take another trip out there and make a full-day event out of it.

I’m trying to become as familiar and comfortable as possible with this lens so I’m ready use it full-force on an extended photo trip I have decided to take in a couple weeks. I’ll be heading out to New Mexico for 5 days to White Sands NM and Bosque Del Apache Nat’l Wildlife Refuge. Anyway, more details on this trip in another post.

Quivira NWR Photos — Jan 12