I went out Sunday morning with fellow birder, Jeff Calhoun, of Dodge
City looking to do some county listing. Jeff knew of a location where
there was the potential for a Barn Owl south of Dodge City.. and the
location did not disappoint. The Barn Owl took flight and I was able to
get a few frames of it as it passed by in excellent morning light! What
a moment!
This was probably the most unique shoot of the trip. Most of
the day was filled with poor light due to heavy clouds and scattered
rain showers. Late in the day, there was more sunshine poking
through, but not before one last heavy rain shower moved across
Bosque del Apache just prior to sunset. I shot from the Flight Deck
and set up at a spot I picked out a couple hours prior based on
where the cranes were favoring to land, the approaching flight path,
and wind direction for landing. It was good that there was a south
wind because then the birds would be landing with their fronts in
the good light. A fairly robust convective shower moved in and it
started raining quite heavily. I didnt back any rain gear, so I had
to use some makeshift cover to protect my gear while it was
raining. I knew the rain would not last all that long, but before
the heaviest of the rain hit, I managed to get a few shots in of
some of the first incoming cranes. As the storm was beginning to
end, a dramatic rainbow filled the eastern sky and the light was
improving rapidly. I grabbed my D700 which had my 24-70mm lens
attached to it and I shot away at the amazing rainbow with cranes in
the foreground. After the rainbow waned, I went back to work with
the 600mm lens on the Wimberly (after drying it off after getting
wet from the rain shower), and got some nice in-flights, portraits,
and other various poses in awesome light as the sun hit the water
and cranes for a short time before it dipped below the mountains.
Then, the clouds on the eastern horizon began to break up just
shortly after sunset and the full moon appeared!! I did not expect
this at all, so I quickly went to the car to grab my 80-400mm lens
and put it on the Wimberley to grab some wildlife-in-landscape
scenes with the full moon and its reflection off the water.
Awesome!
Okay, I need to find more of this duck, because the male Bufflehead is
brilliant when direct sunlight hits it right... it's an explosion of color
from the iridescence of the forehead and throat/neck of this bird. I need
to thank a birdwatcher that was standing next to me who pointed this duck
out.. as I was fixated on Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes at the time. I
knew right away when she said Bufflehead that I needed to point my camera
on it, because I knew of the color explosion this duck has in the right
light.
