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Bosque Del Apache, Bernardo Refuge, and The Wild Horses of New Mexico December 2008 by Bernie Weinzimmer

Edited by James Morrissey

This trip was originally planned by my good friend Joe Colson (joecolsonphotography.com). It was hoped it would be another photo shooting reunion of our small group of photographers, the Bad Ass Bosque Boys. Our group was loosely formed in 2004. We are Nikon shooters from all over the country who signed up for field instruction with Ron Reznick (digital-images.net)at one or more of his workshops and we’ve all visited Bosque Del Apache from time to time. You can read James' interview with Ron here: interview with Ron Reznick. Since 2004 we have embarked on photo shoots at numerous other locations including Bryce Canyon, Zion, Silver Salmon Creek Lodge in Alaska, Antelope Canyon, Monument Valley, Yellowstone, Tetons, and Yosemite Valley. We have maintained a close email relationship and additional friends have joined our small group over the years. This trip was planned to coincide with the full moon on December 12th. As it turned out only myself and Stan Litwin started off on the trip and then David Cramer (davidcramer.com) joined us for a couple of days. My plan was to arrive on December 10th and fly home the afternoon of December 13th, thus providing a window to hopefully shoot Sandhill Cranes or Snow Geese with the full moon in the background.

Art Morris (birdsasart@att.net) has an excellent web site full of valuable information on various shooting locations. You can read James' interview with Arti Morris here: interview with Artie Morris. I had purchased his “Bosque Site Guide” back in 2004 and downloaded the various updates since then. Joe told me Art was going to release his 2008 update on December 11th and I emailed him to see if I could obtain my copy on the 9th before leaving. Art very graciously released the update to me and it proved valuable for our trip. I highly recommend it if you are planning to visit Bosque Del Apache. It is extremely informative with maps and a great deal of information about the area.

Our pre trip daily “attack plan” for Bosque was as follows: Head out before dawn and shoot the Snow Geese “blast off” near the main observation deck. After the “blast off” we would head over to the Crane Pools to shoot the Sandhill Cranes lifting off in small groups. That usually finishes around 8:30 or so and then we would plan to drive the two loops in Bosque looking for raptors, coyotes, pheasants, roadrunners, etc. to shoot until around 10:30 a.m. Then back to Socorro for lunch and rest for a while. Around 3:00 p.m. head back out to drive around the loops a couple more times and then back to the main observation deck to shoot the “fly in” until sundown. Depending upon the rising and setting moon times and locations we would try to adjust our positions accordingly to get that shot I’d envisioned.

Wednesday, December 10th

We arrived in Albuquerque around noon. We picked up our baggage and rental car and headed for Socorro. Stan was hungry so we stopped off at a gas station/Subway combination just outside of Albuquerque. We arrived in Socorro around 2:00 p.m. and checked into the Holiday Inn Express. The last time I was in Socorro I stayed at the Best Western but the Holiday Inn Express is fairly new and the accommodations were excellent (free internet including computers and free breakfasts).

We put our bags in the room and headed South to Bosque Del Apache. It’s takes about twenty minutes to drive to the refuge. I had my Nikon D2X with the 200-400VR mounted on a Wimberly Sidekick attached to an Arca Swiss B1 ball head on Gitzo 1325 legs. I also had my 17-35 and 70-200VR lenses, and 1.4 and 1.7 teleconverters. The 200-400VR was planned to be my workhorse lens for this trip. I’d also brought along a Better Beamer flash extender which I planned to try with my Nikon SB-800 Speedlight Flash. I’d never used the Better Beamer before so this would be a learning experience.

We made a couple of runs around the loops but didn’t see any real activity worth shooting. The moon was rising around 3:00 PM. and unfortunately there wasn’t any bird action in that direction that early. The cranes starting coming into the main impoundment around 4:30 PM. They were flying in very low so the moon by that time was just too high in the sky. We had good action right up and through sunset but the moon shot didn’t happen. I did experiment with the Better Beamer and the following shot was taken just before 6:00 PM in very low light with the flash and extender operating and the ISO set to 800 to keep the shutter speed reasonably high. This shot shows the power of the Better Beamer. Sunset was at 4:59 PM and the end of civil twilight was at 5:26 PM so it being 6:00 PM you get some idea of just how dark it was when this shot was taken. The crane was about 75 yards away and I was amazed at the ability of the flash with the extender to light up the bird and the surrounding water. The shot is nothing special but considering the light conditions it was surprising how well the flash and extender combination did the job.

It got really cold after sunset and Stan was not feeling well. By the time we got back to the room, he was shaking and unable to warm up. Then he became very sick and couldn’t stay out of the bathroom all night. We concluded he must have had either food poisoning (don’t buy your sandwich from a gas station), or perhaps he had brought a touch of the flu with him from home. In any case, it was a very long night and the next morning he stayed in bed while I went out for the “blast off”.

I was aware that another member of our group, David Cramer, was going to be in the area during our visit so I decided to contact him via email that evening. David lives in Placitas, New Mexico and his photographic workshops include Bosque Del Apache, “Wild Horses”, and scenic locations throughout the area. I knew he had a private “one on one” workshop planned but thought I’d contact him and see if he had any specific recommendations for our visit. This was during the freak storms that hit the Southeast and it turned out his student had been unable to come for the workshop because the New Orleans airport was closed due to excessive amounts of snow. David emailed me back that he would be at the Bernardo Refuge Thursday afternoon with some friends “shooting for fun” and perhaps we might get together there. I’d never visited the Bernardo Refuge. It’s located about 25 miles North of Socorro and I told David we’d try to make it depending on how Stan was feeling and how the action was at Bosque.

Thursday, December 11th

As I indicated Wednesday night was long and tiring. Stan still wasn’t feeling very well when the alarm went off at 5:30 AM. I had hoped to be at the main impoundment well before first light to make sure I caught the Snow Geese “blast off” but I was also pretty tired from the long night. Stan decided he would fore go the morning trip and try to sleep in for a while and hopefully shake off the food poisoning. I was moving kind of slow and by the time I got downstairs, had some breakfast, warmed up and de-iced the car (it was around 15 degrees not including the wind chill) it was close to 7:00 AM. I headed out to Bosque and just missed the “blast off”. I went to the Crane Pools outside the impoundment. The following photos are typical of this location. The Sandhill Cranes spend their evenings in the shallow water to protect themselves from predators. They lift off in small groups in the early morning and you can position yourself so they fly directly across in front of you or sometimes right at your position. I use the method taught to me years ago by Ron Reznick. The shutter is “disarmed” for auto focus and you use the “AF-ON” button with your thumb to focus independent of firing the shutter with your first finger. The result is less “hunting” by the lens and much better results for sharp images. I use “Dynamic Tracking” and “Continuous Focus” settings for birds in flight and I think the results speak for themselves. The 200-400VR lens is very sharp and works well in combination with the Wimberly Sidekick provided you have a strong ball head and sturdy tripod legs. Here are three shots from that morning. The first one shows the cranes leaning forward and starting to prepare for lift off from the cold icy water. It often takes them some time to free their legs and get themselves moving. The second shot shows a group powering up and beginning to take flight. The third shot shows a “fly by” right after leaving the water in which you can still see some ice on the closest bird’s leg.

I left the Crane Pools around 9:30 AM and headed back to Socorro to check on Stan. He was still under the weather but said he wanted to go out and shoot. We went downstairs and Stan tried to eat some food. I suggested we rest a while and then check out the Bernardo Refuge. We left around noon and arrived at the Bernardo Refuge around 12:30 PM. We found out to our dismay that Stan had left his battery in the charger so we headed back to Socorro to get it. Stan didn’t have a spare battery but if you are going to Bosque, I strongly advise having at least two batteries. Beside the obvious reason, this is important because it is so cold during the peak season that your batteries will run down quickly. After making another round trip we finally arrived back at Bernardo around 1:30 PM. We drove the “loop” there and we were surprised at the large numbers of both Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes present and also the fact that we were the only people in the entire refuge. There is a large observation platform located strategically so that the cranes fly fairly close from all directions. It has two levels and we positioned ourselves on the upper level and started shooting. The action was continuous and Stan was calling the shots from the right side and I was calling them from the left. This was some of the best birds in flight photography locations we had ever experienced.

Around 3:00 PM David drove up with his two friends, Jerry Goffe (naturephotoworks.com) and Lee Grymkowski. Lee is an outstanding photographer and his portraits are exquisite. Jerry is a forensic photographer and he also volunteers at Bosque Del Apache. He provided some excellent information on how the migratory birds were behaving. The refuges are government run and they plant corn for the birds. In order to keep the soil fertile and productive for the long term, they are trying to vary locations where the corn is being planted. The workers knock down a few rows of corn every so often to allow the birds to feed. The birds don’t like to feed on the corn when the stalks are still standing because the tall stalks provide too much cover for predators. Somehow the birds manage to spread the word as to where the corn is being knocked down and that is where they go. This year, there was a concerted effort to move more birds to the Bernardo Refuge and give the Bosque land some time off. There were still plenty of birds in Bosque but this did help explain the large numbers present in Bernardo.

The five of us all had excellent positions in the observation structure. Jerry and Lee are Canon shooters and they chose the bottom location while David, Stan, and I (all Nikon shooters) remained on the upper deck. Needless to say, there was a lot of Canon/Nikon rivalry and ribbing. After a while Jerry and Lee also moved up top with us.

The moon started rising around 4:00 PM and the cranes were constantly flying across between our location and the moon’s rising path. The problem was the birds were either too high or too low as the moon was climbing rapidly. There was no shortage of birds and finally we did get some shots that were pretty close to what I had hoped for, although the brightness of the daylight was washing out the moon to some extent. Here are some shots taken from around 4:30 PM to sundown.

We all adjourned for dinner at a local Mexican restaurant and spend a nice evening swapping photo stories. Needless to say, I was very happy with the shots taken that day and my introduction to the Bernardo Refuge.

Friday, December 12th

Stan was now feeling better and we were up at 5:30 and off to Bosque by 6:30. We arrived in plenty of time to set up for the “blast off” and we positioned ourselves on the road just before the main observation deck. There were quite a few photographers present but plenty of room to set up and wait for the action to start. Here are two shots taken before and during the “blast off”.

The “blast off” is something that has to be experienced to fully appreciate the visual and auditory stimulus. There were in excess of 20,000 Snow Geese present and once the “blast off” starts in earnest they are all taking off and flying out to the corn fields to feed. Definitely something bird photographers should experience at least once in their lifetime.

After the “blast off” we relocated to the Crane Pools and David joined us for the Sandhill Crane lift offs. The three of us fired off shots continuously for over an hour and here are some of my favorites from that morning.

Once all the cranes had taken off we headed back into the refuge and started driving the loops looking for raptors, coyotes, road runners, pheasants, and other birds to shoot but unfortunately we didn’t find much of interest. In past years we have always seen many different types of raptors but this was the second day we didn’t find anything close enough to shoot. There were some bald eagles out in the middle of the main body of water in a dead tree but they were just too far to get a really nice shot. We drove around a couple of times and finally stopped at one of the larger cornfields to get some photos of the Snow Geese. They were there in very large numbers and we managed to get some decent photos even though the lighting was starting to get a little harsh.

We decided to grab some lunch and while we were eating David asked if we’d like to shoot some wild horses. This sounded great to Stan and I so after lunch we got into David’s Honda CRV and off we went into the hinterlands. David soon had us off the paved road and onto dirt tracks that seemed to continually branch off from one another and wind deeper and deeper into the vast high desert terrain. After about an hour of driving and searching we spotted a “band” of eight wild horses. We fired off a few shots from the vehicle but the horses were over a quarter mile away. David told us they are very skittish and generally won’t allow you to get too close. He suggested we try to walk a circuitous route initially away from them and then circling around out of sight to try and get some closer shots. Since we were going to be shooting quickly and might not have time to set up the tripods, I switched to the 70-200VR lens with the 1.7 teleconverter. These shots were taken around 2:30 PM and the light wasn’t ideal but using exposure compensation we managed to hold the details fairly well. We were able to cut the distance about in half but the horses weren’t fooled and we only had a minute or so to fire off some quick shots before they took off up the hill. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) owns the land and there are a number of wild “bands” thriving here. If you want to experience this unique photo opportunity, I strongly suggest you go with an expert like David Cramer. Without David showing us where to go and how to find them we wouldn’t have had a chance. Here are a few shots that show how healthy and beautiful these wild horses are in their desert habitat.

By the time we got back to our car it was approaching sundown. David had to drive back home and we decided to call it a day and head for Socorro and grab some dinner.

Saturday, December 13th

We had an early afternoon flight out of Albuquerque and we decided to sleep in a little later and then pack everything into the car and head north, stopping at the Bernardo Refuge on the way to take some final photos. Once again the action was fast and furious. Here are four shots from our last morning.

This last photo is one of my favorites. At the Bernardo Refuge the Sandhill Cranes come in waves moving up from the Rio Grande or heading back in that direction. The ability to capture excellent in flight photos fairly close to our location is outstanding. If you haven’t been to this area in the winter I strongly recommend you put it on your list of places to visit. It is truly a unique and wonderful experience.

Bernie Weinzimmer can be contacted at bweinzimmer@comcast.net. You can also visit his website at www.pbase.com/saratoga_lefty.

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