Earlier this month, I made a trip to Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge for some birding and make photographs. This year it was windy, overcast and really cold when I arrived at the wildlife refuge. After a couple of days, the wind subsided but it remained cold for much of the days.
For the first time, I managed to get a decent image of an American Kestrel; the overcast weather softened the light so we can see a lot of detail in the shadows.
Near the entrance to the wildlife refuge, a Loggerhead Shrike was perched on a fence post.
Later that first day, I made this image of the shrike on a thistle. It may have been the same bird but was about a 1/4-mile away from the first image.
Alongside the south loop, I found a frozen pond where a group of Yellowlegs were waiting for the ice to thaw that morning. Later in the day, I returned to the same pond to find the ice had thawed. Several other birds had moved in during the day. While observing the birds, this male Buffelhead Duck spent much of the day, paddling downstream in the pond, feeding occasionally. Once he reached the end, he would fly to the other end of the pond, and repeat the process. I did manage to capture this one image as he was taking flight from the end of the pond.
There are several other animals that may be found in New Mexico. I found this Javelina crossing the road to join a group of Javelina grazing in the field to the left.
Towards the end of the day, a Roadrunner approached me. It seemed that this Roadrunner was working one stretch of road that runs between two ponds. This is one image that I captured close to sunset.
At the end of daylight, I headed out of the refuge for some dinner. The sun had set behind the mountains to the west of the refuge. However, the last rays for sunlight lit up the few remaining clouds in the sky.
More to come.