After working with the geese, we continued along the the road beside the same ice covered lake, where we observed birds in the marshes. As we walked along the road, a Marsh Wren called out from the cat tails.
Marsh Wren On Cat Tails, Monte Vista.
This tiny bird was really close. This allowed me to make a large image of this little wren in the frame.
Marsh Wren On Cat Tails, Monte Vista, No 2.
I had the opportunity of making several images as the wren flew and perched to several cat tails that were located along the edge of the frozen lake.
Marsh Wren On Cat Tails, Monte Vista, No 3.
Another bird that we find at the marshes is the American Coot. In this image, the coot is walking on the ice close to the cat tails at the the edge of the march.
American Coot, On Ice, No. 1.
These coots are really distinctive. They have these huge green legs and feet that make it easy to walk through reeds, grasses and cat tails that forms the marsh.
American Coot, Swimming, Monte Vista.
It is fun to watch the coots in the lakes during this time of the year. The coots typically pair up and are looking for mates. They can be seen chasing one another around the lake. This behavior is really prevalent when these birds are on open water. Later in the day, the ice often melts as the sun rises, warming the mountain air. I have made several images of the coots exhibiting this behavior later in the day during previous years.
One of the lakes in the Wildlife Refuge, usually freezes over during the cold nights of early March. In previous years, we have always found Sandhill Cranes and Canada Geese in this lake, where they spend the night safe from predators. This year, we found the geese but no cranes. Perhaps the cranes found a better location following the gusty winds on the previous day. I decided to attempt captures of Canada Geese in flight during the early morning. In the image below, a pair of geese had just taken off. I like the way the geese are reflected from the ice as the fly above the ice.
Pair Of Canada Geese, Taking Off.
In the following image, I captured a single goose taking off. Again, I like the reflection of the goose in the ice and also the two legs, hanging down, almost touching the ice!
Canada Goose, Take Off From Ice.
Over the next hour or so, groups of Canada Geese left the frozen lake to head towards feeding areas in the wildlife refuge.
Canada Geese Family, In Flight Over Marshes.
Sometimes I am lucky in capturing a goose that spread its wings. In this image, the rising sun lit up one side of the goose as the wings were spread out.
Canada Goose Spreading Wings, Monte Vista.
When several geese take of in a group, it is difficult to have all members of the group in focus. I had locked focus tracking on one goose as the whole group took flight so that I had one bird in focus while the others were out of focus.
Canada Goose, Part of the Group, Monte-Vista.
In this final image, a group of six geese were all lined up adjacent to one another. This allowed me the have all of the birds in the group to be in sharp focus. I also like the background where we can see some of the snow on the mountains. Definitely an image from the mountains of Colorado!
Early this month we spent a few days at Monte Vista, to view the Sandhill Cranes and other birds that migrate to the summer breeding grounds further north. We took the opportunity to visit before the start of the annual Sandhill Crane Festival.
When we arrived at Monte Vista in the late afternoon, it was very windy. Gusty wind continued for our first full day in Monte Vista. Early that morning, we found one lake where some Cinnamon Teal ducks sheltered from the windy conditions, protected by cat tails.
Cinnamon Teal Group, No 1.
The following image should the colorful male ducks with their cinnamon plumage and those red eyes!
Cinnamon Teal Group, No 2.
On our second full day at Monte Vista, the weather was quiet and with no wind. This time we found several more Cinnamon Teal ducks in the same lake.
Cinnamon Teal Group, Monte Vista.
A mating pair were swimming along the edge of the cat tails.
Cinnamon Teal Pair, Monte Vista.
In the following image, the female Cinnamon Teal decided to exercise her wings!
Cinnamon Teal Female, Ready For Flight.
During the course of the morning, we found a male Buffelhead Duck that made several visits to various parts of the lake — probably looking for other Buffelheads! I managed to capture an image of the male duck as it was in flight.
Over the last month, we have had a few snow storms and some really cold weather. When the snow melts during the day, the water flows down the street and freezes as ice during the night. The melt and refreeze cycle happens several times until all the snow and ice has melted and evaporated.
This offers great opportunities to capture street ice. The ice patterns offered many different photographs to be captured. In the image below, the ice has melted and refrozen to look like a slow flowing river estuary.
River Estuary, 2025.
Our street still had many autumn leaves that were trapped under the ice.
Leaf Stranded By The Ice, 2025.
As the ice re-freezes, many air bubbles are trapped in the ice, or form in water below the ice. This monochrome image contains a string of bubbles, I have named “Bubble Necklace”.
Bubble Necklace, 2025.
Sometimes the bubbles form long string of little bubbles. This creates forms that look like the nebula, similar to those captured by the Hubble telescope.
Bubble Nebula, 2025.
Very often, the ice has yellow-brown patches. For some of these images, I have converted the color to monochrome.
Ice Nebula, 2025.
In this final image, the curved lines formed in the ice looks like surf breaking offshore. The pale beige-yellow is reminiscent of sand below the water!
Offshore Surf, 2025.
I made half a dozen photo sessions to capture the ice. There is another snow storm and freezing weather forecast latter this week. Maybe there will be more opportunities to capture some more street ice images?
After posting images from our recent visit to Bosque del Apache, I omitted some interesting images. In the following image, I was photographing one Red-Tailed Hawk. The hawk took flight just before the following hawk flew in. Perhaps there was a dispute over territory? The hawk below looks like a dark morph variant, that has significantly darker coloring compared to most birds in that species.
Red-Tailed Hawk, In Flight.
In the previous post, I mentioned the Coyote that moved in when we were birding. Well. Here is the Coyote. Apparently it was one of three Coyotes that other folks had seen a little earlier!
Coyote, Bosque del Apache.
Here is one of the Sandhill Cranes coming in to land, that I was photographing while the Coyote was in the area.
Sandhill Crane Landing, Bosque del Apache.
While photographing shore birds, a Northern Harrier flew in to do some hunting. These birds are really nimble and perform impressive aerobatic maneuvers while hunting. This Harrier turned back as it started to dive.
Northern Harrier, Diving No 1.
Here is another image as the Harrier continued diving. Both images have been heavily cropped to show more detail, because the Harrier was a long distance away.
Northern Harrier, Diving No 2.
At the end of our last day at Bosque del Apache, the setting sun was streaming through the bushes and trees.
Continuing with our trip to the refuge… We made another visit to the pond where we found shore birds from the previous day. Three Yellowlegs were meandering through the pond.
Three Greater Yellowlegs, Bosque del Apache, 2024.
There was a disturbance as a Northern Harrier flew in, hunting for prey. No luck this time, so the Harrier left quickly.
Northern Harrier, Hunting.
We also found several Northern Shrikes in the refuge. I approached on foot and managed to get reasonably close to make this image while the bird was perched near the top of a tree.
Northern Shrike, Perched, Bosque del Apache.
Nearby, we found a Great Blue Heron close to the edge of an irrigation ditch. This looked like an immature heron. These herons are often seen standing in water or close to water, where they typically hunt for fish. Unexpectedly, this heron was interested in something in the grass.
Immature Great Blue Heron.
We were fortunate to find a Roadrunner that was waiting at the roadside. One of the Park Rangers’ trucks was passing by, so the Roadrunner snuck into the long grass. After a few minutes, the Roadrunner came out again and crossed to our side of the road. Here, I had the opportunity of making several images of this bird until it darted into the bush.
Road Runner, Bosque del Apache.
At the end of the day, we had moved to the same pond as the previous day. I made this image of a family of Sandhill Cranes that were returning to this pond for the night.
Sandhill Crane Family Returning At Sunset.
On the previous day, a few coyotes had visited the same pond, but we did not see any predatory behavior.
During the last week of the 2024, we made a trip to Socorro, to visit Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge. Soon after arriving at the Refuge, we had a couple of hours of birding, before the sun set for the day. One of the first birds that we encountered was this American Kestrel perched on a Cottonwood tree close to the entrance.
American Kestrel, Bosque del Apache, 2024.
The next morning, we headed out to the Refuge. Shortly after sunrise, we stopped by a pond where several Sandhill Cranes were busy feeding. Nearby, a Bald Eagle had caught a Snow Goose, and was feeding with two immature eagles; we were too distant to get a good view of that scene.
Sandhill Cranes At Pond, Sunrise, Bosque del Apache, 2024.
We continued to visit some other locations. The refuge have several ponds that are flooded during different years. We found a newly flooded pond that had several shore birds, in addition to the usual ducks and geese. We found a Greater Yellowlegs feeding in the pond.
Greater Yellowlegs, 2024.
In another pond, we found several Northern Pintail ducks feeding along the edges of he pond. In this image, a group of male Pintails were swimming to a new location in the pond.
Pair Of Northern Pintail Males, 2024.
During the afternoon, we made a trip to the southern loop of the refuge. In one of the ponds we found a female Canvasback duck. In a previous year, we found a Canvasback in the same pond. Maybe this is the same bird?
Female Canvasback, 2024.
Towards the end of the day, we found a Say’s Phoebe. This flycatcher made several trips to catch bugs, returning intermittently to a perched on a thistle plant.
Say’s Phoebe, Bosque Del Apache, 2024.
The ponds in the refuge are used by several waterfowl species that roost for the night. He they are protected from predators. A pair of Sandhill Cranes had flown in from daytime feeding grounds.
Sandhill Cranes Landing At Sunset, Bosque del Apache.
There were several streams of incoming groups of cranes as the sun dipped below the horizon.
Sandhill Crane Silhouette, Bosque del Apache, 2024.
I tracked several incoming groups of Sandhill Cranes as they were silhouetted against the evening sky. I waited until one of the cranes dropped its legs in preparation for a landing in the pond.
Returning to Reykjavik, I parked by the harbor. You may remember one of the first images of the ship “Steffano”, some two weeks earlier (https://matchgrun.com/blog/2024/11/28/iceland-2024/). The hull had been painted.
Steffano In Dry Dock, After Paint.
The hull had been sand-blasted and re-painted. Also, those silver blocks below the waterline are sacrificial anodes (probably zinc), to reduce rusting of the steel hull. Here is a side view of this trawler, with workers busy with their tasks. At the bows, the height of this ship is about 15m (about 48 feet).
Steffano And Workers, Reykjavik.
My trip to Iceland was coming to an end. So, later that night, I made some images along the waterfront. In this image below, the Harpa Concert Hall is lit up. The lighting various with a kaleidoscope for colors at night.
Harpa Concert Hall At Night, Reykjavik.
It had rained earlier that evening, so I made some images the include reflections of the window lights in a water puddle on the pavement.
Harpa Lights, Reflections.
I continued along the waterfront to the Sunset Warrior. This sculpture is lit be sodium lights, hence the yellow lighting in this image.
Sunset Warrior At Night.
I also included some detail of the oars.
Sunset Warrior Oars, At Night.
Early next morning, after leaving the hostel, I headed towards Þingfellir on the Golden Circle route. Making a detour on that sub-zero (freezing) morning, I discovered the Þorufoss. Although I had traveled this road previously, I never noticed these waterfalls. Several early morning visitors had stopped at the parking lot, so I was curious!
Þorufoss, Golden Circle, After Sunrise.
Here is a closer view of the falls.
Þorufoss, Golden Circle.
After leaving the falls, I continued along the mountain road to find this scene, where there is a snow-covered amphitheater. Somewhere close to this location is a ski resort, that I had discovered a couple of weeks earlier on the other side of the mountains.
Mountains, Golden Circle, After Sunrise.
That was one of the final images that I made on this trip, before returning to Keflavik to return the rental car and proceed to the airport.
