Bosque Blue-morph Snow Goose

[Katie Rupp]

There were only a few of these blue-morphs among the flocks of Snow Geese at Bosque and I thought they were quite interesting so was glad to get a few keepers. C&C encouraged and greatly appreciated.

Canon 40D; f5.6, 1/3200; manual exp; ISO 400; 500mm; HH

[Gail Spitler]

Hi katie - boy you are going to town HH that 500mm. Good for you. It is great arrow to have in your quiver. The Snow Goose looks sharp, nice exposure, and I love the wing position. I assume you tried this in landscape orientation?

Very nice.
Cheers
Gail

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Katie

Excellent pose and exposure right on !! Love that blue sky Would crop from bottom and a little form right !!

Normally there are lots of blue-morphs at Bosque, they are my favorites !!! Excellent image !!!

[Kerry Perkins]

Hello Katie, sorry we weren't at Bosque at the same time! Love the blue phase geese and you got a nice shot of one. Well done with the big glass!!

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Great job handholding the big lens. Love the sharpness, the flight pose with good wing and tail span. Agree with Alfred about the crop.

[Declan Troy]

The "blue genes" increase in frequency in the more easterly colonies and are almost absent in the most western colonies. The geese going through Bosque are mostly from the western arctic (many from the large colonies on Banks Island) so not so many blues there. Even these blues are not as blue as they can be as most of them tend to be heterozygotes (mixed blue and white genes); hence the extensive white on the belly.

[Katie Rupp]

Thank you Declan, for sharing the background info about the blue-morphs; since I had never seen/heard of this variety previously, I went to my guide book and I remember wondering why my bird had so much white on its breast. I really appreciate that you took the time to share your expertise.
Warm Regards,
Katie

[Declan Troy]

No problem. I could rattle on and on but fortunately didn't. Back in the day I used to study snow geese. At that time there was a single colony in Alaska (and hence the United States) but there are many more now. Here is an image of (as I recall) the first "blue goose" to nest in Alaska. As one might expect the immigrants were males and for quite some time all the blue goslings were males as well (just "luck" not related to color). Eventually we had a few female blues and they became more regular but still rare splashes of color in the colony. Some of our birds migrated through Bosque (look for blue collars) so it was easier to justify a trip down there. I need to find another excuse!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2604/4153255163_506628c641_o.jpg