Geese at Bosque: Few and Far Between....

[Arthur Morris]

2009 has not been great so far and prospects do not look good other than the action at the two crane pools. For details, see today's blog post at www.BIRDSASART-Blog.com. This image was created with the Canon 70-200mm f/4 L IS lens handheld at 85mm with the EOS-7D. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/10 sec. at f/7.1 in Tv mode.

The key here was to pan with the birds to maximize sharpness while getting a bit of pan blur effect on the BKGR.

A few bird cut by the frame edges were removed and three big white blob blurred birds were painstakingly removed from in front of the tree where they had merged with other birds.... Though it is not always possible, it is best to try to avoid having any birds between you and the flock you are photographing...

[Jim Fenton]

Geez this makes me want to get back to this place Artie :)

Lovely light, just the right amount of blur throughout and the background ism just what it is...beautiful Bosque.

Interesting that there aren't many birds here...we seem to be having the same issue up here at Plum Island and the vicinity.

They must be somewhere?

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the idea and particularly the BG.

Have you seen many young birds? I remember reading that many snow geese were not able to nest because of a very late beginning of spring in some areas in Canada.

[Harshad Barve]

Guruji
Something which I can try with Greater Flamingos here , Beautiful image , lovely effect and nice BG
TFS

[Roger Clark]

Artie,

Some birders here in Colorado are reporting seeing large flocks of snow geese as well as sandhill cranes flying south-southwest, and commenting they've never seen them this late in these numbers. So maybe more of these birds will make it to Bosque. Of course that doesn't help solve some of the other issues, like corn in the farm fields near the road.

Roger

[Dave Leroy]

It is always good to see what settings you use and in this case the effect.
There appears to be lots of geese around here, Vanc. BC, and hunters limit has been increased this year. These geese are from Wrangel Island, Russia so probably different from the geese you are seeing. I understand the long range forecast, at least for Western Canada ,is for a warmer then average winter, so perhaps as Roger mentioned the birds are still on the move. Dave

[Arthur Morris]

Axel, Come to think of it, it seems that there are very few young Snow Geese around.

RNC, Thanks for the info.

The rest: thanks for stopping by.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Artie,

Some birders here in Colorado are reporting seeing large flocks of snow geese as well as sandhill cranes flying south-southwest, and commenting they've never seen them this late in these numbers. So maybe more of these birds will make it to Bosque. Of course that doesn't help solve some of the other issues, like corn in the farm fields near the road.

Roger

It would be interesting to know if this is due to mild conditions up north or to the late beginning of the breeding season.

[Kiran Poonacha]

nice effect acheived here guru.. the lanscape adds well to the effect... congrats.

[allanrube]

Artie, I arrive at Bosque tomorrow around 4 pm. Would you suggest going to the pools my first afternoon there and on Thursday morning?

[Arthur Morris]

Sorry Alan, I missed that. As i just wrote in the Bosque Site Guide update, that is an option. If there are clouds on the eastern horizon, it is generally best to proceed to the refuge. I reveal two brand new 2009 sunrise spots in the update. Updates are free. If you have purchased the Bosque Site Guide let me know via e-mail and I will send you an advanced copy. To learn more about our Site Guides, visit https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/category.aspx?catid=19

[allanrube]

I can wait as I left Bosque this afternoon. :) I am interested in what the 2 new spots are though. It was cloudy just on Thursday.