The first time I went to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge near Socorro, New Mexico, was in December 2016 and the experience was amazing. I was standing at the pond outside the refuge gates along with perhaps 50 other photographers, cameras lined up on tripods side-by-side so close I had to be careful not to stumble into one as I moved around in the freezing dark as we waited for sunrise and the rise of the birds. My hands were so cold I could not feel the shutter button and I had to run to the car, parked very near, to warm them up for a few seconds. That time someone from B&H Photo was standing right next to me and, being fairly new at photography and definitely still learning wildlife photography, I was impressed to be photographing among the “big guys.” As I recall during that visit there was even a film crew photographing some kind of commercial wildlife video, I never learned what it was for but most likely it was for the Sandhill Cranes, a bird that the park is famous for as the birds, at that point, were there in large numbers during December and January for the winter migration.
The park was jammed with photographers and birds were everywhere. At the pond that morning in 2016 there was a gigantic fly-off of hundreds, maybe in the thousands, of snow geese, it was mass chaos as I tried to photograph it and the birds were right over my head and the roar of their flight was something truly incredible. I was hooked on photographing at that park and other wildlife parks in later years. That first fly-off was a magical experience. And to be at Bosque, a place that wildlife photographers from around the world knew about and considered to be one of the best wildlife refuges in the world to photograph at was mind-boggling for me as a photographer still learning about the craft of photographing wildlife (I started on that journey in 2014). Fast forward to now, December 2024, my fourth trip, and Bosque del Apache is a very different place to photograph in.
Birds, of any kind, go where the food is good and plentiful. In recent years the cranes and snow geese seem to prefer the ponds at Ladd S. Gordon Waterfowl Complex, a site about 30 minutes north of Socorro. The docent at Bosque said something about the corn crop "failing" (and I also read that) and the biologists wanting "to provide a more natural grain than corn for the birds." While Bosque has some small flocks of both birds it’s nothing like it was years ago and the small groupings are widely spread out, which the people who run Bosque apparently approve of, I have both read that and been told that. The management practices at Bosque did change at some point in the past several years and that seems to have affected the available resources and the majority of the birds seem to have voted that they are not happy with the changes. Birds like corn! You can do an internet search about what has been happening at Bosque with the birds and see what the staff at Bosque and other organizations focused on the refuge and the Sandhill Cranes in particular are saying about this as people are asking, “what happened to the birds?” I’m wondering how the town of Socorro is getting by as it’s a town that seems to have been built upon the draw of the wildlife refuge. At some of the motels I drove past I could not even see one car in the parking lot and it was the prime migration time of both Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese.
Yes, you can get a photograph of Sandhill Cranes at Bosque, maybe even of Snow Geese, but the opportunities to do that are less than optimal although decent shots can still be taken. I tend to focus in closely on a subject and Bosque did provide that opportunity with the Sandhill Cranes not too far away in one particular spot, the cranes have been in that same spot for multiple visits of mine and it provides an opportunity in the warm morning light, and I do love the morning light at Bosque, to get shots of cranes landing and taking off. The spot for this is on the north loop, just after the sharp turn that takes the road west, and just past the handicap parking spot.
The park was jammed with photographers and birds were everywhere. At the pond that morning in 2016 there was a gigantic fly-off of hundreds, maybe in the thousands, of snow geese, it was mass chaos as I tried to photograph it and the birds were right over my head and the roar of their flight was something truly incredible. I was hooked on photographing at that park and other wildlife parks in later years. That first fly-off was a magical experience. And to be at Bosque, a place that wildlife photographers from around the world knew about and considered to be one of the best wildlife refuges in the world to photograph at was mind-boggling for me as a photographer still learning about the craft of photographing wildlife (I started on that journey in 2014). Fast forward to now, December 2024, my fourth trip, and Bosque del Apache is a very different place to photograph in.
Birds, of any kind, go where the food is good and plentiful. In recent years the cranes and snow geese seem to prefer the ponds at Ladd S. Gordon Waterfowl Complex, a site about 30 minutes north of Socorro. The docent at Bosque said something about the corn crop "failing" (and I also read that) and the biologists wanting "to provide a more natural grain than corn for the birds." While Bosque has some small flocks of both birds it’s nothing like it was years ago and the small groupings are widely spread out, which the people who run Bosque apparently approve of, I have both read that and been told that. The management practices at Bosque did change at some point in the past several years and that seems to have affected the available resources and the majority of the birds seem to have voted that they are not happy with the changes. Birds like corn! You can do an internet search about what has been happening at Bosque with the birds and see what the staff at Bosque and other organizations focused on the refuge and the Sandhill Cranes in particular are saying about this as people are asking, “what happened to the birds?” I’m wondering how the town of Socorro is getting by as it’s a town that seems to have been built upon the draw of the wildlife refuge. At some of the motels I drove past I could not even see one car in the parking lot and it was the prime migration time of both Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese.
Yes, you can get a photograph of Sandhill Cranes at Bosque, maybe even of Snow Geese, but the opportunities to do that are less than optimal although decent shots can still be taken. I tend to focus in closely on a subject and Bosque did provide that opportunity with the Sandhill Cranes not too far away in one particular spot, the cranes have been in that same spot for multiple visits of mine and it provides an opportunity in the warm morning light, and I do love the morning light at Bosque, to get shots of cranes landing and taking off. The spot for this is on the north loop, just after the sharp turn that takes the road west, and just past the handicap parking spot.
I visited both Bosque and Ladd Gordon during my four-day stay, shooting at both parks in the morning and evening on different days. I never experienced a fly-off at Bosque of either bird but did experience that several times at Ladd Gordon of both birds, some of the Snow Geese seeming to fly right at me which made nice shots. At Ladd Gordon there were hundreds of Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes and I saw multiple fly-offs of both birds. The birds at Ladd Gordon were very close, while the birds at Bosque were quite far away in the middle of the bodies of water. I was at Bosque three years ago, in 2022, and at one pond during that visit the Sandhill Cranes were very close and I did get some nice shots that year, but the birds being close on that particular pond was not the case this year. I’m not a biologist but the changing of the ponds at Bosque, some filled one year and not the next year, has maybe put off the birds. This year there was barely a handful of birds at that outer pond, which was filled this time but not last time I was there in 2022, this is the pond where I first experienced the incredible fly-off at Bosque. Ladd Gordon added a very large pond to their wildlife refuge and it was filled with both Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese and had constant action.
Bosque does offer more opportunity to photograph wildlife other than Sandhill Cranes or geese, but I make the 2,100 mile RT (2,700 with the drive around the wildlife loops), 15-hour drive (one way) primarily to photograph Sandhill Cranes. I can photograph all kinds of geese and ducks two hours away from where I live in California but it's very difficult to get Sandhill Crane shots for me as the cranes are always far away. I was able to photograph Javelinas (animals that look like pigs but are not in the pig family), small birds, deer, and wild turkeys while there this year. I think the morning light at Bosque is better than the light at Ladd Gordon, and the setting is such that the direction of the light is better, and the surrounding at Bosque is better in that the park is larger and there are no buildings, poles, lines, etc. Ladd Gordon is a much smaller park and there are buildings and a highway that need to be avoided at times. The new pond at Ladd Gordon is situated so that when standing at the pond in the morning I was staring directly into the morning sun so not much of a morning shot site.
Bosque does offer more opportunity to photograph wildlife other than Sandhill Cranes or geese, but I make the 2,100 mile RT (2,700 with the drive around the wildlife loops), 15-hour drive (one way) primarily to photograph Sandhill Cranes. I can photograph all kinds of geese and ducks two hours away from where I live in California but it's very difficult to get Sandhill Crane shots for me as the cranes are always far away. I was able to photograph Javelinas (animals that look like pigs but are not in the pig family), small birds, deer, and wild turkeys while there this year. I think the morning light at Bosque is better than the light at Ladd Gordon, and the setting is such that the direction of the light is better, and the surrounding at Bosque is better in that the park is larger and there are no buildings, poles, lines, etc. Ladd Gordon is a much smaller park and there are buildings and a highway that need to be avoided at times. The new pond at Ladd Gordon is situated so that when standing at the pond in the morning I was staring directly into the morning sun so not much of a morning shot site.
It's clear that no one thinks about photography or photographers in wildlife refuges but we often bring a lot of money into towns near wildlife refuges and giving us a little thought would be nice! Sometimes it's our photos online that bring in the public. I’m clear that will not happen in my lifetime. (Yes, I'm doing a bit of whining!)
It turned out to be a good trip and I got many nice images, in the hundreds, and I don't want to imply that nice images are not to be had at either park. Both parks offer possible shots and each park is very different so going to both parks to check them out is I think the best bet for a photographer. And, of course, every photographer is different in what shots they want and what scene or subject works for them.
Maybe the staff at Bosque will give up on what I see as attempting to be politically correct with the birds (i.e., corn is bad for the birds, not natural) before all the cranes and geese stop going there altogether. I know there was also a concern with water and how much water the corn takes but the birds seem to like the corn best. Ladd Gordon is feeding the birds something they want to eat, corn, and that's a good thing for photographers, maybe for the birds, too.
It turned out to be a good trip and I got many nice images, in the hundreds, and I don't want to imply that nice images are not to be had at either park. Both parks offer possible shots and each park is very different so going to both parks to check them out is I think the best bet for a photographer. And, of course, every photographer is different in what shots they want and what scene or subject works for them.
Maybe the staff at Bosque will give up on what I see as attempting to be politically correct with the birds (i.e., corn is bad for the birds, not natural) before all the cranes and geese stop going there altogether. I know there was also a concern with water and how much water the corn takes but the birds seem to like the corn best. Ladd Gordon is feeding the birds something they want to eat, corn, and that's a good thing for photographers, maybe for the birds, too.
