NEW MEXICO: CRANES, GEESE & LANDSCAPES – Bosque del Apache and White Sands

NEW MEXICO WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY TOURS WITH WILD IMAGES

It is early winter, and as the temperatures plummet in New Mexico, thousands of waterfowl descend on the region to escape the worst of the freezing temperatures further north.

The sheer spectacle of animals is enough to take your breath away and, lured by the potential food source of thousands of birds, an omnipresent host of predators including Coyotes, Bobcat and Northern Harriers also join the masses.

This is New Mexico wildlife at its finest.  A feast for photography where you are confronted with another amazing image at every turn.

Our comprehensive New Mexico wildlife and landscapes tour offers a plethora of different photographic experiences as we explore two key waterfowl nature reserves, the mesmerising dune scapes of White Sands National Monument, the Rio Grande wetlands and the region of Socorro, our base for exploring this incredible destination.

BOSQUE DEL APACHE

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge , situated between the Chupadera Mountains to the west and the San Pascual Mountains to the east, is a 57,331 acre wetland reserve that was established in 1939 to provide a critical stopover site for migrating waterfowl. The refuge is well known for the tens of thousands of cranes, geese, and ducks who winter here each year.

While the reserve is famous for its wintering migratory birds, it is also surprisingly beautiful for other avian delights including Roadrunners, Gambel’s Quails, White-winged Dove, White-crowned Sparrow, Western Bluebird, Cooper’s Hawks, Red-tailed Hawk, Great Blue Heron and more.

The highlight of Bosque is undoubtedly watching the huge flocks of waterfowl depart from the reserve at sunrise to go feeding, or return to the reserve at sunset to sleep in the safety of the shallow pools.  Our tour spends six full days in the reserve – enough time to not only witness this incredible spectacle but also to try out photography techniques to hone your skills for birds in flight, composition, intentional blur (wildlife, vertical and zoom), portraits, experimenting with white balance and differences in available light.

Over 30,000 acres of Bosque del Apache are designated wilderness but the reserve is well connected by loop roads that connect the main Cottonwood forests, stands of Red Twig Dogwoods, pools, marshes and feeding fields.  It is here that most of our tour takes place and for good reason. On any given day in this stunning reserve we may find ourselves watching for Coyotes hunting in the shallows, waiting for a shy Bobcat to appear, or searching for mammals including Javelinas. Elk and Mule Deer.

The reserve also features a lovely education centre, nature’s gift shop and a calming arboretum with bird feeders and a beautiful display of New Mexico’s native cactus species.

In all of America, surely this is one of nature’s most mesmerising classrooms!

One of the ‘blast-offs’ of thousands of migratory birds in New Mexico (video by Inger Vandyke)

BERNARDO – THE LADD S. GORDON WATERFOWL COMPLEX

Offering a completely different perspective on the mass migration of Sandhill Cranes, the small reserve of Bernardo is about a 30 minute drive north of Bosque del Apache. A small unsealed road of about 3 kilometres (2 miles) connects a number of different sites including open grasslands, maize fields and deliberately flooded pools for wildfowl to roost. Some scenes in Bernardo are almost reminiscent of the African savannah with their grassy verges interrupted by charismatic Cottonwoods. As we drive past the maize fields, we may see many cranes feeding inside the maize, or watch them wander through fiery Cottonwoods at sunset.  Newly established hides beside Bernardo’s main waterhole, provide for fantastic angles to capture the blast-offs of geese and cranes in the morning and the returning fowl at dusk.

Bernardo is also home to pretty Mule Deer who can be found grazing the fields against a backdrop of Red Twig Dogwoods and it is also a great place to search for aerial predators including Northern Harrier and American Kestrel.

RIO GRANDE NATURE CENTRE

The Rio Grande Nature Center State Park is a New Mexico state park located adjacent to the Rio Grande in Albuquerque, New Mexico, US. A 38-acre urban wildlife preserve established in 1982, about two thirds of the grounds of the park are set aside as habitat for wildlife. The remaining acreage contains a visitors’ center, two gardens, several wildlife viewing areas, an education building and a building housing the non-profit Wildlife Rescue, Inc. There are four constructed ponds which provide habitat for birds and other wildlife and which mimic wetland features of the historical flood plain of the Rio Grande. We explore this carefully considered reserve to photograph a host of wildfowl not easily found elsewhere on the tour, including adorable Wood Ducks and other species including Ring-necked Duck, Canvasback, American Wigeon, Ruddy Duck and Canada Geese.  Swimming quietly amongst the reeds we may also find Pied-billed Grebes and American Coots feeding on water plants.

NEW MEXICO INSTITUTE OF MINING & TECHNOLOGY

You may be asking yourself why a tertiary education institution is on the list of ‘must see’ places for a wildlife photography tour? As part of the landscaped gardens of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, there is a large pond with a surprisingly friendly flock of ducks.  It is here we may see more American Wigeon, Ruddy Ducks, Ring-necked Ducks, Mallards and in the adjacent woodlands we may Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, Grey Catbirds, Northern Flicker, White-breasted Nuthatch and Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

MAGDALENA

West  of Socorro lies the rugged Magdalena Mountains, a part of the Cibola National Forest Reserve which covers an area of 1.6 million acres and varies in elevation from 830 to over 3400 metres.

It is here that we will drive a spectacular back-country road searching for the charismatic Pronghorn, surely one of America’s most beautiful mammals.  Pronghorn are actually the fastest land mammals in the Americas, with running speeds of up to 55 miles per hour (88.5km/hr).  Whilst they resemble antelopes, Pronghorn are actually the last remaining Antilocapridae in the world.  Their closest living relatives are actually giraffes and Okapis!

As our drive meanders through semi-desert mountains dotted with wild Junipers, we may find Pronghorn grazing on the last of the summer grasses on mountain slopes.  

WHITE SANDS NATIONAL MONUMENT

The vast and otherworldly dunescapes of the White Sands National Monument stretches due west from the military town of Alamagordo in southern New Mexico.

Rising from the bottom of the Tularosa Basin, the White Sands National Monument is a visual feast of white gypsum dunes, spotted with native agave plants set against a backdrop of mountain ranges on its western horizon.

It is an incredible place to practice landscape photography techniques – from the basics like rules of thirds and leading lines, to more complex exercises in composition, contrasts of light and form.

We will spend an entire afternoon and much of a morning at White Sands doing a gentle walk over a nature trail in the dunes in search of windswept trees and flowering agaves. During this small walk, we will be on the lookout for the spur or footprints of tiny desert creatures, stands of gnarled driftwood and wind eroded formations to photograph.

If the weather allows we will remain at White Sands to watch the sun sink below the horizon enhancing the long shadows cast by both the dunes and plants as the entire landscape morphs into darkness. We will then return to our hotel in Alamagordo for the night, with an early return to the dunes and a nearby salt pan for photography next morning.

CARRIZOZO

The quirky New Mexican town of Carrizozo sits at a geographical mid-way point between Socorro and White Sands, making it a perfect stopping place for a delicious lunch and a fun hour of photographing the century old, crumbling facades of this tiny town’s historical buildings.

The boarded up shopfronts, hanging neon signs, adobe architecture and ruined cars make for a nice sidetrack to our tour while we wait for the light to improve in the reserves where our focus returns to wildlife photography.

Accommodation & Road Transport

The hotels/motels selected for our New Mexico wildlife and landscape photography tour are of good standard. Transport is by passenger SUV or minibus. Roads in New Mexico are mostly very good.

Walking

The walking effort in New Mexico is easy almost throughout. In White Sands a small amount of walking up dunes will be required.

Climate & Clothing

Typically it will range from cool to cold in New Mexico during the tour. Most days are sunny with wonderful blue skies, but it can be cloudy. Rain or snow are uncommon. Most of the touring will be done from a heated vehicle and the hotels are warm. At the photography sites, however, particularly around dusk and dawn, the temperatures are very chilly so extra layers of clothing, including thermal underwear, are essential.

Photographic Equipment

For bird photography at Bosque del Apache and elsewhere, if you use a DSLR for wildlife photography, either one or more prime telephoto lenses, with or without converters, covering the range from 200mm up to 500-600mm or more would be ideal. A 100-400mm or 200-400mm zoom, with or without a 1.4x converter, would also be suitable. For landscape and other images, a wide angle option in the 16-28mm range, plus something around 70-100mm would be good.

Alternatively, you can get great results in New Mexico using a high quality digital bridge camera with an optical zoom of 18-20x or more and a decent wide-angle setting at the other end of the zoom.

Please note that drones are not permitted on this tour.

If you have any queries about suitable equipment for the tour, please contact us.