In early November my wife and I returned from what has become an annual trip to New Mexico. Our itinerary is usually the same… several days spent birding in the Bosque del Apache NWR south of San Antonio, NM, followed by several days eating good Mexican food and drinking margaritas in Santa Fe.
Despite (or I could say because of) the sunshine in that state. photography can be quite challenging. I don’t feel like I came home with a lot of good photos from the trip but I did come away with a grand experience and some good photos, and I’ll relate the circumstances here.
The headquarters of the Bosque del Apache NWR has a Cactus Garden and surrounding area that gives birders and photographers such as myself a chance to get closer to some of the species that live in a desert habitat. I’ve always taken advantage of this opportunity. Seed and suet feeders, and most importantly, running water are offered as enticements. On all our trips to the Bosque I spend time in the Cactus Garden and I consider it an excellent use of my time.
I want to mention a mystery which I’ve never solved. There is a very large rock set back in a thicket which has water emanating from a hole about the size of a quarter. I assume that the water is recirculating but it’s not evident from a casual visual survey of the area. The water apparently feeds a small marshy area in the middle of the thicket. Birds all around the area are aware of this feature. It not only provides water but also some degree of safety due to the thicket. From my point of view I can spend hours overlooking the water source and photographing what happens by. And like all areas that attract small birds, this area attracts accipiters!
On Friday, November1, 2019, my wife had signed up for a three-hour refuge tour. A perfect situation… she (and we) would get to learn more about the refuge and I would get three hours in the Cactus Garden photographing what might happen by.
So at about 1pm I stationed myself on a picnic table seat with a good view of the small stream of water that mysteriously emanates from the small hole at the top of the very large rock. In two prior year visits I had photographed a White-throated sparrow on the rock, but that was not to happen this year. I sat, on a very hard bench, for about 45-minutes with very meager results. Suddenly there was a great commotion among all the birds, and a large (juvenile female Cooper’s hawk?) landed on an eye-level stump directly in front of me… almost exactly five feet away. I’m not sure the accipiter actually saw me… I had on a camo shirt and my trusty camo Tilley hat. Almost immediately the bird shifted about 90-degrees, orienting itself away from me and facing the rock with the water source. After only a couple of seconds on the stump the bird wheeled and flew to the water- emitting rock directly in front of me. (This was obviously not its first visit!) It was still so close that I couldn’t quite get the entire bird in the photo even with the bird positioned diagonally and with me backing off to the equivalent of 300mm, my lowest magnification with my camera and lens.
The accipiter took its time drinking and I took a lot of photos with the majority of my time and effort spent attempting to fit the entire bird within the frame.
The accipiter finally had its fill of water and retired to a fallen tree trunk nearby, where I could only barely see it through intervening vegetation. After a minute or two on the fallen tree trunk it jumped down into a pool of water below the trunk where I took another couple of photos. It then went back onto the tree trunk, preened and just generally sat there for the next two hours… while my posterior became sorer and sorer! While I was relatively disappointed with my view of the bird at this point, I was still relatively close to the bird and was hopeful it might return to the water or pounce successfully on some unwary prey. Other birds were apparently aware the accipiter was, or might be, in the bushes because the water is usually a popular attractant but very few birds entered the area during my observation time. However after about two hours the accipiter finally flew… what birds were left in the general area (there weren’t many, even after two hours) also flew.
At this point I felt an overwhelming need to unlimber, so I got up and toured the Cactus Garden. After 15 minutes or so of blessed relief I sat back down on another bench located too near one of the feeders. (Every time I visit this location I’m disappointed in how their viewing benches and feeders are laid out!)
As I sat at this other bench there was another minor commotion (the birds had never fully returned in the two hours the accipiter had been in the area) and I saw a couple of neophyte birders staring at the very top of the tree over the water-emitting rock. There was the accipiter again… which prompted more photos!
