Copper River Delta Shorebirds

Ron Niebrugge Alaska, Chugach, Photos, Travel, Wildlife 7 Comments

Copper River Delta Shorebirds

Resting shorebirds for as far as the camera can see!  And after flying thousands of miles, who can blame them.  I stopped down the f/18, but it is hard to get much depth of field when using telephotos.  I kind of like the out of focus effect.

Today (Tuesday) there weren’t as many birds as on Monday when I captured this image.  High tide is when the best photography takes place, but today a predator (I believe it was a Merlin) passed over at high tide and cleared the birds out in a hurry.  We did get a nice break from the rain.

“O My God!”

Ron Niebrugge Alaska, Chugach, Photos, Travel, Wildlife 16 Comments

Cordova Shorebirds

Flocks of shorebirds in Cordova,  Alaska.

What a fantastic day!  Wow!  Not just the sheer quantity of birds, but the way they fly together.  It isn’t in perfect unison, but more like a synchronized dance where the entire group can continually vary the size, shape and color of the flock with endless combinations.  I was mesmerized.  Hugh Rose has lead tours here for many years, he says there had to be over a 100,000 birds today – they basically just arrived today.  I was shooting non-stop thinking it couldn’t possible get any better, and that was when I heard the words “O my God!Read More

Cordova Boat Harbor

Ron Niebrugge Alaska, Photos, Travel 5 Comments

Cordova Boat Harbor

Cordova Alaska boat harbor during a stormy, rainy night last night. 

Yesterday we took the Alaska State Ferry from Whittier to Cordova, one of may favorite Alaska towns, to see the amazing shorebird migration.  I have always wanted to see this amazing event, and it currently is a big hole in our Chugach National Forest coverage.  Unfortunately, we have seen lots of rain, and very few birds, but that should change during the next few days… hopefully!

Confessions of a “Professional” Photographer

Ron Niebrugge Alaska, Photos, Travel 13 Comments

deep-snow.jpg

Look at how deep the snow is along Exit Glacier Road!  Hard to believe it is May 3rd.  This is near the Resurrection River bridge and is as far as you can drive right now.  Judging from the snow depth, it may be awhile before you can drive the rest of the way to the glacier.  Now this really isn’t the photo I was going after this morning – I better explain.Read More

Sailboat Rigging

Ron Niebrugge Alaska, Photos, Travel 2 Comments

Sailboat Rigging

I was wondering around in the boat harbor this evening and found this sailboat rigging kind of interesting.  It seems like there are endless little photo opportunities in a commercial boat harbor.