December 30, 2012 Bobcat in Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico
Bobcat
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico, USA
Canon EOS 1D X, 500 f4 & 1.4x III, 1/1000 sec, f5.6, ISO 640
Image taken on December 29, 2012.
We spent yesterday afternoon in the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, a favorite location to photograph Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese in the winter. We didn't photograph a single one of those standard species, but we had a great time photographing Northern Pintails as they fed close to the auto loop. After mostly finishing the two parts of the standard auto loop, we turned onto a new loop that neither Jan nor I had been on before. There wasn't much happening until a juvenile Rough-Legged Hawk flew towards us across a harvested corn field in nice late light — sweet! As we were just about to finish the new loop, I spotted something odd walking up to the top of a berm. Jan said I slammed on the brakes and when I got a good look at it I quickly realized that it was a cat! I grabbed my camera and took a few shots of the Bobcat — the first one I had ever seen in the wild! Then it started walking along the top of the berm and that's when I captured this image.