Saturday, January 30, 2010 - Bosque Birdwatchers RV Park, San Antonio NM
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Glide Slope, Sandhill Cranes, Bosque National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM, January 30, 2010
You'll find a larger version of this picture over on my Birds Series of photos.
This boy wants another new toy
I was kindly given the chance to play with a Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens on my new Canon EOS 7D camera as the Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese gathered at the roost this afternoon.
I was surprised to find I could easily hand hold this lens at 300mm and with occasional success even at 400mm, like in the image above. A 400mm focal length on this 1.6 x crop sensor camera is equivalent to a 640mm focal length on a 35mm full frame sensor camera. The camera would nearly always hold focus and the lens' onboard Image Stabilization system would deal with the camera shake if I was careful in following the flight path of the incoming birds. Taking bursts at 8 frames per second with the 7D sure filled up my 16 gig card in a hurry but it gave me lots of images to pick the best of the litter from.
An amazing combination. I want one. Thank you George.
Night camp
Site 16 - Bosque Bird Watcher's RV Park, San Antonio NM
- This is a basic, small Mom & Pop RV Park with full hookups.
- Verizon cell phone and Broadband service are available here with a strong signal.
- Locate Bosque Bird Watcher's RV Park on my Night Camps map
- Click for Google street view
- Check the weather in San Antonio NM
Heliograph route between Fort Cummings NM and Tubac, AZ
1886 heliograph transmissions between Tubac near Nogales Arizona/Mexico, and Fort Cummings New Mexico: Joe Marques (Flagstaff) was doing some research in old Flagstaff newspapers and found something that might interest. In the Arizona Weekly Champion, Saturday August 7, 1886, page 2 column 1, it says: "A message was recently sent by the government heliograph (signalling by sunlight flashes) from Fort Cummings, N.M. to Tubac, Ariz., a distance of 400 miles, and an answer received in four hours." What a great [research] find! This was during the Geronimo Campaign of 1886, and the heliograph system at that time did indeed extend between the two stations. From Tubac, the most westerly terminus, the intermediate stations were Baldy Peak or possibly Josephine Peak just a little south of Baldy), Fort Huachuca, Antelope Spring, Emma Monk, White's Ranch, Bowie Peak (or Helen's Dome), Steins Peak, and Camp Henely (east of Fort Cummings). This means the message would have been relayed seven times, one way. It most likely was a test message, and relatively short, but I would love to know what it and the reply really said. The 1886 "airline" distance between Tubac and Fort Cummings; and of course on to Fort Cummings. I calculate the one-way distance between the two extremes as being 241 miles, with round trip of course being 482 miles.