Sunday, July 2, 2017

Pennsylvania Elk Calves In Late June


Elk Calf  In The Rays of The Early Morning Sun
Most elk calves are born in the period from mid-May through mid-June with a few being born later. I seldom go to Pennsylvania Elk Country during the peak of the birthing period because I concentrate on whitetail fawn photography at this time, and go to elk country only after most of the fawns are born.

This year was no exception, and I didn't get there until June 19th through the 23rd.. I saw plenty of calves, but they were mostly too far for good still photography or they were in situations where it was difficult or impossible to get the camera in action.
 
Cow and Calf Cross Road At Woodring Viewing Area
This is mostly because the elk are very protective of the newborn calves when they are most vulnerable within the first weeks of life. Also the annual calf capture and tagging program to gather biological data is  still underway or just finished recently so the elk  may be expecting to be pursued when they see humans, which contributes to their skittishness.

Alert Cow Looks For Danger
It didn't help the calf photography either that I mostly concentrated on taking video and  spent a lot of the time in areas where one was more likely to see bachelor groups of bulls. Nonetheless,I did spend most mornings looking for  calves and it paid off on Thursday morning  when I found a nursery group and they gradually drifted my way and came close enough for good still photography.


Cow Nurses Calf
Cow And Calf Nuzzle

Cow And Calf In Early Morning Sun
As regular readers are well aware, I have not posted since October 23, 2016. When I made that post I expected to continue full-bore, but then days turned into weeks and weeks into months and it was very difficult to begin posting again.

I am not sure if I will continue to post regularly, but I do hope to make another post in the near future about the bulls I filmed and photographed during the trip and perhaps make a short video. This post is dedicated to Ron and Gail Thoma for encouraging me to continue.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

6 comments:

Donna said...

So nice to see an article by you! Thanks for sharing the photos. Love seeing the little ones!

Ruth Hiebert said...

It is good to see a post from you. I don't post as often as I used to, but I still try to get a post out every once in a while. I love these photos.The Mom and Baby nuzzling is just so sweet.

Woody Meristem said...

Good to see you back posting. I've always really liked your photos and your text, please don't stay away too long.

Willard said...

Thanks to everyone for the positive comments.

jalynn01 said...

I base my visits to Elk Country on your posts and had not seen anything for so long I was worried and sad that something happened! So glad to see you back. Great photos..

Linda G. said...

Excellent post as always! My husband and I were in elk country this past Sunday. We arrived more than an hour later in the morning than planned, so we didn't see many elk. I was happy, though, to see the two elk cows that we did see. Someday we will stay overnight and have two opportunities for spotting elk, in the evening as well as early morning.