News From Elk Country

The 2013 elk rut continues on Winslow Hill with some periods being very dead and a good level of activity at other times.  So far no 400 class bulls have been spotted at the Winslow Hill viewing areas, but it  has been reported that the holder of the Governors Conservation Tag took a 430 class bull in the Karthus area yesterday. This is a special license that is auctioned off  to the highest bidder. This year the successful bidder could hunt from September 2-November 9th.

I hope that some larger bulls will show up on Winslow Hill if the rut intensifies next week as it usually does.  As it is most of the bulls are either small or young bulls that have not reached their prime.  Although some of these are very nice, they are not top tier bulls.

Young 6x6 Winslow Hill: Canon 5D MK III-70-200mm f2.8 L IS- ISO 1600-1/320 sec. f4.0

At the other end of the spectrum is a bull that is quite popular with the community of elk photographers.  This is "Limpy" so called because he frequently limps as a result of injuries he received in 2010.  He is now an old bull and his rack is smaller than last year. I hadn't had a particularly good encounter with him until last evening.

There was a lot of rain on Saturday afternoon, but it tapered off into light sprinkles in the evening and elk activity was good.  Odie Swartz and I found Limpy and a small group of cows at the Porcupine Run-Winslow Hill viewing area and photographed him until he left the food plot just before dark.  He spent most of the evening on the grain that was planted, which is not the best setting for photographs. As it was growing late he got in the more natural looking grass at the edge of the plot, which gave a better composition. It was twilight by this time, which  made a perfect opportunity to see how the 70D performed in low light conditions, but I only took a few frames of him bugling before he wheeled an ran down over the hill toward the Gilbert Meadows where several bulls were chasing cows. .  My lens of choice was the 300mm f2.8 and I used ISO 1600. After working with this photograph I would say  the 70D, as one would expect, does not equal the 5D MK III at 1600  ,but this is offset by the better long range ability of its' 1.6 crop sensor and its' much lower cost. This  is an excellent DSLR for wildlife.

Limpy: Canon 70D-300mm f2.8 L IS-ISO 1600-1/50 sec. f 2.8

Another bull that was seen in the saddle earlier last week was also being seen in the meadows at the Gilbert  at the end of the week. Many have commented that this is one of the wildest bulls they have seen in the area.  He barks at people who at times are 100-200 yards away.  He doesn't do this when among the herd at the Gilbert, but he still has that "wild" alert look in his eye.

"Wild Bull": Canon 70D-300mm f2.8 L IS-1.4x extender-ISO 400-1/1000 sec. f  4.0

Another bull has an impressive spread, but I was surprised that he is only a 5x6.  This bull is also a bit on the shy side, but not as much so as the one  above.

5x6 Chasing Cows: Canon 5D MK III-300mm f2.8 L IS- ISO 400-1/400 sec. f4.5

He is shown in hot pursuit of a cow in the photograph above and bugling in the one below. It was hard to get a good portrait pose as he was with a large herd of cows and there was usually one or more out of focus cows in the frame.

5x6 Bugles: Canon 70D-300mm f2.8 L IS+1.4 extender-ISO 160-1/0 sec. f  5.6

I used ISO 160 and 1/60 for the above photo as I was taking video (1/60 sec. is the ideal shutter speed for video in many cases) and fired a still while it was paused in video mode, without changing to settings better suited for stills.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.