 |
| Intersection OF New Portion Of Dewey Road -Winslow Hill Road |
On my mid-July trip to Pennsylvania Elk Country, I
arrived on Monday , the 13th, to find the new section of Dewey Road
completed and open to traffic. The old portion of the road was still
there, but it was closed to the public. On Tuesday they began
re-contouring the area and the old portion of the road slowly vanished.
 |
| Old Portion Of Dewey Road Vanishes |
The view from the new portion of Dewey Road toward The Saddle and the distant mountains is exceptional.
 |
| View From New Portion Of Dewey Road |
The photo below is taken looking down the new portion
of the road to where it intersects the old portion. The road to the new
parking lot is not visible, but is directly to the right of the lower
right corner of the photo.
 |
| New Dewey Road |
I didn't film any bulls at the Gilbert Farm. A large
herd of cows and calves were in the area, but it was hard to find them
close enough for good photographs or to find situations where there were
not unwanted objects in the background, or the fog was too thick. For
example, one morning a herd of cows and calves were feeding along the
fence shown in the photo above. While a bit of fog adds to the
atmosphere, it was just too thick in this case for good detail and the
combination of short grass in the foreground, and orange netting in the
background further complicated the situation.
On Friday
morning I found them near the Ponds below where the Gilbert Barn once
stood. This time some of them walked into the edge of the parking lot
after I stopped and I got a few frames taken with the 5D MK III and the
70-200mm rested over the window-sill of the SUV.
 |
| Calf Grazing |
Soon
the elk crossed the road and began feeding on the hillside above Rucki
Road and I got out of the vehicle and mounted the 5D MK III on the 600mm
and alternated between taking still photos and filming with the
Panasonic GH4.
 |
| Alert Calf |
The elk worked across the meadow, slanting toward
Rucki road, and heading for the woods in the distance, but they did this
very slowly and along the way some interesting action took place. In
one instance a cow and calf touched noses and somewhat later they began
nursing.
 |
| Touching Noses |
 |
| Nursing |
I
did not walk into the Saddle one time this trip, and all in all I did
not spend a lot of time on Dewey Road , but I did check it out at least
once on most mornings and evenings. Even with the new construction this
is still one of the more reliable areas for producing up-close elk
sightings in Pennsylvania Elk Country.
Originally published at
Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.
