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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Cow Nurses Calf |
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| Cow And Calf Nuzzle |
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| 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.
