Whitetail Bucks Now Shedding Velvet.

Bachelor Group Of Whitetail Bucks In Pennsylvania Elk Country-4K Video Still Capture

This summer I have been filming and photographing wildlife as much as I ever have, but one would not know it by looking at this blog.  I am usually in the field each morning and evening photographing and observing whitetail deer when I am not in elk country.  It has been a busy summer what with a major refurbishing project on a large deck on the house and a lot of work on the family farm so it seems that it has been the writing and video editing that has suffered and I have done very little of either.  At any rate, I was still a bit surprised to see when I took time to review the blog, that I have not posted about whitetail deer since early June.

I saw a bachelor group of extremely nice whitetail bucks late one evening during the mid-August trip to elk country, but didn't have the still camera along so I extracted some stills from the video footage using Vegas Pro 13.

8 Point Pauses From Feeding

Back home in Fulton County, the beautiful six-point shown below was the biggest that I photographed with a DSLR although I filmed several much larger bucks on video.  Nonetheless he is a beautiful buck and I was able to document his development throughout the summer. 

As His Velvet Cracks In Preparation For Shedding,  A Fine 6 Point Buck Lip-curls

He was a small spike last year and the marked increase in size from last year to now proves that a spike can develop in to a fine buck and in fact  many, if not most, do so if they survive to their second year.

Same Buck-October 17, 2015

This year the velvet was cracked on August 28th. When he appeared shortly after dawn on the 30th, the velvet was mostly gone on the left antler and a long strand dangled alongside his head. This seemed to irritate him greatly and he spent a lot of time rubbing branches and also trying to grab the velvet in his teeth and dislodge it.

Buck Pauses From Horning Trees And Round Bale

Grooming And Attempting To Tear Velvet Strip Free

The velvet was completely gone by the following morning and the buck roamed about the meadows interacting with other deer and feeding.

Bucks Nuzzle When Pausing From Sparring

Buck Pauses From Feeding

What a thrill it was to be able to document the velvet shedding process once again.  Another buck that I see frequently has had bloody spots on his antlers, but has not shed yet.  In the photo below he is watching the larger buck from inside the tree line.  He tries to avoid close contact with him as it seems he does not want to spar until the velvet is gone.

Smaller Buck Looks On

I hope I have the opportunity to document at least a portion of  his velvet shedding process as well.  With the shedding of the velvet, the pre-rut gets underway and will continue until late October or early November when it will explode into the full-blown rut.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Strutting Gobblers and Other Springtime Wildlife

Spring, the wildflowers are blooming, the birds are singing, and the male turkeys are gobbling--what an exciting time to be afield. I have been out every morning this spring and have seen a lot of wildlife, but good close-up encounters with mature gobblers strutting seem to be harder to come by than usual.  When the turkeys are not present it is good to photograph the wildflowers.

Spring flowers add beauty to a day afield

When the turkeys are present and one or more gobblers are strutting and gobbling it makes for an exciting photographic experience.

Mature Gobbler in full strut:Canon 5D MKIII-600mm lens

One of the most desirable and dramatic photos of a bull elk is to capture him bugling and over the years I have tried to duplicate these results with turkeys, but it seems the actual act of gobbling does not look as impressive as the elk bugling.  Maybe someday I will get the perfect photo and change my mind., but for now I would say that capturing them strutting usually yields more impressive photos.  It actually seems to work better to document the actual gobbling with video as you get to see the bird go through the entire process as well as hear the exciting sound of the gobble.

Mature Gobbler in mid-gobble: Canon 5D MKIII-500mm lens

Gobbler pauses from courting to look for danger: Canon 7D MKII-100-400mm IS II

 Of course the reason for all of this excitement is the hens and often some of the best activity occurs when hens are present and the gobblers are performing the courtship display.  They also strut and gobble at times when no hens are present, but it is much more likely to happen when they are there.

Hen pauses from feeding while gobblers strut in adjacent meadow: Canon 7D MKII-100-400mm IS II

If you look closely in the photo below, this hen has a small beard (look just below the first green brier that goes partly across its' chest), but it is a hen nonetheless.  You can tell this by a combination of factors the most important factors being the drab coloration compared to the gobblers and the smaller size.  Few hens grow beards, but they are not exactly rare.  I usually film or photograph at least one each year.

Bearded Hen: Canon 7D MKII-100-400mm IS II

Filming and photographing other species that happen along adds to the enjoyment of the day and I especially like to capture the deer doing something interesting, such as this young buck browsing.

Young deer browsing: Canon 7D MKII-100-400mm IS II

When I was young fox squirrels were seldom seen in my area, but now I am likely to see as many or more of them than the grays.

Fox Squirrel: Canon 7D MKII-100-400mm IS II

With the arrival of May the trees will soon be covered with leaves and wildlife movement patterns will change to a certain extent.  Already the peak of the gobbling season is over and birds are not heard or seen as often.  Today is the first day of the spring gobbler season and this will also have a dampening effect on gobbling activity, but there will be periodic upswings in activity until the mating season is over in early to mid-June.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Blizzard Makes Life Difficult For Wildlife

Gobbler Struts On Frosty Morning: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 500mm F 4

 In Southcentral Pennsylvania we usually have measurable snow fall before the rifle deer season is over and sometimes it is substantial, but this year there has been nothing but light snow squalls until late last week. Living was relatively easy for wildlife as the meadows were bare, deer could graze easily, and turkeys could move about freely. It was even common to see some of the birds strutting and gobbling, but this all changed when weather reports indicated a substantial blizzard was approaching on Friday, January 22nd and light snow began falling late that afternoon.

Snow Arrives: Canon 7D-24-105mm @95

By the time the snow ended on Saturday there was nearly 24 inches on the ground with much deeper drifts in spots.  It was not until Sunday that I was able to reach the area where I normally photograph and I only had the Panasonic FZ 1000 along as I was plowing snow with a tractor and had no way to transport most of my equipment.

Finally on Monday morning I was able to capture some shots of the deer contending with the deep snow.  It was very hard for them to move through it and they moved by a combination walking slowly or dashing for short distances and then pausing to rest.

Whitetails Struggle To Travel: Canon 7D 500mm F4

Only two days before, food was easy to find, but now the grass is covered and the deer mostly rely on browsing to survive.

Doe Pauses To Browse: Canon 7D 500mm F 4

Even though the snow is still very deep it has settled a bit and it seems the deer can move much easier through it now.  This morning I was able to capture a few more photos of deer dealing with the winter conditions.

Doe Browsing: Canon 5D MK III-100-400mm IS II@400mm

Young Doe Pauses From Feeding: Canon 5D MK III-100-400 IS II @263 mm

Most deer will likely survive the brutal weather if we do not get continually hammered with storms like the last one. As of now there are not any in the forecast and the weather has moderated considerably, but with that being said it is still likely that conditions are severe enough that deer with infirmities will perish before the winter is over.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Images From The Whitetail Rut

Mature Whitetail Buck

The area where I do most of my wildlife photography is home to a substantial herd of whitetail deer, but it is not usually good summer range for the bachelor groups of mature bucks. Most of the deer are the does and fawns and the yearling and occasional two year old bucks that are still traveling with the family groups.

In many years buck sighting pick up in early October and the full-blown  rut gets underway during the last week.  But this year things were very slow and I became impatient as it seemed the rut would never start. That changed in the middle of last week and I have been able to photograph several bucks since then and will share some images  of this activity today.

Photos of bucks lip-curling as they search for does in heat often make dramatic photographs. The buck in the photo below tried to breed a doe shortly after the photo was taken, but she ran from him.

Lip-curl

Scenting For Does

Whitetail bucks do have serious fights from time to time, but what I usually capture are only desultory sparring matches, which are not violent, but still make for good photo opportunities.

Sparring Match

Other favorite photo opportunities are to capture them making scrapes, checking their scrape lines, and chasing does.

Checking A Scrape

6 Point Erupts From Woods After Doe

Chasing Does

Although the rut will soon peak if it has not all ready, good activity should continue for the next two weeks before it comes to a crashing end because of rifle deer season.

Cameras used were the 5D MK III and the Canon 7D Mark II.  while the lenses were the Canon 300mm f2.8 and the Canon 600mm F4.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

More May Wildlife Encounters

May is a month of transition as the leaves seem to come out more each day and wildlife activity patterns change.  It is still possible to see Eastern Wild Turkey Gobblers strutting and performing the courtship display for hens, but this is not as commonly seen as a few weeks ago.

Mature Gobblers Display For Hens

Mature Gobblers Strut On Distant Hillside

On May 2nd, while waiting for gobblers to appear I had a special encounter with a Pileated Woodpecker.  I have seen these birds frequently throughout the years and have a modest amount of good video of them, but I had never gotten good still photos of them until this encounter.  The bird was very close and I had the 7D MK II with 600mm sitting on the tripod in front of me so I took several vertical photos with it, the best of which is posted here today.

Pileated Woodpecker-7D MK II-600mm F 4.0

 After taking several photos with this rig I switched to the 5D MK III and the new Canon 100-400mm.  The combination of the full frame sensor and 200mm less in focal length combined to make the bird much less frame filling so I cropped the image  to a 4:5 aspect ratio at 300 dpi in Adobe Camera Raw. This gives a 4.6 megapixel  image which is sized to approximately 6x8 inches at 300 dpi or 240 dpi at the more standard 8x10 size.

Pileated Woodpecker- 5D MK III1600-400mm L IS II

I have seen many other species of birds as well, but usually they do not linger long enough to photograph them or the distance is too great, but I did have a good photo session with a  Great Crested Flycatcher on the evening of May 10th.

Great Crested Flycathcer-7D MK II-600mm F 4.0

Great Crested Flycathcer-7D MK II-600mm F 4.0

Perhaps the most memorable experience of the month so far was a Tuesday morning encounter with an immature Bald Eagle.  I was crossing a stream with the old Ford Bronco when the eagle flew from a tree along the edge of the stream and lit in another tree that had branches extending to the center of the stream. It was too far for using the 100-400mm on a still camera with any hopes of success so I decided to try for some video.  This involved slowly opening the door and then setting the tripod up on the stream bed, using the partially opened door as a shield.  I then took quite a bit of video with the Panasonic GH4 with the old 100-400mm attached by means of the speedbooster.  Without going into too much detail the combination of the 2x crop factor of a GH4 sensor combined with additional crop factor from shooting 4K video some of the time or 1080P video with the ETC mode engaged gave very usable video.  After I had quite a bit of video I then switched to an old Canon 500mm f4.5 FD lens which works very well when fitted to the GH4 with a Novoflex FD adapter.  This gives the camera quite a bit more additional reach and I took quite a bit of video with this rig as well as taking a few still photos with it.

Immature Bald Eagle-Panasonic-GH4-Cano 500mm f 4.5 FD Lens-150 Yards

While the video is very good, the stills are usable but they are not in the same league quality wise as stills taken with either a full frame sensor camera or a 1.6 crop sensor such as the 7D, etc., but one must bear in mind the distance involved as the bird was around 150 yards away according to my rangefinder. When one is shooting stills with this camera they do have the advantage of the 2x crop factor of the sensor, but you do not have the extra boost that 4K video gives you or using ETC mode with 1080p so the above image was cropped substantially also and is a 2.4 Megapisel 4.5 x5.7  image at 300 dpi, which works quite well for internet posting when sized to 8x10 at 72 dpi.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

No Escape

We have had little snow or ice in my portion of southcentral Pennsylvania until very recently , while other parts of the state and nation have not been as lucky.  This changed in the last two weeks and today we are in the middle of the largest snowstorm of the season so far.

Wildlife Struggles To Survive: Canon 7D-Canon 17-40mm@40mm ISO 400-1/400 sec. f 8.0

It  is not an especially severe snowstorm, but it is still somewhat problematic for wildlife as the ground is covered with a few inches of snow from a previous storm that was saturated by rainfall and then froze. This formed a hard crust, which makes it difficult for wildlife to dig through the snow to find  food in the meadows or on the forest floor.

Mature Gobbler in Falling Snow: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 5000mm f 4.0  ISO 400-1/1000 sec. f 4.5

Mature Gobbler Close-up: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 5000mm f 4.0  ISO 400-1/500 sec. f 4.5

Winter is difficult for all wildlife, but it is especially hard on the whitetail fawns.  While we can go in warm houses to escape the bitter cold and snow, they cannot do so.  The fawn in the photo below tried to find what shelter it could by the side of a round hay bale.

Fawn Seeks Shelter:Canon 7D-Canon 17-40mm@31mm ISO 400-1/400 sec. f 8.0

 I fully expect this animal to survive the winter.  Although it is small it is extremely healthy.  In spite of this, I can"t help but feel pity for the animal that it has to face this type of weather with no where to escape.

Hopefully conditions will improve soon and life will be easier for the creatures of the great outdoors.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Pennsylvania Elk Rut 2013 -As The Rut Continues, Some Calves Still Nurse

I filmed and photographed a lot of elk during my recent two week trip to Pennsylvania Elk Country.  There is certainly no shortage of bulls, but with few exceptions the bulls seen on Winslow Hill this fall are young animals that have not yet reached their full potential or older bulls that  do not have the genetic make-up to grow a large rack.

Winslow Hill Bulls: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 70-20mm f2.8 IS L@105mm--ISO 1000-1/200 sec. F 4.0

The bull on the right is the famous 2D and yes I did remove the collar with Photoshop to preserve the wild look of the scene.  He is one of the few elk, and perhaps the only bull, on Winslow Hill that still has the bright yellow collar and number.  The PGC has shifted to a more esthetically pleasing brown collar as the yellow collars made the animals stand out like a sore thumb in elk season.  I hope that in time the collars will be eliminated entirely and replaced by an implanted chip or something like it.  At any rate the new ones are much less objectionable than the old and are worlds ahead of the ridiculous collars used on the whitetail deer in Shenandoah National Park.

2D is the largest he has ever been, but it seems that he is one of those elk that will never be a real contender. Although it is possible that he will be a late bloomer so as to speak and suddenly skyrocket in size,  I do not expect this to happen.  I first photographed him about 2008 and he is not a great deal larger now.  One need only see a mature bull up close to fully realize the difference between them and the second tier bulls.

Mature Herd Bull: 5D MK III-Canon 300mm f2.8 IS L --ISO 200-1/800 sec. F 2.8

 The bull above is the only mature herd bull that I saw on Winslow Hill this fall.  He is a bit smaller than last year.  It was truly a privileged to document him during the rut this year.  There were other bulls with wide,  high antlers, but they were young bulls with years of development ahead of them if they live, while this bull has the thick heavy antlers typical of a bull at or past his prime.The photo below was taken when he lunged at a cow which he was following.

Herd Bull Lunges at Cow:  5D MK III-Canon 300mm f2.8 IS L+ 1.4x extender II --ISO 200-1/250 sec. F 5.0

While the bulls are the center of attention, it is worthwhile to pay attention to what the other elk are doing as well.

Elk Herd on Winslow Hill: 5D MK III-Canon 24-105mm f24 IS @85mm-ISO 200-1/200 sec. F 8.0

 Some have expressed amazement that they are seeing calves still nursing from the cows.  This is not extremely common at this time of year, but neither is it rare and I get to film this on occasion.  I even saw a calf nursing on President's Day weekend one year, and I have seen a cow nursing its' calf from the previous year, during the rut in Septermber..

Calf Nursing-Sept. 25, 2013: 5D MK III-Canon 300mm f2.8 IS L+1/4 extemder--ISO 400-1/1000 sec. F 4.5

Whitetail fawns are  still nursing at times also, but the does ordinarily do not stand long for them and in some cases will not stand at all but shy away from the fawn as it approaches.

Whatever the species, the outdoors is a place that never ceases to amaze and there is no better way to appreciate the beauty of nature than to be afield with a camera.

Originally Published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Pennsylvania Elk Rut Now Underway-Canon 70D Update

Each year thousands of people descend on the village of Benezette and Winslow Hill to experience the sights and sounds of the elk rut and I joined the throng this week. 

The first stirrings of the pre-rut begin once the bulls shed the velvet in August.  The actual rut begins in late August to early September and by the middle of the month it becomes the full-blown rut.  Below are some photos taken at the Porcupine Run-Winslow Hill viewing area yesterday afternoon and evening.  I still usually refer to this as the Gilbert Viewing Area or the Gilbert Farm, but I can understand the other name as the Gilbert is only a portion of the total overall viewing area.  Just before the photos below were taken there was a dominance fight  between two bulls.  I have no still photos as I devoted my attention to filming the fight.  I stopped the camera briefly a few times to change settings and ended up with 7 minutes and 34 seconds of recording.  The fight lasted a minute or so longer than that and it would be longer still if one counts the bulls behavior immediately after the encounter. We were surprised that the action began as early as it did, as it was very warm with bright sunshine. I have not downloaded the video files yet and cannot tell exactly what time the fight occurred, but my best guess would be shortly after 3:00 p.m. We spent some time watching the herd from that vantage point after the fight was over before moving to a different location that gave a closer perspective on the herd. It was 4:31 and later when I took the photos below.

Herd at Gilbert Farm: Canon 70D-Canon 24-105mm@55mm-ISO 100-1/200 Sec. f 8

Bull Herding Cows: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 300mm f2.8 IS+ 2x Extender II-ISO 100-1/500 Sec. f 7.1

Bull Herding Cows: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 300mm f2.8 IS+ 2x Extender II-ISO 100-1/500 Sec. f 7.1

Calf Panting: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 300mm f2.8 IS+ 1.4x Extender II-ISO 100-1/800 Sec. f  5.0

I took a photo of the entire herd from the original vantage point just before leaving to check out another area.

Herd at Gilbert: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS II.4x Extender II-ISO 100-1/250 Sec. f  8.0

In closing I must say that the Canon 70D is working out even better than expected.  Although most of the above photos were taken with the 5D MK III, I find that I am using the 70D for most of my still photography. Since I mostly shoot video I prefer it to the 5D MK III for that purpose because of its' long range video ability and auto-focus in video model.  The clincher is that I am able to shift between long range video and stills without having to change the camera body.

There is no doubt the 5D MK III is better in very low light, but the 70D is very good and seems to be a big step above the 7D in this respect.  I still think the Panasonic GH3 takes sharper video as does the 5D MK III, but at present it seems that the ability of the 70D to handle my Canon L lenses, without loss of automatic lens functions, overrides the quality consideration. Perhaps I will regret it when I look at my footage on a HDTV, but I don't thinks so at this point.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.