A Morning In The Meadow

I watched a complex of meadows at dawn on Tuesday morning and filmed several respectable whitetail bucks, but sunrise found me wanting a change of pace, so I went to a meadow that is maintained solely for wildlife. It has a variety of succulent grasses growing, most notably ladino clover. I was tired of carrying my usual extensive array of cameras and lenses, so I selected a relatively light compromise-the 100-400mm Canon zoom with the Gitzo 1348 tripod. For good measure I took along a 25mm extension tube if the opportunity arose for some close-up photography.

The local rabbit population has been depressed for years, but now they have recovered for the time being and I find them almost everywhere I go. I had no sooner than entered the meadow, than I encountered this one busily munching away, and he continued to do so for ten minutes or more.

Rabbit Numbers Are Rebounding

For some reason there are few butterflies in the meadow this year, although there are plenty of the thistles, which ordinarily attract them in droves. I did encounter a small specimen, which I am reasonably certain is a variety of Skipper. My butterfly guide is not handy, so I cannot give a positive identification, but I think it may be Silver-Spotted Skipper (If anyone knows differently, please feel free to correct me).

Silver-Spotted Skipper?

When one has an enjoyable experience, it is tempting to try and repeat it, so that evening found me in the same spot. This time I encountered a Spangled Fritillary. Its' wings are somewhat damaged, making it a less than perfect specimen, but I couldn't resist taking several photographs.

Spangled Fritillary on Thistle

While thistles are considered by many to be a noxious weed, and are a problem in crop and pasture fields, they are an important plant to insects, and a wide variety of bees and butterflies may often be found feeding on them.

Whitetail Deer-The Velvet Is Shed

Whitetail bucks have velvet covered antlers from late spring until late summer. This is a network of blood vessels and tissue, which delivers the nutrients needed for growth to the growing antlers.

Some large bucks shed the velvet in late August, in Pennsylvania while most of the smaller ones do not shed until mid-September. In most cases all have completed the process before October arrives.

While the exact sequence of events may vary slightly from animal to animal, first the velvet dries and cracks and drops of blood appear. This situation may exist for a day or more.

Yearling Whitetail Buck-First signs of shedding velvet 9/13/08

As the process continues the velvet peels away, exposing the underlying antler structure. Bucks are quite aggressive at this time and rub the antlers vigorously against trees, vines, brush, or any other object that suits their fancy.

Yearling Buck with vines tangled in antlers 9/8/08

This is not the same buck of course as this one began the process somewhat earlier. This animal was especially aggressive and put on quite a show. The shedding of the velvet marks the beginning of the mating season. At this stage the bucks are mostly preparing for the intense period of mating known as the rut, which will occur from the end of October until December, in Pennsylvania.

Soon the bucks will spar with other bucks. Also at this time many yearling bucks leave the area they were born and move anywhere from 5 to 25 miles away. This is known as dispersal and is a natural phenomena designed to prevent in breeding.

This boy is ready for trouble!

When the process is completed, the animal has a beautiful set of polished antlers. While it is possible for a buck to grow a rack this large in his first year, in most cases it requires over two years in our area to produce a buck like the one below!

This animal has evidently dispersed from another area, as this is my first sighting of him in the spot where I do most of my Pennsylvania photography.

Whitetail Buck ready for the rut!

Visit Camera Critters for more animal photos!

Pennsylvania Elk: The Calves Are Born

Most Pennsylvania elk calves are born from mid-May through mid-June, so I spent Tuesday through Friday of this week on Winslow Hill and surrounding areas photographing and recording calves.

I met Ronald "Buckwheat" Saffer there, and we photographed the elk extensively and reviewed a semi-finished draft of a portion of the elk video. He and Billie Cromwell are assisting as script consultants, and contributing video footage and still photos to the production.

View from Winslow Hill toward St. Mary's-Canon 40D: 17-40mm at 29mm 1/90 f8 ISO 100

I focused on filming, as I do not have a great deal of video of the young animals. I did see several, but most were at long range and the encounters were usually very fleeting, as the animals were very spooky. This is normal to a certain extent as the cows are very protective of the young and will avoid humans more than at other times of year.

I also heard from reliable sources that the Game Commission was capturing calves and fitting them with ear tags, and breakaway collars. This was likely responsible for the extreme skittishness.


I did get a modest amount of video footage at long range with the big telephotos, but finally on Thursday evening, Buckwheat and I had a close encounter with a calf in a wooded area. It initially crouched down at our approach, but soon stood erect. I videotaped this segment and then tried some still shots with the 300mmF4. A small bull was in the woods to the left of the calf. He made a sudden movement and the calf bolted so I didn't get a shot of him facing me.

Young Calf Elk-Canon 40D: 300mmF4-1/180 f4 ISO 800

Two bulls were grazing and browsing by the roadside at the entrance to the Dent's Run Viewing Area on Friday morning and I couldn't resist taking this photograph as it looked like the bull was reading the sign.

Canon 40D: 100-400mm at 105mm 1/250 f5.6 ISO 400

I hope to post more photographs from this trip in addition to more fawn photographs.

I wish to thank everyone for their comments on the last fawn post and I will try to visit your blogs over the next few days!

For more Camera Critters photos visit Misty Dawn.

Osprey At Meadow Grounds Lake

Ospreys are also known as “fish hawks” because they are fish eaters. Licking Creek borders two sides of our family farm and I occasionally sighted these birds there during the late 1960s and 70s, but never photographed them.

I have not acquired any acceptable still photos with either film camera or DSLR, but I did get close-up video footage of one back in the late 1990s at Meadow Grounds Lake near McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania. I heard a tremendous slapping, splashing sound in the water a long distance away, and saw it was an Osprey diving for fish. I was unable to record that action, but suddenly the bird landed in a tree top well within range of the camcorder and I did capture him sitting there.

Fast-forward to Thursday morning of last week, and I was at Meadow Grounds Lake looking for waterfowl, eagles, and ospreys. Suddenly an osprey landed on the far side of the lake.. It was too far for a decent still with the 40D and 500mm lens so I mounted the Canon XL-H1 Camcorder on the 500mmF.4, which gave an effective focal length of 3,600mm.

Canon XL-H1 Camcorder: 500mm F4
It looks better if you click to enlarge: you wouldn't believe how far away it was!

In terms of image quality, camcorders cannot compete with DSLRs yet as still cameras, but the gap is narrowing. At least the XL-H1 gave me my best still capture to date of an Osprey.

Coltsfoot--One Of The First Flowers Of Spring

Coltsfoot is one of the earliest spring flowers to bloom in Fulton County. It bears a remarkable resemblance to dandelions, but it blooms much earlier than they do, I saw the first one around the middle of last week and finally took time out on Saturday afternoon to photograph them.

This flower is most often seen along roadsides and other disturbed areas where moisture is present. All of the below photographs were taken by the roadside.

Canon 40D: 17-40mmF4 L

Canon 40D: 100mmF2.8 Macro

Canon 40D: 100mmF2.8 Macro

The macro shots were taken by resting the camera on a "bean bag" for support. In this case some type of grain such as wheat was used, but most people take a small bag and fill it with beans, hence the name "bean bag. This makes a passable substitute for a tripod for low level shots, when one must lie on the ground to get the correct angle on the subject.

I was thinking about purchasing a tripod especially for this type of shooting as my Gitzo with Wimberley Head is not the right tool for this type of shot, but then I remembered an old Slik U212 that I no longer use and modified it for macro photography. I have had no chance to use it yet. If it works well, I will post a picture of it and give some more details.

Sky Watch Friday: More MIddle Creek Waterfowl

To understand this series of photographs better, please read the post of Tuesday March 4th, first, as it lays the background for today's series.

Middle Creek Sunrise: Canon 40D 28-135mm

Waterfowl leaving lake to feed: Canon 40D 70-200mmF2.8

Snow Geese circling over feeding area: Canon 40D 300mmF4

Snow Goose Landing: Canon 40-D: 500mmF4

In spite of a mostly overcast sky, there was a colorful sunrise. At sunrise many of the waterfowl left the lake to feed in the surrounding field. For a time we had few good photo opportunities, but finally the sun broke through the overcast for good and we were treated to that bright, yet milky sunlight that often precedes the arrival of a storm front. This type of light is a result of the sunlight being filtered by a high thin clouds although sometime areas of the sky were a beautiful blue.

In late morning we found the geese converging on the corn field shown in the previous post. They came by the thousands, circled over the area, and then swooped in for the landing in the corn, where they fed on what grain that still remained.