Bedford County River Otters-Another Page

After much thought I have decided that my condition has improved to the extent that I will return to updating The Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer Blog on at least a limited basis. If I continue long term will depend to a certain extent on whether upcoming eye surgeries are successful. The first is scheduled for December 11^th, and the second sometime later.

Since several of you like to photograph the River Otter for today I am featuring “Bedford County River Otters-Another Page”. This is a 21 minute film, which begins with an overview of the Pennsylvania Game Commission's efforts to manage the wildlife of Pennsylvania and to re-establish species that were extirpated such as the elk, eagle, and river otter. of an otter release in the Juniata River near Everett, Pennsylvania on February 19, 2002.

This was back when standard definition 4:3 aspect-ratio mini-dv camcorders were what most small video production companies used. Two of the favorites with wildlife film-makers were the Canon XL-1 and the Canon XL-1s, which had recently replaced it. From 1997 until early 2002 my front line video camera was a Canon L2, which recorded to Hi-8 video tape. This camera was a powerful tool for wildlife as one could mount any Canon EF mount lens on it by means of an adapter. If I recall correctly this camera had a 1/2” sensor which gave a crop factor of about 5.4X. As an example a 500mm lens attached to it gave an equivalent focal length of 2,700mm. The XL-1s had an even smaller sensor which increased the crop factor to 7.2X. Since the XL1-s was a new camera it was used to document the events of the day, but the wildlife footage that is used was mostly taken with the L2 and the old Canon 35-350L zoom lens.. The video was edited on a Casablanca Avio stand-alone video editor, which looked much like a VCR. Its' main selling point was that it was guaranteed to work as it came and one did not have to configure it like one does a computer. I used this from about 2000 until 2005 or a bit later when I began using computers. The video features several speakers beginning about 3 min. 35 sec. Into the video. Some of the speeches are lengthy so if you want to skip them and continue on to footage of the release, drag the slider under the video to about 15 minutes.

I hope you enjoy the film.

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.

Mid-Summer Wildlife

It seems that most of my recent posts have been about Pennsylvania Elk and the new construction in elk country, but I actually spend most of my time afield observing and photographing whitetail deer so today's post will be mostly about deer and some of the other local wildlife.

Mature Doe

 It is relatively easy for me to get good still photographs of does, fawns, and small bucks as I am around an extended family group of deer almost every day and they have come to tolerate my presence quite well. It is always a special treat to get a close-up look at a fawn or to see a doe and fawn nursing.

Fawn In Late June

Nursing

Currently no mature bucks are using this area as summer range so I must travel to other areas to look for rack bucks. The ones I see are extremely skittish so it is hard to get close enough for good still photos.  As a result, I concentrate on taking video with the Panasonic GH4 and long lenses. With this rig it is possible to take acceptable video at very long range and it is common to get usable footage at ranges such as 300--400 yards--although it is still better to be close if possible.  At times I also carry a still camera if I am not walking too far and fire a few frames even if the range is long. 

8-Point Buck At Long Range

The photo above was taken with the Canon 5D MK III and the new 100-400mm lens.  I didn't have my range finder along that day, but the buck was somewhere between 150-200 yards away.  This was taken hand-held from sitting position and then cropped at  a 4x5 aspect ratio in Adobe Camera Raw to 2MP., which yields a file capable of printing a 4x5 print at 300 d.p.i.  Of course this is not enough resolution for a large print, but it does make a usable photo for internet purposes.

It adds a lot of interest to an outing to encounter other species of wildlife as well. I frequently see a lot of interesting things that are impossible to get the camera in action to photograph, but sometimes things do work out.  I got the photo below as I was fording a back country stream with the Bronco and noticed a flock of Mergansers perched on rocks in the stream. Fortunately they did not become alarmed and I photographed them with the 7D MK II and the 100-400mm.

Mergansers Resting

While I do not see Eastern Wild Turkey as often in the summer as at other times of year, sometimes a good encounter does occur.

Mature Gobbler Looks For Danger

I have seen several flocks of hens and young turkeys--or perhaps I have seen one or two flocks several times--but I have not been able to get either good video or stills of them.  This usually changes once the farmers have harvested the grain and hay fields which makes the birds much more visible when they are feeding in them.  I did get a photo of a hen with a lone poult one summer evening.

Eastern Wild Turkey Hen With Young

I suspect that she had a larger flock, but the others stayed a bit further away and were hidden in the taller grass.

Soon my attention will be shifting to recording the bull elk and whitetail bucks losing their velvet and the onset of the pre-rut and rut.  Bull elk are shedding their velvet now and the elk  rut will get underway in early September and peak toward the end of the month, while the whitetails will not lose their velvet until late August through mid-September and the whitetail rut will not peak until about mid-November.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Snowy Owl Encounter

Snowy Owl: Canon 70D-Canon 600mm F4.0 IS - ISO 200-1/3200 sec.-f 4.5

A lot of attention has been directed at the Snowy Owl lately as another irruption is taking place this year.  This is the first time I can recall reports of sightings extremely close to home.  Coy of Country Captures located two owls in nearby Franklin County and I traveled with him on Saturday morning in hopes of filming and photographing these birds.

We arrived at dawn and saw an owl in a large complex of agricultural fields.  The outfit of choice for the morning was the Canon 70D and the 600mm F 4.0 as it seemed likely that most opportunities would be at long range and this turned out to be the case.  I used the video tripod as getting video clips was my main goal. A strong northwest wind was blowing and it caused the lens to vibrate severely and the image on the LCD was shaky--even with image stabilization engaged.  Eventually we moved the car a bit to shield us somewhat from the brutal wind and I lowered the tripod as close to the ground as I could get it and still shoot from kneeling position.  This gave some decent still photos considering the range, but the image had to be severely cropped to have any visual impact making it usable only for internet or newspaper purposes.  I got some exceptionally good video clips of this encounter with the exception that the video was too jumpy, even with IS engaged.  Luckily my video editing software, Vegas Pro 12, has an excellent image stabilization module which was able to process the video to the point that it is usable  I will not post any video clips today, but hope to do so soon.

Snowy Owl At Dawn: Canon 70D-Canon 600mm F4.0 IS - ISO 640-1/500 sec.-f 4.0

A bit later in the morning we moved on to search for more owls and found another one sitting in a field at very long range.

Photographing Snowy Owls: Panasonic GH3-Lumix 14-140mm F4.0--5.8-@14mm - ISO 200-1/400 sec.-f 13.0

This was when I took the lead-in photo for today's post.  I wish I had taken my range-finder along to see how far away the bird was.  I used the LCD for video filming of course and also used it for most of my still photos instead of the traditional eye-level finder..  The 70D has superb auto-focus in video mode until one kicks the 3X crop mode in and then it reverts to the slow hunting method of auto focus in video mode that has been the norm on Canons until recently.  When in crop mode, it is not possible to further enlarge the image for manual focusing purposes.  In this case I wanted to double check the focus and it is reasonably quick to turn the control dial to a still mode, zoom in, manual focus, and then turn the mode dial back to video and begin filming.  The point of this ramble is that I had just checked the focus, but the owl flew before I could shift back to video mode. I pressed the shutter release as he took-off, which  gave me a decent bird in flight photo.  I would have preferred to have had a side-view, rather than going away, but one has to take what they can get.

Snowy Owl In Flight: Canon 70D-Canon 600mm F4.0 IS - ISO 200-1/3200 sec.-f 4.5 

We called it quits in late morning and headed for home. While I would certainly had liked to gotten better quality dramatic close-up photos I was thrilled to have finally seen these birds that have the wildlife/birding community abuzz.

For more photos of owls, other species of birds, and some dramatic scenery please visit my daughter Amy's blog.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Rainy Weather Brings Dramatic Photo Opportunities

I will confess that I almost didn't leave the house as it was raining lightly at 4:30 this morning and more rain was in the forecast.  It was tempting to devote the morning to catching up on video and  photo editing instead, but in the end my desire to photograph wildlife won out and dawn found me overlooking a meadow that is my favorite wildlife photography spot.  By this time it was raining much harder--alternating between moderate to heavy showers, so I settled down with a John Grisham book, while waiting to see what developed.  Shortly after dawn I spotted a herd of deer in the distance and eventually they came close enough that I could photograph a fine four-point buck.

Four-point Buck In Rain

After a short period, the deer left and I began reading again. Iwas almost ready to leave for home, when I saw a superb mature Eastern Wild Turkey gobbler coming over the hill to my left.  I slowly slid the 7D and 70-200mm lens into position and recorded several segments of video and then switched to the 40D and 300mm F2.8 for some still photos.

Eastern Wild Turkey Gobbler In Rain

While the lighting quality in these photographs may not be as good as in brighter conditions, I think the rain adds a wild, mysterious atmosphere.  At this point the morning was an unqualified success, but there was even more to come.

I noticed that although the rest of the deer had gone to the woodlands, one doe was lying down in a distant meadow, which was a bit unusual.  I went back to reading and in time I noticed that she was now in the same meadow that I was. At first it appeared that she was grooming herself, but then I looked closer and saw that she was grooming something close to the ground.  It had to be a fawn and I have never seen a fawn in this area this early.  I fact I seldom see one before May 30th, and most are born within a few days of June 8th.  This excited even a 60 year old veteran wildlife photographer, so I hurriedly removed the 70-200mm from the 7D , mounted the 500mmF4, slammed it on the tripod, and  looked through the finder.  There definitely was a beautiful young fawn with the doe!  By the time I was ready to begin photographing and filming them, they had stopped grooming and moved slowly through the meadow, stopping from time to time.

Doe With First Fawn Of Year

This ended the exciting wildlife photography so I checked out the nearby streams and they were running bank full, but not yet in flood stage.

Heavy Spring Rains Brings High Water

In the photo below one can see a stream of water running from the cropland, which means the ground is completely saturated and continued heavy rainfall will result in significant flooding.

Dramatic Light After A Shower

Many do not go afield on such days, and I almost didn't go today, but this experience proves that exciting photographic opportunities may  be found during unpleasant weather as well.

Originally posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill

Sitting Alone In The Moonlight-A Chilling Serenade

2:00 A.M. and the moon hangs low in the western sky, shining through thin clouds and tree branches, bathing the countryside in an eerie glow.  Far from any major road, total silence hangs in the air like a heavy blanket. Wildlife, game wardens, and poachers rule the night in the remote Pennsylvania wilderness.

The old man sits alone in the moonlight, his thoughts wandering back over the years.  Long ago when he was a young game warden, such times were spent anticipating what the future might hold in store, and he felt a longing for exciting action, but now many years worth of memories keep him company, and he no longer feels the need for adventure. He would rather be home sleeping, but he is here because of wildlife criminals that roam the backcountry roads, locating deer with spotlights, shooting them with small caliber rifles, and letting the animals to lie and rot.

Suddenly the silence is broken by the shrill barking of a fox and the wild, wailing voice of a coyote joins in- creating a harmony that makes the chills run down the spine. No music on earth can sound better.

The poachers do not come this night, but the old man will never forget the wildness of that moment in the moonlight when the fox and coyote made the hills and hollows ring with their chilling serenade.

Camera Critters: A Far Encounter And A Close Encounter

For today's post we feature two photos, one taken at extreme distance and the other at quite close range. I spent most mornings last week looking for bachelor groups of large bucks.  This involves being in a likely area at daybreak and remaining until shortly after sunrise when most whitetail activity ceases.  This particular morning was already hot with a promise of scorching heat and humidity to come.  I did see three bucks shortly after dawn, and two were very large for this area, but it was early in the morning and they were extremely far away, so I used the Canon XL-H1 video camera to record this action.  When I was leaving the area I came to a creek cliff overlooking a distant creek bottom.  I was pleasantly surprised to see three hen turkeys with several young feeding at the edge of a barley field as the first rays of the morning sun bathed the countryside in a warm glow.

Distant Flock Of Hen Turkeys With Young

At first I videotaped the turkeys with the 500mm attached to the XL-H1 which gives an effective focal length of over 3,600mm in 35mm camera terms.  With that completed I mounted the Canon 7D and 2x extender on the 500mm which gives an effective focal length of 1,600mm in 35mm terms. What is impressive about this photo is that the birds are about 300 yards or 900 ft. away.  The photo is slightly cropped to give a more balanced composition than the original.

While it is satisfying to take a passable shot at extreme long range, it cannot compare to being extremely close to the subject as the next photo of a Rufous Sided Towhee demonstrates.  I have seen these birds all of my life, but have not been able to get acceptable photos of them until lately when they began using the natural backwoods bird feeder

Male Rufous Sided Towhee

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Camera Critters: Summer Mornings

The Pennsylvania backcountry is a wonderful place to spend a beautiful summer morning, with activity beginning as day breaks and often continuing until well after sunrise.

A Young Whitetail Buck Pauses From Feeding

A Crow Surveys The Countryside For Danger

 It is always a special thrill to see the fawns and Friday morning was especially rewarding when one of the does brought twins to the meadow.  I had seen her several times with only one fawn with her, but I strongly suspected that she had twins.  Does keep the young fawns hidden as much as possible for the first few weeks of their lives and they attempt to keep them hidden in separate spots to lessen the chances of a predator killing both in one encounter.  Most fawn mortality seems to be from natural causes, or predation by black bears, coyotes, and bobcats.

One Of The Twins

While both of the fawns were present, I only got a decent photograph of one as they were so frisky that they were darting in and out of the sunlight.  It was frustrating as one would see a beautiful composition, but the fawn would move before the camera could be positioned.  Hopefully I will be able to photograph them both together in the future.

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Camera Critters: Other Species

It seems that I mostly photograph deer, but I do encounter other species as well and while driving across a backwoods stream I saw a pair of Canada Geese with their young.  I quickly shut down the engine and reached into the back seat for the 500mm F4, which had the 7D attached to it. I did not expect to get a usable photograph as the light was very poor and I was only able to get a shutter speed of 1/100 sec. at f4 with an ISO of 800.  I could not use the tripod, but rested my arms on the bottom of the window opening and of course had the image stabilization engaged.  To my surprise, one of the photos actually turned out reasonably well.

Canada Geese And Young

 While I usually photograph Cardinals in the winter, I couldn't pass up a chance at this beautiful bird as he visited the backwoods bird feeder. This one was taken with the 500mmF4 with 1.4X extender.

Male Cardinal

A mourning dove also stopped by one morning.  This photo was taken with the 500mm without the extender and is severely cropped.  The bird flew away when I tried to attach the extender.

Mourning Dove

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Camera Critters: Turkeys And Whitetails

Mature Easter Wild Turkey Gobblers

Spring is a dramatic and beautiful time of year and my primary focus at this point is documenting turkey activity and the emerging leaves and flowers.  Later my attention will shift more toward the whitetail deer as antlers increase in size and the new fawns are born.

Antler growth has been very slow until recemntly, but the older bucks have made a noticeable gain in antler size in the past week.

The Buck's Antlers Develop

Deer are not their most photogenic at this time as the winter coat has a faded, ragged appearance and a lot of the hair is loose and falling out.  By late May or early June, the winter coat will be completely replaced by the beautiful, red, summer coat.

The does are pregnant and their abdomens will grow larger as spring progresses.  Most fawns in this area will be born in late May though mid-June.

Pregnant Doe-Starting To Shed The Winter Coat

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Original content posted at  http://pawildlifephotographer.blogspot.com/ If this content appears elsewhere without being credited to Willard Hill or Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer, it is stolen content.

Eastern Wild Turkeys Mating-A Morning To Remember

Original content posted at  http://pawildlifephotographer.blogspot.com/ If this content appears elsewhere without being credited to Willard Hill or Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer, it is stolen content.

I have spent about 99% of my mornings in the past few weeks photographing the Eastern Wild Turkey during their mating season.  The gobblers have now gone from spending most of their time in bachelor groups to usually being seen with a flock of hens in the mornings, although I still often see them without the hens in the evenings.  Mornings are more productive for good photo opportunities as the birds are much more likely to strut and gobble.  Later in the spring, it will become more common to see the birds strutting in the evening.

On Wednesday morning I photographed and filmed  a group of mature birds gobblers strutting and gobbling directly in front of me as the first faint rays of the early morning sun casting a golden glow over the meadow.

Mature Gobblers Strutting

Suddenly I looked to the left and noticed another gobbler standing by a solitary hen that was lying on the ground.  It is quite rare to see this, and I began filming them with the Canon XL-H1 video camera.  I let it run unattended while I took a series of stills of the action.  As luck would have it the sun went behind a thin veil of clouds during the entire time that the following action took place.  The photos from this series were not as good as those of the gobblers as the birds were  further away and the increased distance combined with the murky light, resulted in the photos not being as dramatic and sharp as I would have liked.
 

Standing Guard

Soon, he walked to the hen and stood on her back.  This continued for at least ten minutes.

Standing On Her Back For Over Ten Minutes

During this time I frantically took still photos and periodically checked to see the the camcorder was working correctly, at one point putting the 70-200mm f2.8 lens on it, which with the EF adapter gave me an effective focal length of over 1400mm. This should yield dramatic footage.

Finally  the birds completed mating, with the actual process only taking  a short time.  I have photographed turkeys since 1974 and do not recall having seen or photographed this before.

Mating

With mating completed, the gobbler jumped away and the birds ran about, circling each other and then left the meadow.

With Mating Completed, The Gobbler Leaves

I have found that observing and photographing nature is one of the most rewarding experiences in life.  If one is in a hunting type situation they may observe wildlife behavior to a certain extent, especially of species they are not hunting on that particular day, but they do not get to witness some of the most interesting aspects of wildlife behavior as their attention is devoted to setting up a successful shot. Often the animal is either shot at or taken before anything especially noteworthy happens.