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.

Winter Wildlife and The 5D MK III

Late February, some days are relatively mild, making one think of the spring to come, only to be followed by cold, windy periods that make life difficult for wildlife and humans alike. The last few days have been especially brutal, with strong winds and piercing cold. Through it all wildlife must go about the daily struggle of living.

Whitetail Doe in Falling Snow:  Canon 5D MK III-Canon 500mm f4-ISO 640-1/400 sec.  @f4.5

Alert Doe :  Canon 5D MK III-Canon 500mm f4-ISO 1000-1/500 sec.  @f4.5

Many of the bucks have shed their antlers by now, but it is still possible to see a rack buck on occasion. 

Winter Bucks:  Canon 5D MK III-Canon 500mm f4-ISO 1000-1/500 sec.  @f4.5

In this case, it was growing late on a bitter, cold evening and the wind was blowing in strong gusts.  It was so uncomfortable that I  decided to leave before photographic dark, and stashed the cameras and tripods away in the vehicle.  Before leaving, I paused to take a quick look at a camera manual.  When I was done reading, I looked up and was astonished to see a bachelor group  crossing the meadow.  Only one was a rack buck, but there were a few spikes, three-points and  four-points, etc.  The rest had already lost their antlers, but it was easy to tell that they were bucks as the pedicles were visible. The deer hidden behind the rack buck is a button buck that was born  last spring and is seen each day, but the others are not  frequently seen in this area. Bucks are difficult to see at this time of year since many were killed in  the fall hunting season and,the population is at a yearly low.  Most of those that remain are together in bachelor groups. Few live in herds with the does and yearlings. Even though they may feed in the same area at the same time, they are not part of the same herd.  Since there are two to a dozen or more bucks in these bachelor groups, most of the bucks in a large expanse of territory may be together.  As a result, there are a lot of bucks where they are, and very few where they are not.

I was lucky to see the bucks, but putting the equipment away early made the situation very difficult.  There seemed to be no hope of setting the tripod up again without spooking the animals, but a nearby round bale saved the day. I crept to it with the 5K MK III and the 500mm.  This is the type of situation where IS can save the day and it this case it worked reasonably well.  The rack buck in the photo above is sharp at 100% in Photoshop.  The photo below is slightly soft at 100%, which was was caused by a bit of motion blur from camera movement. Regardless of this, it works well for posting on the internet, and looks as though it would make a decent 8x10 print.

Alert Eight-Point Buck:  Canon 5D MK III-Canon 500mm f4-ISO 1000-1/500 sec.  @f4.5

I took several frames, but these were the best of the series. The bucks were about 100 yards away, so the last photo is severely cropped.

5D MK III images do stand up well to cropping, as long as the photo is sharp. It is the best camera by far that I have owned to date, but the same was true of the 7D over the 40D when I made that upgrade, as was the 30D and 40D over the 10D.  At the end of the day though, the fact remains that the best photos taken with the 10Dand the other models as well,  are still quite usable today.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Beating The Winter Wildlife Photography Doldrums

February is well underway and although the weather here is not as brutal as it was in many years in the past, it is still a struggle for both humans and wildlife to survive.  Sometimes the winter doldrums are broken by frequent sightings of species such as golden eagles and bald eagles, but this is not the case this year. 

Eagle At Conowingo, MD: Canon 7D- 500mmF4, ISO 100- 1/500 sec. f5

When other species are hard to find, one can always turn to birds that are commonly seen at the feeders.  I maintain a back country feeding station, which is set up so the birds may be photographed in their natural environment.

Male Downy Woodpecker: Canon 40D- 500mmF4, ISO 400- 1/6000 sec. f5

 The downy woodpecker shown above paused for a moment on a section of hollow sassafras stump, which has several large woodpecker holes in it.  The feed is placed on a partition installed in the hollow core of the trunk which keeps a suitable supply of feed just below the holes. The photo below shows the feeder and its' natural surroundings.

Natural Feeding Station

At one time I would have mowed the "weeds" that surrounded this, but I learned that leaving certain species resulted in improved backgrounds. Note the broken stalk of Pokeweed in the upper right tangent of the photograph.  That provided a natural perch for the female cardinal shown below.

Female Cardinal: Canon 40D- 500mm F4, ISO 100- 1/2500 sec. f5

The weathered trunk to the right of the sassafras feeder provided a wonderful perch on which to capture a portrait of a White-throated Sparrow.

White-throated Sparrow: Canon 40D- 500mmF4, ISO 400- 1/2500 sec. f7.1

The sassafras tree did not grow in this spot, but the broken off section of locust tree did.  The sassafras log was found lying on the ground in another area, transported to this spot and cut to an acceptable length.  It was then anchored to nearby objects with thin metal straps and lag bolts, which were painted brown and camouflaged as good as possible.  Since the lowest hole was several feet from the ground and the log was completely hollow, I sealed it off about a foot below the lower hole by spraying foam insulation inside the trunk to provide a platform for the seed.

With a bit of creative thinking, one can beat the winter doldrums without having to travel long distances in search of suitable subjects--at least until conditions are right to make a trip in search of more esoteric subjects.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Camera Critters: Wildlife In The Snow

Here, the ground has been bare most of the winter, with only short periods of light snow cover, but this changed when about 5" of snow fell this week.

With snow on the ground, and more flakes falling  from lake effect snow squalls, winter wildlife photography becomes very interesting. I especially like to film wildlife in falling snow, as video makes the falling snowflakes look very natural and lends a wild exciting look to the footage, but it is harder to portray the falling snow well with still images. These are two of the better images that I was able to capture during a heavy snow squall yesterday morning.

Whitetail Doe In Falling Snow

Mature Eastern Wild Turkey Gobbler

 Hopefully there will be more opportunities to pursue this type of photography as more snow is forecast for next week.

Photos taken with Canon 40-D and 100-400mm L lens.

For more Camera Critters photos, Click Here!

Originally posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard C. Hill

Camera Critters: Winter Wildlife

While many fellow bloggers report significant snowfall in their area, we have received little as of yet, but the temperatures have been extremely bitter during much of December and January.  Wildlife faces a bitter struggle to survive at this time of year, especially when there is a deep snow cover or food sources are covered in ice, but survival is difficult even without the snow and animals and birds feed and rest in areas that are exposed to the rays of the winter sun, and sheltered as much as possible from the brutal winds.

Whitetail Doe Pauses From Feeding To Check For Danger

Whitetail Buck Emerges To Feed In Meadow

Eastern Wild Turkey Gobblers Cross A Winter Meadow

For more Camera Critters photographs, Click Here!

Originally posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill

Winter: A Struggle For Survival-A Canon 7-D Film

" Winter with it's now and cold. Survival is difficult for wildlife and human's alike."-opening dialog from "Winter A Struggle For Survival".

With it being one of the most brutal winters in recent memory and shooting video with DSLRS being one of the current "in" things to do, I decided to put together a short film from clips shot entirely with the Canon 7-D.

Winter: A Struggle For Survival from Willard C. Hill on Vimeo.

The film features winter birds, elk, and whitetail deer set against a backdrop of winter storms interspersed with sparkling clear days.