Sky Watch Friday-Cirrus Clouds

We have had some beautiful cloud formations lately. Even though it was flat mid-day light, I still thought these clouds were worth photographing. These high wispy formations are known as cirrus clouds.

Canon 40-D 17-40mm F4 1/350f8 ISO 100

Canon 40-D 70-200L F2.8 1/60 f8 ISO 100

To view other sky photos visit Tom at Wigger's World. A big thanks to Tom for making this weekly event possible!

Awards, Goals, and Whitetail Bucks

Awards

Deemom recently awarded me a "You Make My Day Award" and I appreciate it so much!

Try as I might, I cannot bring myself to select five other persons to pass the award on to for the simple reason that each of the blogs that I visit makes my day--some with humor, some with a discussion of issues, some with their love of sharing the events of their daily life, some with superb photography and many with a combination of some or all of these factors along with a desire to impart information on subjects near and dear to their heart.

What stands out most to me as I visit other blogs is how many persons are able to find a great deal of satisfaction in observing and photographing the wildlife (scenics, pets, trips, etc.) they see on a daily basis and then sharing it with others.

I know this isn't following rules, but I must say to all of you whose blogs that I visit or to those that faithfully visit mine,"You Make My Day"!

Goals

This was originally conceived as an issue driven blog with an emphasis on "Big Game" photography and filming. Some view it as an anti-hunting blog. In reality it is neither anti-hunting nor pro-hunting. Those are issues for others pursue, but I do like to view it as challenging persons to take a step back so as to speak and actually stop and take a close look at the wildlife that surrounds us and view it as not just something to harvest, but rather something to enjoy by seeing and appreciating it as well. For the record, I was once an avid hunter, but after spending hours afield observing and recording wildlife I lost interest in hunting as the observation and photography were much more rewarding to me. If one hunts, I feel they should hunt legally and ETHICALLY, bearing in mind that legal and ETHICAL are not always one and the same!

My opposition to Pennsylvania's Elk hunt stems from the fact that we are directing hunting pressure near to the major tourist areas and not away from them as was originally stated when the idea was first floated. We are hunting animals in areas where they are acclimated to humans and calling it a "challenging hunt". (Making these animals wild by harassing them is not the answer either -but so much for that for now).

This stance is not anti-hunting as some have said, but rather opposition to certain policies and how they are implemented.

Antler Development on Whitetail Bucks

Canon 40D-500mmF4 1/250sec. f4 ISO 200

Serious antler growth begins in Mid-May in our area. The buck on the left is a yearling and should grow antlers ranging from short spikes to a modest six or seven-point rack with an 8"-12" inside spread. The buck on the right appears to be two years old and has the potential to grow a larger rack in terms of spread (10"-14"), but is unlikely to grow more than eight points.

Canon 40D-500mmF4 1/60sec. f8 ISO 200

I have never photographed or videotaped a buck of over four-points in May, in Fulton County Pennsylvania as deer here are smaller than those in many other areas. I have videotaped much larger bucks in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia in this time frame.

Canon 40D-500mmF4 1/180 sec. f4.5 ISO 400

The last buck is at least two years old and possibly three. He has the potential to grow a rack of eight points or more with a spread of 12"-16".

Sky Watch Friday-Clear Weather Brings Wildlife Activity

After a long rainy period with a few sunny intervals, we finally had a mostly clear day yesterday with only a few mid-morning sprinkles. After that it turned into a stunningly beautiful day, the only problem being that the temperatures were more like March than late April.

I prepared the photos for this post last evening, but found that I had no internet service so I had to wait until service was restored this morning to post.

Canon 40-D: 17-40mmL at 17mm,1/350sec-f8 ISO 100

The beautiful sunshine brought the wildlife out early in the evening, with a herd of whitetail deer being the first to arrive. The deer are now changing from the winter to the summer coat and the does are pregnant. Most fawns are born between mid-May to mid-June, with most arriving in my area around June 8th. Each year I anxiously await their arrival! Within the near future I hope to be able to show you some of the new born.

Deer enjoy the sunshine too:Canon 40-D 17-40L at 17mm 1/180 sec. f8 ISO 100

The Gobblers are still strutting: Canon 40-D 500mmF4+1.4x extender-severely cropped

1/750 f8 ISO 400

Even the turkeys visited the meadow. This bird was nearly 200 yards or 600 ft. away. This is a small central portion of the photo. This gobbler was strutting, but he did not gobble. Turkey mating season should end within the next week or so and then my primary focus will shift to the deer and the arrival of the fawns.

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.