Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer Returns

The mating season for elk, more commonly known as the rut, begins in early September, in Pennsylvania. By the middle of the month activity is intense although it may be less on warm days. I find the last two weeks of the month to be the most productive for sighting bulls in pursuit of cows.

This year was extremely good. Although there were not as many outstanding bulls as there were in the years before the elk hunt began, there were a lot of good second tier bulls. The one featured here today is possibly the most promising young bull on Winslow Hill today. This is the bull that was featured in earlier posts, which spent the summer Benezette. This bull has no fear of humans as is amply demonstrated in the photograph below. He left town to pursue cows once the rut began and will likely return once it is over.

If you look closely to the left of the bull you will notice a photographer with a long lens and tripod. The animal was fully aware of his presence and completely unconcerned.

No Fear!

If this animal remains in the No Hunt Zone during the coming elk season, he has an excellent chance of becoming one of Pennsylvania's great bulls. If he strays from it, his career will be short indeed. Many speculate that his father is Bull 36 also known as Fred as his rack bears a great resemblance to the one that Fred had when at a similar age.

If he is taken, it will be interesting to see how someone will be able to justify it as a challenging, fair chase hunt.

Sunset in Elk County

Stay tuned for more posts about the recent trip to Yellowstone and The Pennsylvania Elk Rut.

For more elk photos visit Salty at Country Captures.

For more Camera Critters photographs, click here.

More Whitetail Buck Velvet Shedding Photos

Situation Update

It has not been a good week for posting, or visiting blogs. I had two video projects to complete and one of my best friends was in the final stages of an extended battle with cancer. He passed away late Wednesday night and services are scheduled for tomorrow. I spent most of Wednesday afternoon with him and it was a difficult time.

Also this may be the last post for some time as it is almost time to go to the elk range for a two-week trip to videotape and photograph the rut. Benezette store is currently out of stock on the elk video, but they should have a new supply by Monday.

The Whitetail Bucks-Shedding Velvet

In most cases the shedding of the velvet is completed in a day or so, but this buck is an unusual case. He is the deer that had the vines tangled in his antlers in the previous post. On that day he was aggressive and rubbed his antlers against anything he could find to dislodge the velvet, but then he stopped doing that and surprisingly much of the velvet is still on the antlers as of this morning.


On the other hand the first buck pictured in the last post which has small drops of blood showing, completed the process in one day. When I next saw him, his antlers were completely bare and he was showing signs of aggression toward the other bucks.


He is too small to be a serious contender in fights, but he should do quite a bit of sparring with other bucks of his size class in the weeks to come, unless he is killed by a poacher or by a junior hunter in the upcoming archery season.

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!

Sky Watch Friday-More Yellowstone Shots

During our recent trip to Yellowstone Park, I truly found out what it meant to be a tourist as I find that many of my shots reflect the approach to shooting that a tourist is often forced to adapt.
As mentioned in an earlier post, The Madison River was an excellent spot to see wildlife. If one was to do it justice, they would need to spend most mornings and evenings there for at least a week. If one lived in the area, they could not spend too much time there. I am sure that over a period of time, one could obtain some stunning photographs and video in the area.

I left the 500mmF4 and the XL-H1 camcorder at home, as I did not want the hassle of transporting all of the equipment on the aircraft. As a result I was without my favorite long range tools.

I found that in many cases during this trip, one had to make do with less than ideal light or the right equipment for the job, but that is a necessary part of trying to cover a large amount of territory in a limited amount of time.

At any rate, we start today's photos with a sunset taken from along The Madison River toward West Yellowstone, and then proceed to an early morning encounter with a heron and a herd of elk in the same area.

Canon 40-D: 100-400mmL at 200mm 1/800 sec. f8 ISO 100

Heron along Madison River: Canon 40-D: 100-400mm at 400mm 1/100 sec. f5.6 ISO 800

The rut was just beginning and a lone 5x5 Bull was chasing cows about in the meadows along The Madison River. He was bugling occasionally. I would really have liked to have the Canon XL-H1 and a powerful telephoto for some of these encounters!

Canon 40-D: 300mmF4 1/250 F4 ISO 800

I am a firm believer in using a tripod if possible, but in this instance I fell into my usual trap. I had only one tripod. One can change the head to use with a still or video camera. Since it is almost impossible to handhold professional quality video, I had the video head mounted in many instances during the trip which meant I had to handhold the still cameras, which lead to me using a higher ISO than I would have liked in some cases so as to obtain sufficient shutter speeds to avoid unsharp photographs.

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