Camera Critters: The Calf Elk Are Born

As mentioned in the last few posts, this is the time of year when the young elk and whitetail deer are born, so I traveled to Pennsylvania's elk range this past week to photograph the young elk, known as calves. Some of the cows were still pregnant, but many had given birth. Several calves were sighted, but they were often too far away for still photography. I arrived in time for the evening's photography on Monday. There were beautiful weather conditions that evening and the following morning, but by Tuesday evening the clouds were thickening and rain was in the forecast. There was intermittent rain during the rest of the week and lighting conditions were less than ideal for still photography, but that being said, I still had some excellent encounters.


In a few cases, calves were found standing by the roadside. There was actually a herd of cows with four calves in this encounter where I used the 70-200mm at 200mm and ISO 640 to capture a portrait of the young animal.

Calf By The Roadside

The best encounter was when I saw well-known local videographer, Tom Murphy standing on the river bridge behind Benezette store pointing his camcorder at something in the grass beside the bridge. It turned out to be a beautiful calf. Its' mother was nearby and periodically ran other elk away from the area where the calf was resting. This too was difficult lighting conditions and I used ISO 400 to get a shutter speed of 1/80 at f4.5.

Calf At Benezette River Bridge

It is always a welcome treat to encounter bulls and I had several encounters. Perhaps the best was early Wednesday morning, when I found two bulls grazing in a meadow by Winslow Hill Road.

Grazing

Neither of these animals were mature bulls, but the largest will have a very respectable rack once growth is completed.

Curious

The elk on Winslow Hill are wild to the extent that they are free ranging and go wherever they please, but they have an extremely high tolerance of humans. At this time of year the cows may be very shy at times as they are extremely concerned about any threat to the young, but they become very trusting later in the summer.

It must be emphasized that one should not approach a young calf, not only to not frighten it, but for your safety as while. While ordinarily very docile, the cows may become extremely aggressive when protecting their young and may attack the intruder.

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They're Here-A Close Encounter With A Whitetail Fawn

My favorite whitetail doe was still pregnant on Saturday morning, but that evening she came to the meadow with sunken flanks, so I knew the important event had happened. I did have an encounter with the fawn later that evening, which I will share at a later date.

After she left the meadow this morning I walked an old roadway nearby and spied her walking up the road with a fawn. I took several photos, but the best was when it walked to the side of the road and posed at the base of the tree. As usual light levels were very low in the wooded area and I had to use ISO 800 with the 70-200mm 2.8.

2 Day Old Whitetail Fawn

Due to a busy schedule I will be unable to post or visit your blogs again until the end of the week.

Camera Critters: Pennsylvania Calf Elk-A Difficult Photographic Subject

Whitetail Fawn Update

Things have not gone well in my quest to photography the newly arrived fawns in the local whitetail herd and I have not had another opportunity since the encounter described in the post of June 3rd. The most confiding doe has not given birth yet. I have seen several does with large udders and sunken flanks, but they have not brought fawns to the meadow yet and I have not encountered them in the nearby woodlands where they are certainly hiding.

Thoughts On Photographing Calf Elk

I usually receive some inquiries about photographing the calves in the Pennsylvania elk herd. In a nutshell, I have found it to be a difficult task to successfully photograph them. Like whitetails, the young doe not move about a great deal for a few weeks after birth. The mother hides them and returns to nurse them. Whitetail fawns are usually relatively easy to photograph in Shenandoah National Park as there is a large concentration of them around Big Meadows, but the elk are scattered over a wider area. It also seems that the cows are less thrusting of humans at calving time than the does at SNP and are more likely to run to keep the young from human contact. In addition one is not as likely to see them in roadside meadows until somewhat later in the summer. The birthing period is much the same as whitetails, with most being born from late May through mid-June.

I was in the elk range from June 17-20th of 2008 and had very few encounters with calves during that time. I was concentrating on filming as I wished to complete "The Truth About Pennsylvania's Elk Herd" and so did not always get the opportunity to take stills in my best encounters. A favorite strategy is to watch an area of prime elk habitat and eventually a cow is likely to appear and a calf stand up and begin nursing. In the case pictured below, two cows and a yearling were feeding in the area and left. Suddenly one of the cows returned and a calf stood up and approached her, but even though I was at least 150 yards away the cow was aware I was there and ran with the calf following.

Two Cows With Yearling Calf

If one comes upon the animals unexpectedly they are likely to run. You need to have the right lens for the situation and your basic camera settings such as ISO already made. A point to keep in mind is to not harass the animals and spook them by trying to approach too closely, but in some cases it is unavoidable such as when one is hiking a backwoods road and suddenly elk bolt in the woods beside them.

An Unexpected Encounter

Perhaps the best encounter was when Ronald "Buckwheat" Saffer and I were walking through a patch of woodlands and a calf suddenly stood up and looked at some adult elk that were feeding some distance away. I captured the best poses on videotape, but did manage to get one good shot with the DSLR.

A Hidden Calf Stands Up As It Becomes Aware Of Other Elk Nearby

It seems that one has better luck seeing the calves after they have gotten a bit older and are traveling with the mothers most of the time rather than spending significant periods of time hiding, so I would expect that July, especially from mid-month on, is a better time to see the calves than in June, but the downside is that they are not quite as photogenic as when they are extremely young (It seems there is nothing quite like the wobbly steps and bright eyed innocence of the very young).

Mid-Late July Is An Excellent Time To Photograph Calves

During late July and August, one is more likely to see the calves grazing in the meadows and periodically nursing from the cows. This is perhaps the best chance of encountering elk when touring by car. The spots fade gradually in August. By September, most have a brown coat and no longer make an exceptional subject especially as attention shifts to the rut and the spectacular sights and sounds of the bulls as they bugle and otherwise engage in rutting activity.

Like all wildlife photography, it is often a hit and miss affair. It can be difficult to see an elk one day, while they may everywhere on the next. One thing is certain, the aspiring photographer must be out and about at first photographic light as the elk quickly leave the meadows, either slightly before or soon after sun-up and they often do not re-appear until very late in the evening. Late morning through afternoon is usually not productive. An added challenge is that many mornings are foggy and the animals are bedded for the day by the time the fog lifts, but if it is not too heavy it can lend a mysterious, wild atmosphere to photographs.

More experienced elk photographers may not agree with the above assessment, but that is the situation as I have observed it in the relatively limited amount of time I have spent in the elk range during summer.

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Camera Critters: The Antlers Develop

While I have seen one fawn so far, most of the local whitetail does have either not given birth yet, or are hiding in the woodlands and tall grass. Rainy weather has also made it more difficult to see deer of any type.

June-5th: Still Pregnant

While the does are preparing to give birth, the larger bucks' antlers are growing quite rapidly. The following photographs depict how much one particular buck has increased in size in two weeks.

May 24th


June 7th

This buck is a two year old and should be quite impressive by the first of July. Antler size is determined by genetics, quality of feed, and the age of the deer. Our area of Pennsylvania is not known for exceptionally large bucks so do not expect to see photographs of huge, exceptional whitetails on this blog. These animals are more typical of what Pennsylvania actually produces, than of those that grace the pages of national hunting magazines. In many cases these deer are pen-raised deer that are bred for maximum genetic potential, and fed with food formulated to produce maximum body and rack mass.

Pennsylvania traditionally managed its' whitetail herds so that maximum hunting pressure was focused on the males resulting in very few living to maturity. The state currently has antler restrictions, which enables many bucks to survive somewhat longer, but few survive the season that they reach the legal threshold. In some areas of the state an animal must have three points on one antler to be legal game, while in other areas, four is the magic number.

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