Camera Critters: Birds And Scenery Make Good Subjects

 Rushing Mountain Stream Makes For Great Scenic Opportunity

I spend most mornings  in a blind by a rushing mountain stream, waiting for the wily, elusive Eastern Wild Turkey Gobblers to appear.  Many times the birds do not co-operate, but if one is not totally fixated on the turkeys and looks about for other photo opportunities, they may find other subjects that are as rewarding to photograph. These opportunities range from capturing scenic shots, to photographing other birds or animals that may appear.

While I have seen Eastern Towhee's for years, I have not had many opportunities to photograph them successfully, as they usually inhabit brushy areas where they scratch among the leaves on the forest floor for food.  This changed in April when the birds began utilizing the area around my blind.

Eastern Towhee

This bird used to be called the Rufous Sided Towhee, which still sounds like a good name to me, but for some reason it was changed.  Whatever the case, they are a beautiful bird and it was a thrill to successfully photograph the species.

The Northern or "Yellow Shafted"  Flicker is another bird that frequents our area, but has been difficult for me to photograph until this spring when one stopped by on an April morning.

Northern "Yellow Shafted" Flicker

The birds came near the blind because I sprinkled a mixture of bird seed and sunflower seeds around a nearby stump and on the forest floor.  It is perfectly legal to feed birds and turkeys, but one must not do this if they hunt turkeys from the blind and they may not hunt in the area around where the feed is spread.  They must hunt far enough away that the actions of their quarry is not influenced by the food source.

In Pennsylvania, regulations require that all bait and residue thereof be removed at least thirty days before hunting is done in that area.  This is not a problem since I have not hunted for nearly thirteen years, having found observing and photographing wildlife to be a much more rewarding means of enjoying the outdoors, so if my ex-compatriots in law-enforcement stop by the only weapons they will find will be the cameras and long lenses.

Partially Hollow Stump Makes Both A Good Background And A Natural Bird Feeder

For more Camera Critters photographs, Click Here!

Originally posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill

Pennsylvania Deer Wars: My First Close-up Whitetail Photograph

Today we continue with the series on "The Pennsylvania Deer Wars", but as I like to say, "with no fighting yet". That; however,  will soon follow if we continue to explore this subject.  This takes up where the post of  March 16, 2011 left off.

Until the spring of 1974 my primary interaction with whitetail deer was either hunting or observing them, although I did have a strong desire to photograph them.  Since I was operating on a shoe-string budget I got the Minolta SRT 101, with 50mm F1.7 normal lens in early May of that year and waited a few weeks until I had more funds before I purchased the Spiratone 400mm.  What a thrill it was to look through the view finder at distant subjects. Now birds and animals were no longer barely visible spots in the finder.  It is hard to describe the excitement I felt at this point--it was even difficult to sleep at night with thoughts of prospective encounters with wildlife running through my mind.

Minolta SRT 101 and Spiratone 400mm F 6.3: Photo by W.Hill

On one fine spring morning I left our family farm and walked to a remote mountain farm where an old barn was still standing.  This was ideal whitetail habitat with excellent prospects for photo opportunities during the entire trip, but I saw no deer until I got to the barn.  When I came around one corner of the barn, a young whitetail doe ran out of the barnyard into the nearby woods, then turned and paused to look at me for a few seconds.  With heart pounding, I brought the camera to eye level and fired a few frames before she bounded away.

Young Whitetail Doe-The First Close-up Photograph: Photo by W.Hill

I was using Ektachrome 100 slide film and the 400mm lens without a tripod, which required an exposure of 1/125 sec. at f6.3, and it is difficult to hand-hold a 400mm steady enough to get acceptably sharp photos at 1/125 sec., especially in the days before image stabilization, Needless to say the photographs were not all that great, but I was so thrilled to finally have a close-up photo of a deer that I didn't even notice that they were not very sharp.  It would not be until the DSLR age that I would become obsessed with sharpness and the use of premium lenses and tripods. 


This was the first of thousands of photos I would take with SLR/DSLR cameras and telephoto lenses.  The photo below shows a mature doe and was taken this past winter with a Canon 7D and 300mm F2.8 telephoto, and what a world of difference there is. She was photographed less than 75 yards from where I took the photo in 1974 and there is a fair probability that she is a descendant of the young doe that I captured on film that day.

Adult Doe Photographed In Same Area Almost 37 years Later: Canon 7D 300mm F2.8

It would be interesting to mount the 400mm Spiratone on the 7D and see how it performs with this camera while mounted on a high end tripod.  This can be done quite cheaply as those lenses utilized a screw on T mount that adapted it to any interchangeably lens SLR and these adapters are still available.  I am certain that the results would not begin to compare with modern professional equipment, but one must consider the price of the lens and high end lenses such as the Canon L series are forbiddingly expensive and like the price of gasoline seem to become more so by the day.

So at this point, any involvement in deer wars was simply struggling to learn how to hunt and photograph them, but these interests would lead my brother Coy and I to become involved in the fight to protect the whitetail deer and other wildlife.

Originally posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill

Gobbling Activity Continues, While Whitetail Antler Growth Accelerates

With April almost gone and May just a few short days away, it is turning summer-like here in southcentral Pennsylvania, with warm weather and a lot of thunderstorms..  I used to think of spring gobbler photography primarily as a warm weather endeavor, but since retiring in 2007 and spending most mornings afield in pursuit of wildlife photographs, I have found that a lot of gobbling activity occurs during March and early April when many mornings are quite cold.  It has only been in the last week or so that one is comfortable without wearing gloves and heavy clothing, while waiting in the blind during the early morning hours for turkeys to appear.  While I haven't  heard as much gobbling recently, it is still common to see gobblers strutting.

Mature Gobbler Struts During Courtship Ritual

A gobbler usually performs this courtship ritual of strutting and posturing when hens are nearby, but it is common for them to neither strut or gobble during an encounter with them, which makes photographing them doubly difficult as one needs to not only see the elusive bird, but see him when he is engaging in this behavior, the light is right, and intervening trees and brush does not obscure him.  The process is somewhat easier, when the birds are found in the meadows.  While turkeys are in many ways a woodland bird, they do like open, grassy areas and may be seen in them, especially in spring and autumn.  For some reason, they especially like to use them on rainy days.

Turkeys May Be Found In Both Woodlands And Meadows

While I tend to concentrate on the turkeys at this time of year, it is also interesting to watch the whitetail deer and document the antler growth.  Antlers size gradually increases in April, and will become more rapid as the season advances.   Below are two photos taken on the morning of April 26th.  This is the same buck that was featured in the post of April 16th, and the photo in that post was taken on April 10th., so one can see how much the antlers have grown in 16 days.

Antler Size Increases Gradually During April: Note Appearance Of Winter Coat

A close look reveals that a branch is developing on the right antler.  This buck should have at least four points by the end of May, but it is also very likely that he will disperse before then, so we may never know how large he will grow.

A Point Develops On The Right Antler

In addition to growing antlers, the deer are slowly changing from the winter to the summer coat.  The winter coat is bleached and ragged in appearance and the hair  falls out, to be replaced by the reddish colored summer coat, which is developing underneath.  Most deer will complete this process by mid-June.


Originally posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Too Many Elk On Winslow Hill?

As we noted in the post of Thursday April 14, the Pennsylvania Game Commission' drastically increased the elk license allocations for the 2011 season, for Hunt Zones 2 and 8, which are those that most directly impact the viewing areas and center of elk related tourism on Winslow Hill.  It is claimed that an increased kill is needed because this is the largest sub-herd and has showed the most increase. To be quite frank I have noticed the increased visibility of elk in this area in the last  few years, but have been reluctant to comment about the situation in the fear that it would help draw attention to what some are sure to perceive as a problem.  While some may claim that this perceived problem is a result of not killing enough elk, based on my years of experience as a Game Lands Maintenance Worker and later Game Lands Maintenance Supervisor with the PGC, I am reasonably certain that this seemingly large increase in the herd on Winslow Hill has been caused by the massive amounts of reclamation work that has been done in the area during the past decade.  As a result there are more high quality grasses available as food for elk than ever before, which tends to draw elk from surrounding areas and concentrate them in a relatively small area.

Bull Elk Follows Cow:  Reclaimed Area Of SGL 311: Grasses planted among cover crop of grain.

 Elk, like any other animal, gravitate toward the best food sources and at this time a significant proportion of this improved habitat is visible from the elk viewing area at Dewey Road, which I persist in calling "The Gilbert Viewing Area".  This will change in a short amount of time whether more hunting pressure is directed at the area or not.  The reason for this change will be that the quality of the grass will decline and then the elk will shift the focus of their feeding to areas where the best food may be found.  The only way that the large herd will remain concentrated  there is if a significant portion of the grasslands is renewed periodically by replanting.

As an example, I recall that in late summer of 2006 the reclaimed area between the Maynard Woodring property and Elk View Diner (this had been an area of slag piles, etc. but was now a meadow) was covered with a carpet of luscious grasses including different varieties of clovers and trefoil and a large number of elk were attracted to the area.

Area Near Elk View Diner Carpeted With Clover And Trefoil: Photo by W.Hill

This has remained a good spot to see elk, but it was not used nearly as much last fall as in the period from 2006-2009, and the reason is that the more desirable varieties of grass were dying out, while freshly planted reclaimed areas near Dewey Road, The Saddle, and at The Elk Country Visitor Center, attracted the lions share of the elk.  The PGC has also traditionally planted at least one food plot at the Dent's Run Viewing Area (the one with the information center) and usually one or two at The Gilbert.  This has served to keep elk coming to these areas in most years, but I do not think it is sufficient to attract and hold the 150-200 animals that the PGC says is in the area at present, so regardless as to whether or not they shoot more elk on Winslow Hill, you likely won't see as many there in the not too distant future, unless the PGC maintains an aggressive planting program in the area.

PGC Prepares Food Plot For Planting At Gilbert Viewing Area

Another example as to why this is likely the case is the rut of 2007.  The PGC planted the usual food plots at both the Gilbert and Dent's Run viewing areas, but The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, which then owned the Elk Country Visitor Center property, planted a lot of high quality forage in their food plots, while there was an extremely large  newly reclaimed area on State Game Lands 311, which was planted in fall grain and highly desirable grasses.  This was located in the back country toward the mountains to the West of Dewey Road.

Remote Reclaimed Area Of SGL 311: In 2007 this and plots at RMEF attracted many elk usually seen At Gilbert and Dent's Run Viewing Areas

 There were many times that there weren't many elk to be seen in the usual viewing areas and some people who made only a one day trip didn't see one bull.  There were a lot of complaints that year that there were no elk on Winslow Hill, but the bottom line was that most were at The Elk Foundation where the general public was not permitted to be, or at the reclaimed area, which required a substantial walk to access.  Most of the public didn't know how to find it anyway, and it would likely have been perceived to be a problem had they found out about it and arrived in large numbers to look for elk.  I heard the person working at the information booth at the Dent's Run viewing area that fall tell most of what I have just related to several groups of people, as I was browsing the literature and displays in the building.

The bottom line is that it seems likely that this herd will disperse to a certain extent, if not a great deal, once this bonanza of high quality food is gone.  In the meantime the PGC has started down the slippery slope of increasing license allocations in the area.  If they were concerned only about elk over-population as they claim, why has pressure been substantially increased on the bulls also?  I fully understand that many of the bulls that one sees on Winslow Hill during the rut, come from other areas to Winslow Hill and are in another area entirely when hunting season arrives, but with that being said there were a substantial number of large bulls that did make that general area their year around range and most of these animals have been shot.  In some years, Pennsylvania has a 100% success rate on bulls and it is seldom much less than that, so in effect this means it is highly likely that eight more of the bulls that frequent the tourist areas will be killed this fall.

From my point of view, it is amazing that we overshot the whitetail buck population to the extent that the PGC enacted antler restrictions to enable more bucks to live long enough to grow somewhat better antlers, yet we seem hell bent on killing the exceptional bull elk and making the same mistake with them that we did with the deer.

In the near future, I plan to further explore how and why we have arrived at this point in Pennsylvania Elk Management.

Originally posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill