Lift-Off: A Morning At Middle Creek WMA

With perfect weather in the forecast and the PGC website reporting that a large number of snow geese were still at Middle Creek WMA, it was not a difficult decision to make the 100+ mile drive on Wednesday morning.  I arrived as the first hint of morning brightened the eastern sky and Middle Creek Lake was alive with the sounds of snow geese, tundra swans, and other waterfowl.  It was still too early for photographs or video when I arrived, but one could see the indistinct, shadowy shapes of vast numbers of waterfowl.

There was enough light by 6:00a.m. to take photographs at high ISO, but the shutter speeds were still very low.

Middle Creek Dawn: Canon 7D-Canon 300mm F2.8  ISO 1250 1/40 F2.8

Shortly after 6:10 a.m. a large number of the snow geese erupted from the lake.  Some left, but most circled several times and then settled back down to the lake surface.  It was still too dark to use as high of a shutter speed as I would have liked, but there was nothing to do other than make the best of the opportunity.

Lift-Off: Canon 7D-Canon 500mm F4 ISO 800 1/80 sec. F4

There was much more light was by 6:28 a.m. when there was another massive eruption of snow geese from the lake and this time all of them left.  I concentrated on video at the start of the action, but then switched to the 7D and still photographs as the birds flew directly toward me.

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Snow Geese Approaching: Canon 7D-Canon 500mm F4 ISO 400 1/400 sec. F4

Snow Geese At Long Range: Canon 7D-Canon 500mm F4 ISO 400 1/1000 sec. F5

Once the lake emptied out, it was time to turn to the pothole just across the road for duck and Canada Geese photography, but that is a story for another day.


Originally posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

A March Visit To Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area

Snow Geese

 Middle Creek is on the list of places I must visit each year. One of the best times to do so is during the spring waterfowl migration, and if one wants to see the impressive spectacle of thousands upon thousands of snow geese they must plan on going there in late February and early March. According to my information, the tour road around the upper end of the lake does not open until March 1st, however, which means one is not able to access this area in February,which does limit photographic opportunities.

My Brother Coy of Country Captures and I traveled to Middle Creek on Friday March 2nd and the day began with great promise.  I always like to start at the viewing areas along Hopeland Road near the visitor center and when we arrived there in the predawn, the air was filled with the sound of thousands of snow geese, tundra swans, and other waterfowl.  We positioned the cameras and took some scenic shots waiting for the birds to leave the water.

Middle Creek Lake Before Sunrise

As dawn neared the terrific flock of snow geese drifted further and further toward the other shore.  Suddenly most of the birds left the lake far earlier than usual and by the time excellent photographic light arrived there was not a snow goose in sight, but there were several species of ducks and other waterfowl.

I concentrated on video as usual and so do not have a lot of  photographs to post from this trip.  Later in the morning a large flock of snow geese began to form off of willow point and we hiked there, but the light was very harsh and glaring resulting in less than optimal photos and video. We drove around the tour road again and then filmed and photographed the flock at Willow Point from an extreme distance and observed an immature Bald Eagle flying over the lake, and a mature Bald Eagle, which caught a fish and sat on a log near Willow Point while eating it.  At this juncture the large flock took off en masse, which made a spectacular sight.  Coy captured some excellent shots of with his 600mm F4. To see this along with the lift-off at dawn read his post, "A Blizzard of Snows"

Before leaving we made one more pass on the tour road and this time we met with success.  Large numbers of snow geese were coming from the lake and landing in a corn field to the left of the one-way tour road.  Soon the road was lined with birding enthusiasts and the field and skies was filled with the geese. Although the photo below was taken in 2008, it serves to illustrate this situation quite well.

Snow Geese Landing In Corn Field

 A PGC officer arrived on the scene and drove into the field to make sure that no one approached the geese.

PGC Officer On Watch

But even without anyone disturbing the geese, they lifted off and flew in a circle over the area for a time and then settled back down to feeding.

Massive Flock Taking Off From Corn Field

Originally posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Elk Crossing Bennetts Branch

There is something about the successful incorporation of water in the composition that makes a wildlife photo or video clip have special appeal, whether it be of animals drinking from a stream or pond, or crossing a stream that passes through a picturesque setting. As I noted in the last post, I spend little time near the river when in Pennsylvania elk country, but I frequently think about the outstanding photographs and video I have seen taken there, such as video segments taken by Billie Cromwell in the late 1990's and stills by Ron Saffer from that time and earlier. Another outstanding example that I think of frequently is "Water Fight", which features two bulls in fierce combat in the river near Driftwood.  It was taken by the late Terry Younkin and is featured on a sign at the Hicks Run Viewing Area.

At any rate, as promised here is the video of the herd of elk crossing Bennetts Branch of Sinnemahoning Creek, which most persons I know simply refer to as "the river".



This video was taken with the Canon T3i DSLR, a Manfrotto 516 fluid head, and a Canon 100-400mm L lens at varying focal lengths. All clips were taken at ISO 100.  It is always a tough choice  between using this and the Canon XL-H1.  The H1 is sharper and as long as one uses the normal lens the auto focus works well, but once one shifts to the longer lenses it is easier to obtain accurate focus with the DSLR as both must be focus manually when taking video with these lenses.

Originally posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard HIll.

Late February In Elk Country

For the past several years I have spent a substantial portion of either the last week in February  or the first week in March in Pennsylvania elk country.  I decided to do so again this year, so late Monday morning found me traveling up I-99 under sunny skies with the goal in mind of arriving in Benezette in time to photograph the evening's elk activity.  The ground is usually covered with snow at this time of year, but today conditions were more like mid to late March, with  most of the fields being bare.

View From Gilbert Viewing Area-Usually Snow Covered In February

There was some snow cover in wooded areas--especially in areas protected from the direct rays of the sun, and some portions of  back roads were treacherous as well.  There was light snowfall on a few occasions  during the week, but there was only minimal accumulation and that melted quickly. All in all it was more like early spring than winter.

I did see quite a few elk, but not as many as usual, and bull sightings were few and far between.  I checked out Gray Hill several times, which is where many have seen bulls lately, but I did not see one elk let alone a bull.  Two young bulls were sighted at Devil's Elbow on Monday evening, but I filmed them with the Canon XL-H1 and  have no still photos to post of this encounter.

After checking Gray Hill and Winslow Hill at dawn on Tuesday, I traveled to Hick's Run where I found a herd between RT 555 and Bennetts Branch.  Eventually most of the elk crossed the river and again I concentrated on filming them, rather than taking stills, but I did pause at times to fire a few still frames.  It is always a special treat to film and photograph elk in the water.

Cows Crossing Bennetts Branch

A beautiful 6x6 was with the herd. He is not really a large bull, but is impressive enough to make an excellent photographic subject.  This was evidently one of the most commonly seen bulls this week as I have seen his photo posted several times on Facebook and on blogs.  Again I concentrated on video rather than stills as I have not filmed a bull crossing the river in my many years of going to elk country (I spend most of my time in the meadows and mountains, instead of the low-lands).  Of course I would love to have still photos of a river crossing also, but since video is my primary focus, I wanted video clips much worse. Eventually he walked to the edge of the river and paused to drink, and I took a still at this point.

Bull Drinking From River

One only needs to push a separate button the remote to take a full 18 meg-pixel still while in video mode, but the main problem is that one needs to use a shutter speed of between 1/30 and 1/100 when filming, with 1/60 being recommended in most cases.  It is of course possible to shift to higher speeds to take stills, but one cannot resume filming until they drop back to a more acceptable speed, or they end up with unnatural looking motion.  I took the still  without boosting the shutter speed as it seemed likely he could take off across the river at any moment and catch me changing settings in which case a wonderful opportunity would be wasted while I fumbled with camera settings. This resulted in a bit of softness in the image, due to either camera vibration, subject movement or both. As it turned out, I successfully film him crossing the river, which made an otherwise lackluster trip into one that I will not forget.

Originally posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.