The Leaves Change Color As The Whitetail Rut Begins

Many Pennsylvania nature photographers have commented that fall colors have not been as spectacular this year as usual and I have found that to be true here in the south-central portion of the state as well.  With that being said I did capture a decent fall scene last Thursday.  Wanting to travel light, I carried only the Panasonic GH3 and tripod with the 14-140mm Lumix lens mounted.  I also carried the 100-300mm Lumix in case I encountered wildlife.

Fall Colors: Panasonic GH3-Lumix 14-140mm@17mm- ISO 200-1/100sec. f 11.0

It seems that the GH3 does quite well as a still camera at the lower ISO settings and it is very easy to carry, but with that being said I still like to use the Canons for most of my still photography.

I have seen quite a bit of wildlife as well in the past few weeks.  One of the most memorable occasions was when I was watching a distant flock of gobblers in a portion of a meadow that was dry enough for the farmer to mow this summer. Since the fall rains it is now a wetlands and  some of the gobblers were drinking from the pools of water among the grass. The image is severely cropped to give a more dramatic composition.

Gobbler Drinking: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 600mm f 4.0-ISO 400-1/250sec. f 8.0

The whitetail deer rut was early last year and I had seen a lot of bucks chasing does by the middle of October, but things have really been slow this year and there has been little signs of the rut until lately.  I have noticed that in the last few days the young bucks that are still traveling with the family groups are showing rutting behavior.  It is amusing to watch these little fellows acting aggressive.

Yearling Buck Performs lip-curl: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 600mm f 4.0-ISO 400-1/320sec. f  4.5

On October 25th I saw the first buck chasing a doe.  I did film the chasing with the Panasonic, but the stills I got with the 5D MK III and the 600mm were only portrait shots.  This was a buck I had not seen before and is either a larger than usual (for this area) yearling or is a small 2 year old.

6 Point Buck Pauses From Chasing Doe: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 600mm f 4.0-ISO 3200-1/200sec. f  4.0

The light level was low enough that it was good to have the MK III's excellent high ISO capability.  I was hidden behind a hay bale, but the buck still caught the movement as I switched from the video camera to the still camera. He soon lost interest in me and began chasing the doe again.

6 Point Buck: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 600mm f 4.0-ISO 3200-1/160sec. f  4.0

He evidently got the leaves in his right antler from horning the ground, which is something I would liked to have seen and recorded.

I enjoy photographing almost any species I can find, but I have been fascinated with the whitetail deer since a young age and they are my favorite species to film and photograph.  Each year I especially look forward to filming the excitement of the fall rut when bucks that are ordinarily shy and hard to see are suddenly everywhere running about after the does.  It will be interesting to see what buck sightings the next few weeks bring.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Bull Fight Ends In Death

Photographers enjoy the beauty of the natural world and strive to capture their subjects in beautiful, exciting poses, but unfortunately  some things in nature are not beautiful.  While I prefer to concentrate on the awesome beauty that can be found in the outdoors, it is good to document  some of the less pleasant  aspects of the outdoor experience so that the public is aware of the reality of life for animals in the wild.

The Beauty of Nature: Canon 70D-Canon 300mm f2.8-ISO 400-1/320 sec. f 3.2

As we pointed out in the last post, most who visit the elk hope to see an exciting bull fight, but they often do not consider the serious injury that can result to the participants.  A prime example of this was when the famous character bull "Fred, Jr." was gored in 2000.  I do not know if anyone got to see the fight in which he was injured, but I found him in the Winslow Hill back country one September morning in 2000 and was surprised to find that he had a large hole in one side.

Fred Gored-2000-Canon L2 Hi-8 Camcorder Video Still Capture

 I spent over an hour with the great animal as he stood on a hillside licking his wound.  After close observation it seemed likely that the wound had not penetrated vital organs and he had an excellent chance to recover.

Fred's Wound: Canon Elan II-Lens Unknown-35mm scan

 I was further reassured when he suddenly scented the air and then ran into a nearby hollow where I found him  pursuing a hot cow.  By the next autumn there was no sign of the injury and I had the privilege of recording him and the Test Hill bull in the fight that is featured in The Elk Country Visitor Center theater presentation and my film, "The Truth About Pennsylvania's Elk Herd.  A small portion of this fight is also included in my latest film, "Running Wild in Pennsylvania Elk Country".  Both films may be purchased at Benezett Store.

At least one fatality resulted from a bull fight on Winslow Hill this year.  To the best of my knowledge someone reported to the PGC that a bull was dead, but the officer who responded  could not find the animal and asked noted elk photographer Ron "Buckwheat" Saffer if he had seen it.  At this point Saffer had not, but he later found the animal and notified the PGC.

Goring Victim: Photo Courtesy of Ronald J. Saffer- Used by permission

The bull was in The Saddle Area.  If you look directly over the back end of the bull in the photo below you can see Dewey Road in the background and the large meadow to the side of the road where the fight took place that was featured in the short video I posted recently.

Goring Victim: Photo Courtesy of Ronald J. Saffer- Used by permission

Soon Wildlife Conservation Officer Doty McDowell arrived and removed the animal.

WCO Doty McDowell Arrives: Photo Courtesy of Ronald J. Saffer- Used by permission

WCO Doty McDowell Removing Elk: Photo Courtesy of Ronald J. Saffer- Used by permission

According to Buckwheat this was not a particularly distinctive bull. Although it had a beautiful 6x6 rack, it was still a young animal albeit one with excellent  potential to grow into an exception bull had this not happened. It is not one that stood out above the rest of the herd for any particular reason and so would not be a "character" bull that was known to a lot of photographers and elk watchers.

The first question someone usually asks is what did they do with the elk?  I have not corresponded with WCO McDowell about this, but based on my past experience as a PGC Deputy and Maintenance worker I would expect that the elk would be not fit for human consumption. It is possible that the hide was saved and extremely likely that the antlers were salvaged and will end up being exhibited in an information/education display at some point.

Deaths from fighting are not an every day occurrence during the rut, but they are not rare either and it seems that one usually hears of one or more bulls dying each year from injuries received in a fight.

I wish to extend special thanks to Ron "Buckwheat "Saffer  for sharing his photos of the incident with us.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

October Brings Good Variety of Wildlife Encounters

I returned home from my annual two week trip to Pennsylvania Elk Country to record the elk rut  after the morning photo shoot on Friday September 27th.  According to reliable sources  the rut continued full-bore for  awhile after that, but has now tapered off quite a bit.  Since returning home I have been working with the local wildlife each day, but things have been slow.  With that being said, I have captured a few usable images over a period of time.

I see raccoons occasionally, but usually it is not under the most photogenic conditions. I was set up near an old barn one morning and kept hearing a "chirring" noise so I slowly turned around to see two young raccoons peering at me from a hole in the side of the barn.  I had the 300mm f2.8 attached to the 5D MK III and it was the right combination for the encounter as the light was still very poor and the combination of fast lens and good high ISO capability contributed to a successful capture.

Young Raccoons: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 300mm f 2.8 IS L-ISO 3200 1/160 sec. f 2.8

On another occassion I captured a fox squirrel as me passed by my stand.  When I was young it was very rare to see these large squirrels, but although not as common as the gray squirrel I do see them frequently.

Fox Squirrel: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 500mm f 4.0 IS L-ISO 1000 1/250 sec. f 4.5

It is always a thrill to see Eastern Wild Turkey Gobblers.  These are extremely shy birds that are usually seen only at a distance. I will digress for a moment to say that  I recently got a 600mm F 4.0 L IS lens of the same version as my 500mm and 300mm.  All of these have now been replaced with a II version that is lighter, but the price of a new 600mm is beyond my budget so I settled for a used one that is in excellent condition with no signs of wear.  This was an ideal lens to use to capture a group of mature gobblers when I was fortunate enough to spot them at a distance in the woods.

Distant Gobblers: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 600mm f 4.0 IS L-ISO 1000 1/200 sec. f 4.5

The lens also worked quite well when I caught a mature gobbler running across a meadow one evening.  In this case I used a high ISO so that I could use a high shutter speed in hopes of stopping the action.

Running Gobbler: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 600mm f 4.0 IS L-ISO 1600 1/1000 sec. f 4.5

The lens also worked well to capture a distant whitetail buck late one evening.  This was another situation ideally suited for the low-light capability of the 5D MK III.  Even with using the 600mm the image is substantially cropped to get the composition that I desired.

Late Evening Whitetail: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 600mm f 4.0 IS L-ISO 3200 1/180 sec. f 4.0

This has been an unusual fall for me as I have seen very few rack bucks since coming back from elk country.  Most of the bucks seen so far are the spikes and three points that are still traveling with their family groups.  Ordinarily I have photographed several rack bucks by this time, but with the local photography not being as good as expected and the buck photography being ruined in Shenandoah National Park because of the"CWD" study, which has caused most of the mature bucks to be collared, and the government shutdown which has closed the park to all for the time being, there has been no chance for any outstanding encounters.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Pennsylvania Bull Elk Fight-2013 Rut

Where The Fight Took Place: Canon 70D-Canon 70-200mm@ 200mm  f2.8 IS II-ISO 200 1/250 sec. f 5.0

Today's post features a 4min. 18 sec.video, "Pennsylvania Elk Rut 2013", which is some of the better shots from my recent two week trip to elk country.  The clips were taken entirely with the Canon 70D and the Panasonic GH3.  The video is based around a dominance fight that I filmed during my first week there.  Here is the story of the fight.

It was warm in the afternoon of Wednesday September 18th when I arrived at the Porcupine Run-Winslow Hill viewing area with the thought in mind that even though it was too early and too warm to have much chance of seeing elk that one couldn't see elk if they were indoors.  Another factor to consider was that it was good to get an early start and take it easy walking into the back country to a good vantage point and wait for activity to start.

Just before 3:30 pm. I found fellow photographer Charlie Cropp at the upper Gilbert Farm food plot and stopped to talk to him.  In short order wildlife artist and photographer David Anderson also stopped by.  I told both of them that there was little chance of seeing anything right now as elk are best seen in early morning and late afternoon and filled them in on my strategy for the evening.  Shortly thereafter one of them pointed out a few cow elk at the edge of the food plot.I still didn't expect anything noteworthy to happen, but then more and more cows spilled into the field and a bull bugled down over the hill out of sight of the field.  At this point we frantically set up cameras and tripods and I began filming as beautiful 6x6 followed the cows into the meadow.   At 3:33 a 6x7 wearing a brown radio collar came out of the woods, charged down the hill and locked antlers with the 6x6.  In all I filmed 7 minutes and 25 seconds of footage counting from when I started the camera running on the 6x7 running down the hill to fight the 6x6.  I paused the camera a few times during the encounter to change some settings, but these pauses were very brief so it is doubtful that the entire encounter lasted 8 minutes. I filmed 5 minutes 18 sec. of actual antler contact, which of course would be a bit longer also, but it is likely there was no more than 6 minutes of  contact.  At the end the 6x6 broke contact with the collared 6x7  and fled from him.

After The Fight: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 500mm f4 IS-ISO 100 1/500 sec. f 5.0

What is amazing is that the  bull that "lost" the fight went back to chasing the cows as though nothing happened. One concentrates on filming what is before them so I am not sure, but it is my impression that the "victor" continued to chase cows in the area, but not in a position that I could photograph and film him.  It could be that although he made the 6x6 give way, it was such a traumatic experience for him that he wanted no more of fighting for the day.  Also it is likely I would not have recorded the victor because of the brown collar, when a more photogenic bull was right in front of me.

At this point I will not comment on what camera took specific scenes in the video. Hopefully that will be a post for another day.  It is generally accepted that the GH3 is better for video than the Canon DSLRs excepting for the 5D MK III.  The truth is their is a lot more to this than just which camera can record the better image. To have a meaningful comparison the shots must be under tightly controlled conditions and often the clips that are posted to prove one cameras' superiority do not meet that standard.  These clips were of course not taken under controlled conditions, but rather in situations where you were trying to make the best of a less than ideal situation.  For example, there was plenty of light to film the fight, but it was very harsh and glaring.  At one point I was zoomed in very close on the bulls and mirage (heat waves) are very visible on a large screen HDTV, but does one avoid this type of dramatic shot, just to avoid the heat waves.  Fortunately  most of the shots did not have a problem with this, but it would have been much better in early morning or late evening light. 

In another case you will note two bulls that never quite come to combat, but rather touch antlers a few times.  This was taken at 7:44 in the evening at ISO 3200 and 1/30 sec. f2.8, which is nearly dark at that time of year..  Ideally one would use both cameras with the same or similar lens in this situation and compare the quality. These two clips do look a bit heavy and dark, but that is on purpose because that is what it looked like to be there.  It looks perfectly acceptable to me on an HDTV, but it may not to you.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.