Elk Rescue: The Takedown

We continue today with more photos and commentary on the elk trapped in the swings at Benezette School. For more detailed reporting be sure to visit Bradley Myers Photo Blog and his son, Shane's Blog.

I must confess that I do not know the full name or exact position of the first Pennsylvania Game Commission employee on the scene, but I have heard him called Mark and know that he works with the biology aspect of the elk program. To use legal terminology, on or about 08:15 Wildlife Conservation Officer, Doty McDowell arrived on the scene. He is the law enforcement officer assigned to that portion of Elk County. Only certain PGC employees are permitted to use the tranquilizer gun, which was why we had to wait for WCO McDowell's arrival.

WCO McDowell Prepares To Fire

Sometime about 8:25 he assumed a shooting position by a nearby tree, took careful aim, and fired. I have not witnessed a darting before, but have worked for several officers who have done it extensively. Perhaps the technology has improved and things are more predictable now, but I have been told that there is a lot of potential for things to not go exactly as desired. In this case everything went well. I did not photograph the actual firing as I was concentrating on operating the camcorder at this time.

Dart In Bull

Waiting for the drug to take effect

Ready for processing

The critical part of the mission was now accomplished and all that remained was to remove him from the chains, and deal with the damaged antler. Hopefully I will post some photos from the conclusion of the incident tomorrow.

Pennsylvania Elk: Accident And Rescue

It was shortly after dawn on Thursday, August 20th, as I prepared for a morning of wildlife photography. Before I could leave the house, Bradley Myers and his son Shane arrived and told me a bull was trapped in a swing set at Benezette School.

He had already reported the incident so we drove to the scene, taking great care not to spook the bull and cause him to injure himself.

"Trapped"

Brad and his son are excellent photographers and also have blogs. Visit Brad at Bradley Myers Photo Blog for a detailed account of the incident illustrated by excellent photos. Also follow the link to his son's blog where you can see video clips as well as still photos.

Bradley and Shane Myers in action

Also Bob Shank of Bob Shank Photography arrived at some point during the morning and photographed a portion of the proceedings. Visit Bob for more photos of the event and other nature photographs as well.

Since they have covered the incident so well, I will try to post some photographs that depict aspects of the action that they have not covered as of yet, or present a slightly different perspective than they captured.

Soon after we arrived, well known local video producer, Tom Murphy arrived. He caught the attention of a passing Game Commission employee, who immediatelytook charge of the situation, and blocked entrance to the area as a crowd control measure. Now we were "trapped" too, but of course we had no intention of leaving.

Crowd Control Measures

It seemed that the longer the situation continued, the more frantic the bull became. In most cases, he was more frightened by vehicles passing by on Route 555, than he was by the onlookers. Our group remained well away from the animal and used powerful telephoto lenses to document the incident. He would struggle for awhile and then rest for a period. With each successive attempt, he became tangled tighter in the chains and finally he went berserk. The following photos are not sharp due to the violent motion. Note in the first photo that the rack still has the correct placement and spacing between the antlers as the bull is starting to fall back from the peak of a leap,but has not yet put the full weight of his body on the antler. In the second, the antler on the right is now broken and the rack is no longer spaced correctly.

Before

After

In time Wildlife Conservation Officer Doty McDowell arrived and freed the animal. While it was an interesting morning, I would have much preferred that the incident had not occurred in the first place.

Camera Critters: Osprey Encounter

I spent most of the past week in Pennsylvania's elk range. The main object of the trip was to photograph bulls shedding the velvet. Previous' elk photography expeditions had been quite successful , but the weather turned stifling hot and humid with a lot of overcast skies and rain for this trip. and It seemed at times that the elk had literally vanished from the face of the earth.

Noted elk photographer Ronald "Buckwheat Saffer" stopped by soon after I arrived and said that prospects were not good as he had not had many photographic opportunities in the past week. Also most of the mature bulls had already shed the velvet, so the chances of documenting this activity were not great.

I also got to meet fellow blogger, Bradley Myers of Bradley Myers Photography, and his son Shane. We shared some adventures together, which I hope to write about in the future. Stop by Brad's blog as I'm sure that he will share some of his photos and experiences from the trip with you.

On of the more productive encounters didn't involve elk at all. Wednesday morning was very humid and overcast so I returned to the house before 9:00a.m. to catch up on some photo editing, but suddenly I recalled reports of Osprey sightings at a small backwoods lake about ten miles from Benezette and decided to check the situation out before settling down to the computer work. When I arrived, I found one of the birds sitting in a grove of dead trees.

Prime Osprey Habitat

After videotaping him from long range, I exchanged the camcorder for the 500mm F4 and DSLR. As the range was quite long I used the 1.4X and the 2X extenders (not stacked together), to see which gave the best results. In addition all of the photos are severely cropped.

2X Extender

I spent almost an hour, trying to capture the bird in interesting poses. I would have liked to have photographed it flying, but that was not to be.

2X Extender

2X Extender

1.4x Extender

I have not had a great deal of success with the 2X extender with the 500mmF4 in the past, but I realized that most of the negative experiences had been with the Canon 10-D and under less than ideal conditions, so that some of the problems may have been caused by subject motion, or lighting quality that was not conducive to resolving fine detail. In this case the subject was easy to focus on and the light was relatively bright enabling the use of higher shutter speeds. All in all I was pleased enough with the results that I hope to use the 2x more in the future.

For more Camera Critters photos: Click Here!

A Surprise Encounter

It was a warm, overcast evening and deer were grazing peacefully in the meadow. I was sitting in my vehicle, reading a novel, with the camcorder and the DSLR with 70-200mm lens mounted on their respective tripods, ready for action at a moments notice. I thought about mounting the 500mmF4 on the tripod, instead of the 70-200mm, but did decided that it was hot and too late in the evening for top-notch still photos anyway,so I did not change lenses. I was soon to regret this decision.

Suddenly the deer came to attention, looking toward the nearby woodland with their tails lifted in the air and began snorting. There was little likelihood that it was a human that had their attention, so it almost certainly had to be a predator of some time. I stealthily got out of the vehicle and started for the camcorder, when suddenly a black bear came into view.

I have filmed bears successfully in Cades Cove (Great Smoky Mountains National Park) and Shenandoah National Park, but I have no good video of Pennsylvania black bears except for ones that were being processed after trapping and transfer by the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

Here was a golden opportunity. I did successfully film a segment, but then I had to try for some stills to post on the blog. Leaving the camcorder running unattended I crept back to the vehicle for the 500mm and surprisingly was able to get the it into action without alarming the bear, but by that time he was behind the tree eating. Soon it came around the tree and stood up to grab an apple from the overhanging branches.



The light was poor and it would have been nice to have been closer, but at least I finally succeded in photographing a Pennsylvania bear with a DSLR.



After eating the apple it turned and walked slowly to the nearby woodlands.



I have spent countless hours watching this meadow and it has rewarded me with a lot of exciting wildlife encounters over the years, but I will always view it in a different perspective after this evening, as I will always think of the time the bear came to visit.

For more Camera Critters photos, Click Here!