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!

Camera Critters: Close Encounter With Whitetail Fawn

As my main photographic subjects are Whitetail Deer and Elk, here are two fawn photos, which were taken early on the morning of July 25th with the 70-200mm lens. I am almost certain that this is the same fawn that was featured in the post of June 27th, "Close And Personal With A Whitetail Fawn.

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Pennsylvania Elk Management: Divergent Views

Non-typical Bull: Winslow Hill September 2008

It is a basic tenet of human society that different special interest groups will view a particular subject in entirely different ways. An excellent example of this would be the current debate over health care.The management of Pennsylvania's Elk Herd is no exception. In this instance we have at least three major points of view:

1. Elk were re-introduced for the purpose of hunting and should be managed primarily for that purpose. There are several factions to this group. Some would like to see a high proportion of mature bulls maintained for trophy hunting, while others would like to see more hunting opportunities for a larger number of hunters.

Bull At Elk Check Station

2. Pennsylvania has a unique elk herd that is valuable to society as a whole and should be maintained primarily as a viewable resource.

Bull 36 "Fred": Benezette July 2009

3. Elk are large animals that create a lot of problems such as, crop damage, property damage, and elk-vehicle collisions. They attract large numbers of tourists that clog the local highways at certain times of year. It would be best if they were not here in the first place and it would actually be good if they were eliminated, or at least their numbers be reduced to the level that they are difficult to see.

Herd At Gilbert Viewing Area:

Some would like to see the herd on Winslow Hill drastically reduced, which would severely damage elk related tourism.

This is greatly simplified and cannot be dealt with effectively in one blog post--in fact it would take a book and a quite large one at that.

Most importantly many argue that we should do what is best for the resource, after all who can argue with that statement. The problem is that many view what is "best for the resource" through the prism of what they wish to do with elk.

I personally like the view espoused by Ralph Harrison a retired Bureau Of Forestry employee, who dedicated his life to restoring the elk herd.

He believes we should actually do what is best for the Elk, not do what is best for those who want to shoot elk or make money from the shooting of elk. Neither should we manage elk to do what is best for those who wish to make large sums of money from elk tourism, but should do what is best for the welfare of the species itself.

Anyone who is seriously interested in Pennsylvania Elk should purchase Ralph Harrison's latest book," The History of Pennsylvania Elk Country". It is published by The Pennsylvania Forestry Association 56 East Main St. Mechanicsburg, Pa. 17055, and is usually available at Benezette Store.