Oh here is the wildlife - 9/25/20

Michael Ward September 25, 2020

This morning was a good morning for wildlife. It got pretty cloudy as I was leaving but the sunrise was fairly clear.
I went out a different direction from normal, with no particular destination in mind. But I had a good tip from the significant other about seeing wildlife on the way to her work regularly.

Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 Sec - F4 - ISO 800

And she was right. It didn’t take long before I spotted what I was hoping to see off on the side of the road.

Pronghorn!

I was pretty well spotted of course, but I was just standing right outside the car off on the side of the road.

I watched for a little while, taking pictures pretty much the whole time.

He moved around a bit, grazing and keeping an eye on me. I tried to get a little more in cover so I stood in the ditch on the side of the road and just kind of peered up over it with the camera on the tripod.

Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 Sec - F4 - ISO 640

Eventually he did move on. And I did as well, but not for too long. About 100 feet down the road and I pulled over again when I saw this group.

Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/3200 Sec - F4.5 - ISO 2500

I think this was part of his herd, since he went off the same direction and then I came across this.

But they were headed off back in the direction I came from, so I packed up to move along as well.
Within 5 minutes, again! This time from the car, I just pulled over and rolled down the window at first. Then got out to stand in the doorframe and shoot from the top of the car.

Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 Sec - F4 - ISO 500

This group was much closer. Which is why I was staying right at the car, didn’t want to disturb them anymore than I already was with my car being there. Although they seemed very used to that.

Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 Sec - F4 - ISO 1250

This I found interesting. I thought maybe the pronghorns didn’t shed and regrow their horns, which would explain why that previous buck had a full rack. Where as this one is just started to grow. However, no. Just like deer they regrow them each year. So while this doesn’t seem too much like a fawn, maybe just a slow growth. I’m sure I’ll learn more as time goes on and I see more Pronghorn.

Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 Sec - F4 - ISO 320

This group was munching from these bushes. This buck stayed behind but peered over top to keep an eye on things.

Good stuff with that early morning sunrise. Gotta love that golden hour.

Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 Sec - F4 - ISO 250

Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 Sec - F4 - ISO 400

Look at those little teeth.

Got a nice profile as he moved to the side.

Pronghorn tongue. :P

After that I felt like I had enough and moved on. Drove for a lot longer this time and eventually found a public access area to the river. Which I stopped at, had a friendly conversation with the man getting his boat ready for some fishing. And spotted a bird flying past that I only just managed to get the camera pointed and focused.

Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/3200 Sec - F4.5 - ISO 400

Not sure what we have here. Maybe a hawk of some kind. Not a terribly good picture so hard to identify as well.

Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 Sec - F4.0 - ISO 320

Did see some nice water birds along the river.

This could be a Semipalmated Plover, that’s the closest thing that matches in the bird book. With the white ring around the neck. Also common for pretty much the entire US in fall.

Almost blending in with the rocks, but this one I do know. A little Sanderling, I’ve seen them before at the beach. Didn’t think I would find many up here. But the map shows this area for this time of year.
I walked along the river for a while, didn’t even notice the Whitetail Deer until they noticed me first and started moving away.

But I did get these nice pictures of the fawn jumping. The mother was just behind out of frame.
Didn’t see anymore wildlife along the river as I walked down it, but on the way back I was up the hill looking over the plains. When I got back to the parking area there was a group of vultures across the river.

Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 Sec - F4 - ISO 200

Turkey vultures I’m pretty sure. Bit hard to tell at that distance. But when I zoom in I see the red on their heads.

Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 Sec - F4 - ISO 100

Group of Mallards came in to float down the river while I was standing there as well.
But I was almost done, back to the car for a snack and then I went on a bit further of a drive before turning around.
I was kind of hoping to find something very interesting based on a tip from my girlfriends coworker. But no such luck today, although the tip is “12 miles this way” which I had to turn off of that road so I’m not entirely sure I went the right way.
I did get one more nice picture though, as I was out driving along the dirt roads with farms on every side I came around a corner and spotted another Pronghorn. Real close to the road this time so I was able to get a very close photo.

Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1250 Sec - F4 - ISO 200

That’s what I go out for. The detail in that photo is awesome. I want that to be every photo, but I would probably need to drop some serious cash to get an even longer lens. Like 10k+ kind of cash.
I did grab the full frame for one quick photo on the way back of a landscape. Outside of one of the towns is a massive power plant on the river. Made for a cool looking image I think.

Canon 5D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/500 Sec - F4 - ISO 100

Canon 5D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/640 Sec - F4 - ISO 100

It was a great day.

I also was working on something yesterday that is most definitely not finished or close enough to talk about yet. But I’ll just say it was a silly idea I had that gives me a chance to exercise some video skills. I’ll probably have more to say on that in another week or so. I may be done shooting, but I’ll probably be editing for the next week or so.
Oh and also the 7 year old desktop pc I use for my job died. Even with a second one that is just about as old that I only use for parts, I wasn’t able to get it back up and working. I think the GPU is gone on it since I can’t get a display. And the second pc something is gone with the power supply, that one won’t even turn on.
So although my personal debt is literally as high as it has ever been, I took it as an opportunity instead and decided to invest in a better setup for that.
Two new monitors and a not bad setup for a secondary pc. I’ve got parts coming in all weekend and then I’ll be building that sometime next week. About half as powerful as the beastly thing I built a few weeks ago that I’ll be using for video editing. But it’ll also help with streaming. I’ve at least been doing that regularly with some friends and family. Had some ideas for public streaming but I’ll need a capture card at some point. Always something new to buy.

Up the mountain, this time less snow more wildlife - 9/18/20

Michael Ward September 18, 2020

Back at it this morning. This time I went to the same mountain just outside of town, but since the snow has melted I was able to go a lot further on actual trails. According to the tracker in my phone it was about 3 miles I walked in total today. But I don’t know how accurate that is because it relies on GPS and I was roaming which shut off the data for a lot of it. I know the entire trail was 4 miles but I have no idea how far I actually got on it before I decided to go exploring.
It wasn’t too long after sunrise when I spotted what I was hoping to find. Wildlife.

Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/40 Sec - F4 - ISO 200

Defintely just mention that it’s important to check your settings right when you get the camera out. These were the first pictures I took and I still had my settings from where I was messing around with it during the week and not on one of my custom modes for wildlife. Still, there wasn’t much to be done as I was very far away and there were telephone lines in-between us.

But that is a magnificent rack. Biggest I’ve ever seen in person. I was obviously spotted before I even saw him, but I was just out walking in a big open area so that’s on me.

I slowly tried to get closer but he was already heading off. I managed to spot him once more between the trees as he was heading away and at least you can see a bit better of one side of antler.

Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 Sec - F4 - ISO 4000

Still, he lives there.(I assume) This is my new goal, I will find a spot to sit and wait for him to come through where I can get a nice decent picture of him.

That was at least better than the week before, seeing any kind of wildlife is enough to keep me going back.

Not done yet though, as I was attempting to track the deer I came across a group of animals I was even more excited to see.

Wild Turkeys! Western I assume. Unless they had followed me from the east and I didn’t realize. They were supposed to be found at some of the wildlife places I went to back in Georgia but I never saw any. I was thrilled to see these ones today.

I got low and followed them for a bit, they either saw me and didn’t care. Or their eyesight is worse than I would think. Keep in mind this is still pretty far off considering the lens and extension I have on.

I managed to circle around to get the sun to my back so I could get a couple nice pictures with the rising sun and that lovely orange glow.

Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 Sec - F4 - ISO 1000

As I was watching them scrounge for food, there was some other little birds that caught my eye. I let the turkey’s move on as I took pictures of this.

Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 Sec - F4 - ISO 160

Another new one for the collection, I believe this to be a Dark-Eyed Junco. Possibly a female with the reddish on more than just the back. The males seem to be all gray underneath.

After a while I did move on to wandering back through the forest, found a trail. Left the trail, found another trail. Watched a squirrel make a hell of a racket about another nearby squirrel.

It had been a few hours and I figured I was done at this point. So I got back onto a trail I recognized and started heading back, I did know the general direction I was going and I was hoping I would come across the turkeys again. Which I did, this time even closer as they were foraging on a hill right next to the trail.

By this point I was now walking more or less towards the sun so this picture was pretty dark. A lot of backlight. So I thought it looked better as black and white.

Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 Sec - F4 - ISO 2500

Can’t ask for anything better.

Snow covered mountain - 9/14/20

Michael Ward September 14, 2020

This past week brought an unexpected snowstorm. I know because all the weather alerts said this was unusual for this time of year. It was pretty much an overnight dumping of a good 8-10 inches of snow. That was on Tuesday and by Saturday when I was heading out for a nature hike it was pretty much all melted here in town.
However the mountain that I was headed to was a different story.

Canon 5D Mark II w/70-200mm - 1/80 Sec - F2.8 - ISO 160

There was very much still snow on the ground. In some places well over a foot. Most of it now crunchy was wet now frozen on the top. So as you can imagine me crunching my way through it may have something to do with the lack of wildlife I saw on this day.
Still it was good to get back out and just be walking around with a camera.

Canon 5D Mark II w/70-200mm - 1/160 Sec - F2.8 - ISO 125

The mountain wasn’t entirely devoid of life, I did get to witness some chattering squirrels as they scurried about searching for whatever food they could find.

Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1600 Sec - F4 - ISO 200

It wasn’t a very long trip out, although I did have some kind of warm clothing it was not entirely prepared for a day out in the snow. So after 3-4 hours I was ready to pack it up and call it a day.
Perhaps this coming weekend will be a little less frozen over. But I’ll be more ready for it. Got a bunch of winter gear ordered that’ll be coming in this week.

Every image tells a story

But not the full story

Oh here is the wildlife - 9/25/20

Up the mountain, this time less snow more wildlife - 9/18/20

Snow covered mountain - 9/14/20

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