It worked almost too good!

Last night I headed out to the Christmas tree farm to try out my new predator call. (below)

This call had been suggested to me by a buddy who had some great luck with it after only a few uses. The general idea of this call is that it makes sounds that attract predators, fox, coyote, bobcat who come in close looking for an easy meal. Because it is wireless you are able to place the speaker part up to 150 yards away UPWIND so that when the animal come in to see whats going on, you can be hidden out of sight. Unlike my old call I had to hold in my hand, this call has clear advantages. The other great part besides its very reasonable price ( about half the cost of other systems with the same set up) is the fact that you can change the sound cards for different uses, from turkey, deer, moose, elk, crows, you name it!


So back to last night. I walked quietly and slowly to the edge of the field, hung the speaker in someones future Christmas tree and backed away and hid along the edge of the field. I began a calling sequence that mimics and injured rabbit. Its a terrifying crying sound that is supposed to work amazing, sure enough in less than a minute I could hear something running through the woods headed straight for me...not the plan. I looked quickly at the spot where it seemed the animal would pop out, I crouched down and aimed my camera at the small opening. This locations was less than 20 feet away from me, in fact i did not even have to zoom in, i shot these images at 100mm.

Blurry due to his shock of seeing me.

Sure enough, withing seconds this beautiful coyote poked his head out, at the same time I hit my shutter release. I am blown away with the speed which he identified me and spun around and vanished. It was a fraction of a second, hence the blurry photo. I still feel like this was a success and look forward to trying to get more shots of one of my favorite subjects our local predators!

And that was that, keep in mind this second photo was taken 1/7th of a second after the first! That's fast reflexes!

Sharp Shinned Hawk, FINALLY!

 

Since moving to Nottingham, NH, I have had the pleasure of having a resident sharp-shinned hawk that calls my property home. I have tried at least 5 times to get a photo of him with no luck, that is until today.

I was headed out on a nice Sunday morning scouting  mission, as I pulled out of my driveway there he was, just relaxing on the wire digesting a recent meal of some sort of bird. You can see the down feathers still in his large talons ( Napoleon Dynamite reference)

From what I can tell it seems to be a sub adult, but I would be open to any other thoughts, I know they color and patterning can vary greatly depending on age and sex, then throw in the coopers hawk and you got yourself a true puzzle. My favorite resource for convincing myself what I am looking at is Allaboutbirds.org THIS link helps to identify the differences.

Enjoy!
Bill

A new tree!

Still getting the hang of this but finished my second wire tree this weekend.

A new medium. Wire Trees

I have recently been trying out some new ways to create art, most of the intention is to make objects for decorations around my home.

This past weekend I saw some amazing sculptures at a gallery in Portsmouth, NH made of wire and was very inspired to go out and try it right away. Last night on my way home from work I stopped at home depot and bought some copper wire. Bare in mind this is my first go at it. I must say it is very rewarding and I plan to go back to the 'depot today to get 500' more wire. ( I started with 40', this tree is 20'. ) I already feel like I learned a lot and cant wait to make the next one.

Started with this.

Although I have a lot more work to refine this tree to the way I want it to look, I am thinking about leaving it outdoors for a few weeks to let the copper oxidize...green patina would be amazing!

Let me know what you think!
-Bill