It's all in the timing...and luck.

The most challenging part about wildlife photography is that you need to have all the ingredients to make a great photo lined up, amazing light,  location, steady place to shoot from, and your subject looking perfect right where you want him. But the reality of having all of these elements at once is minimal, but when it happens, its magical. If the subject ( in this case a deer ) is not willing to work with you, and is more interested in chasing does and playing hide and seek then you are left with some 'could have been' great photos that are just a little 'off'.  Antlers hidden behind trees, or even worse, the eyes or head blocked by a tree make for a unusable image. I wanted to share a few of these shots which normally live as ones and zeros on my backup drive.

This morning in November 2012 is a great example..I remember this day like it was yesterday. A nice frigid cold morning,  I had bucks running around me so often I could not decide where to point my camera. After a few close calls with smaller buck this big boy shows up and I had to put the stalk on. I followed him just out of his sight for about an hour.

A few times I got within range,  the light was EPIC. The rising sun was in my face and the cold morning promised that I would get backlit steam exhaling as this big buck took deep breaths little colorful underbrush lit up like splatters of impressionistic paint. Unfortunately my scene was not cooperating.

Although I got some shots, I missed a few stellar shots, I knew it at the time too. And he left me.

Soon after I heard some deer really going at it, " my first chance to photograph two bucks fighting!!" I was excited and hurried to the location of the sound ...again, I was in a spot that was blocked by some mountain laurel with no opportunity to move...the frustration continues.

At that point I had determined that I had lost him. Bummed out, I started to head back up a ridge that I had descended when I heard some noise in a briar patch to my right. All of the sudden, he stood up less than 20 feet away, the buck I had been trailing for hours was right in front of me! Now the timing was in my favor and I was ready. My efforts had paid off, I was happy.

You just never know, that's what I love about getting out in the woods, it's always a surprise!

Happy fall

Bill

First Antler of 2013!

I love this time of year. Winters been hanging on, wildlife is surviving on the last remains of stems, acorns and anything else that provides basic calories and nutrition. Just a few weeks from now spring will rear it head and life will again return to the forest.

Still has fresh blood drops on it!

Part of this annual cycle as far as white tailed deer are concerned is a subject I have written about many times, the shedding of the antlers. I always think of Feb 1 as the true beginning of this process that can last for the next 4 weeks.

 Look at his right antler and compare it to the imag eof it ont he ground. The same!!

I went to check my trail camera last weekend and had a few deer walk by with antlers still hanging on. When I went back this weekend to check it I was super excited to stumble across a small very fresh antler about 50 yards from my camera. Then I realized the photo my trail camera captured the week before was the deer who had dropped the antler while he was still holding onto it. very cool!

Here are some more outtakes:

 If I had a dollar for every time i took my own photo on a trail camera....

-Bill

Christmas Hike, bucks alive and dead, owls, hawks!

One of my favorite parts about the holidays is heading back to Berlin, CT and getting a chance to go explore the woods I grew up in. This Christmas was no different and managed to squeeze a hike in every day. Seemed like each day I went out I had some great luck.

Some of the highlights were:
• Walking up on a group of 12-18 doe

• A group of 6 bucks walked right by me, the first one below was big, I managed only a few shots between the trees before he busted me and bolted off, the buck below worked with me for a bunch of shots, look close and you will see both of his antlers are broken off on the main beam.

• Nice close views of a red tailed hawk, (same one I saw on Easter)
• lots of song birds

• A GREAT HORNED OWL gave me great views when i was tracking a deer through a swamp, found lots of hair but never found the deer, i think it was shot the day before by a hunter and was never found

 site of a deer kill, never found the body

Coyote Attacked deer *UPDATED*

***Look below as I update this post.***

New image updated Feb 8th

This fox has been a nightly visitor to the carcass, where are the coyotes?

Feb 5th ( scroll down to see updates)

Its hard to say if this is the same deer I photographed last week with the injured leg,  but I'm willing to bet it is. It was found dead at the teeth of coyotes Monday morning.

The deer is a one and a half year old buck that has shed its antlers. Its amazing to think how fast the coyotes ate basically half this deer in one night, the same night they brought it down.  Since the deer was found its carcass was reported to the DNR and moved to the back of the property. Here, I fastened my motion activated camera pointed right on it and plan to leave it for a week to see just how many coyotes are traveling in the local pack that is responsible for this. It is said that 1/3rd of a coyotes diet in the Northeast consist of deer meat. This is the third deer in as many years that has been found dead from coyote attacks in the same orchard. The previous two had fought so hard for life that in the battle they actually shed their antlers, and they were found next to the carcass. Wow. Check back int he next few days to see more as this story unfolds .

***UPDATE Feb  8th**
The deer has been dragged about 100 yards by the coyotes. You can see in the background of the second image , a trail of hair from the drag. Its amazing to think how the coyotes were able to drag the deer this far, it must weight about 100 lbs. It must have been a team effort? I cant imagine one coyote can drag an entire deer, or can it? I have had the motion sensor camera on the carcass about a week now, so far the only visitor has been this beautiful healthy fox. To keep the deer in one place we have driven some steel rebar into the frozen ground and fastened its legs with wire. Since then, the coyotes have vanished. I can only think that the human sent at the site has kept them back. I will be checking the cameras tomorrow.

stay tuned!!