consworld

autumn, deer

In sunsets’ final gleam, a bull, a cow, and a calf from an elk herd during their seasonal rut, the only time the mature bulls and cows hang out together.

Two older bulls and two cows in the meadow near the creek. I was perhaps 600 feet from them, looking down into the valley’s dusk.

Most of the herd, including the largest bull, were across the road and up the hill into the shadowy forest.

Early the next morning, the herd was across and farther up the creek and again moving up into the trees with the bulls bugling and fighting as they went.

In this crop, two large bulls tangle antlers. In the full image below, a young bull can be seen moving in to join the fight. One of the large bulls briefly hooked antlers with him as they moved on into the trees and out of view.

I’d like to have more telephoto power and a faster lens for making elk images at these great distances at dawn and dusk. I rarely see them when there’s enough light for great exposures.

The young bull below was watching evening battles between the big guys from a safe distance. He was much closer to me than the action near the creek and just about the right distance for my 100-400 mm zoom.

wapiti (elk)

I watch and photograph a red fox watching my cat in his catrun. When the fox hears my camera clicking, she stares at me a moment and then curls up on the hillside as if to nap. I hope she’s not dreaming of cats.

Suddenly, the fox sits and stares up the hill into the forest. Another fox is coming, perhaps interested in watching my cat, too, but he’s apparently not welcome to join us.

I wonder if they’re already aquainted and have a long history of greeting each other this way.

After a few seconds pushing match, the newcomer slinks away. And we, the first fox, my cat, and I, go back to watching each other while I make photographs of the fox.

After a few minutes, the fox leaves. I hope both foxes have gone searching for rodents, their natural diet.

Captured with a dslr and 100-400 telephoto zoom lens in cloud filtered afternoon sunlight. Cropped a bit to let you in on the details of each image.

fox

Driving the backroads of the OK panhandle at midday we came upon these two beautiful pronghorn. They were far enough from the road that they didn’t seem to feel threatened when we stopped to watch yet near enough to photograph. Handheld with telephoto zoom at 400mm, more midday sun and wind than wanted, and a few moments cooperation from the pronghorn. 

pronghorn

I photographed Stellers Jays in the warm morning sunlight yesterday.

 Today we have snow, the first of the season.

Stellers Jay

Two fawns and a doe hurried by my home one evening last week. Of course, I had the “wrong” lens on the camera for such an event, but didn’t have time to change. I cropped much of these two images away to show you the cute spotted babies. I do hope they come by again. I’m keeping my best telephoto lens on one of the cameras at all times.

deer

bees, wildflowers