Provo Canyon Elk & Moose
I spent most of my free time over the long weekend following the elk in Provo canyon. Unfortunately, the winter has been really hard on the animals. That’s good and bad for viewing them. It means that most of the elk are much lower than typical winters, so they are easy to find. The bad is that they are very stressed right now, and the temptation to get close to them is overwhelming for some people. There were a couple of really good days where some big bulls would’ve photographed nicely, but they never did come closer than about 150 yards. So this is my best efforts from the few days. If you are curious and go up to view these animals, please be respectful and view them from the road. The last thing they need is to be pushed all around exerting energy they don’t have. Most images are with a 600 f4 and 2x teleconverter on a 40D, and heavily cropped.
Enjoy.
Barn Owls
I’ve never had a chance to see owls in flight, let alone photograph them. So when I heard a few other photographers talking about the great owl images they made at Farmington Bay, I jumped off the eagle bandwagon and headed down to the barn owl lot. These buggers are fast! All images 40D, 600 f4, 1.4x extender.
Eagles at Farmington Bay II
Decided to make one more run up to Farmington Bay to see if the eagles wanted to play with me one more time before heading north. Met a couple of the old Farmington standbys who had been there on Saturday, and said the eagles were plentiful. With blue skies on Sunday morning, it was nearly perfect conditions.
The ice is thawing out more quickly, and the eagles are more spread out. Not as many chances to get close to them as I had last time. Either way, it was another fun day, and the eagles again made it interesting. All images 40D, 600 f4, 1.4x extender.
Provo Deer
Another night, another quick run up into the hills. I was trying to find the bighorn again, but didn’t see a trace of them. After scanning the mountain for awhile, I spotted a few bucks, still with their antlers on. I packed up the 600 and the monster tripod, and started hiking. Got to about 75 yards of them, with the light disappearing quickly. All images 40D, 600 f4, 1.4x extender.
Rock Canyon Bighorn
Got off work tonight with about an hour of sunlight left, so I took a run up to Rock Canyon to check on the bighorn. I figured the recent storms would be pushing them lower and lower. I was surprised to find them in the usual location, but I could only spot 3 or 4. As I started hiking up the hillside, more started to slowly reveal themselves. I couldn’t believe there were so many, concealed so well. Normally I feel like I have a keen eye for these guys, but not tonight. I didn’t see the nice mature ram until after the sun had gone down, so most of those are shot at ISO 1600, 5.6, between 1/30th and 1/100th. Not bad for an hour’s worth.
Farmington Bay Eagles
I’ve been waiting to head up to Farmington Bay now for a few weeks. A few guys on the bogley forum were checking regularly to see when the eagles would arrive. Apparently, they came in last week. Excellent news! I met up with a couple of them to see what all the fuss was about.
The eagles were everywhere. I counted close to 85 from where we were on the dike road. About 15 or 20 were feeding right in front of us. Couldn’t have asked for a better day, nice and warm and clear skies for some good light.
If anyone is interested, the next five days will be the best of the year, so if you want to see eagles, go now.
