Stay Frosty

Pheasants believe strongly in a few basic maxims of life.

     1) RUN AWAY!!!

Overall that is the main rule, and they do it well.  Only slightly less emphasized in phez elementary is this:

     2) HOLDING STILL = INVISIBILITY

If the unthinkable happens and rule #1 fails, a pheasant will hold still with a bravado bordering on recklessness under the belief that doing so makes them totally invisible.  I always find it pretty comical to see the expression of surprise frozen on a bird's face at this moment.  Probably it's a combination of shock that running did not work as planned coupled with an impending loss of bowel control.  Either way, it's a high alert situation.

I think this is probably the closest I've ever been to a wild pheasant with a camera.  The distance here is about 8 yards.  Light will make or break an image like this, and the morning sun was in the perfect position to cast a golden glow on this pretty little hen. 

The year's first birding trip was a lot of fun even though opportunities were scarce despite covering a lot of ground.

Image Details:

Nikon D4

Nikon TC17EII

Nikon 400mm f/2.8 @ f/5, 1/1000, ISO 100

11-11-11

At one time in my younger days I hunted upland birds without a dog, and consequently went about life largely unfulfilled.  Part of this may have been due to the fact that my father, in response to vehement requests for a sporting breed, obtained a beagle/fox terrier mix.  In the field this dog's primary talent was turning into a linear motion blur and racing off until he was concealed by the curvature of the Earth.

One can only speculate as to why Dad chose to deprive his posterity of gun dogs, when he himself was raised with a brace of Brittany Spaniels.  My theory is that it had something to do with excessive intake of maple nut ice cream - a bastardized confection he purchased with reckless abandon during my childhood.  Essentially the frozen dairy equivalent of fruitcake, maple nut should ideally be re-gifted during the holiday season and never consumed.  Yet eat it my father did, and in so doing caused irreparable damage to the petulla oblongata, or pet-selecting portion of the brain.

Regardless, I soon reached an age when I could apply the guillotine choke when parental objections were raised and immediately set about the procurement of a proper canine companion.  Dogs in the field have since become the element of upland hunting I enjoy the most.

It was great to be out on a sunny, Fall day.  Thanks to the pups a few wily phez found their way into the vests along with a limit of chukars.  It doesn't get much better than putting boot to cover with a 4-legged friend leading the way and a well-balanced over/under in hand.  11-11-11 worked out nicely.

They're Heeeere

Despite the rain I made a quick stop tonight after work. The ice had really shifted with the wind, and open water areas were quite a bit different from yesterday. Once the eagles are on station they tend to increase in number rapidly, stick around for a few weeks, and then diminish as fast as they arrived.

Again poor lighting conditions were limiting, but I did get rewarded with a very brief crack in the clouds that lasted 7 or 8 minutes. During that time I snapped a few shots, which only increase my anticipation of the next 5 days.

So it Begins

Today marked what will likely be my last scouting trip for eagles this year. The number of birds doubled since Saturday, and there were over 60 baldies gathering around open water this evening. The lighting was extremely flat and low due to heavy cloud cover and lingering inversion. The conditions could not have been worse for photography. Still, my main intent was to pattern the birds to some degree and understand where to be for the weekend.

I am excited for the coming week, which hopefully will bring some good light and enough weather to clear out the smog. There is a lot of open water out there, more than I have seen in many years. That is keeping the birds spread out, but tonight I would have had a few very nice chances were it not for the cloudy gloom. I saw this kestrel catch a mouse and moved in for a shot - the background here is the sky so you can see how flat and monotone everything was.

I did see a couple of nice rooster pheasants out pecking around. It was a nice little after-work scout and now that I know the birds are in town I can't wait to get out after 'em.