Group items tagged

Many people come here in good weather to camp, boat, fish on and on. Many people do not get to see what we get to see in the winter. We chose where we wanted to go, and headed out. We were told of some snow but the weather channel is not real pacific here. A little snow mixed in with rain. Ok whatever what is new?? Than we got down into the canyon..... Saturday it just dumped on us! Snow is no big deal, it is the black ice we worry about!! More about my getting wildlife photography here in Oregon at my web site..... What we wont do to get that photo!!

This past week has been CRAZY!! Crazy good that is! This is not going to be a post about one species, I captured way to many things this past week for that. So this is going to be a mix of photographs, a mix of adventures.

Captured this butterfly on a hike into the canyon here in Central Oregon.

This is a Sagebrush Mariposa Lily, I sometimes call it a tulip. These grow wild here in our part of Central Oregon and can be seen with different creatures on it for lunch.

I caught this bird flying here in Central Oregon

One morning heading out we saw a hot air balloon in the sky. Than we seen another, and another!! Before we new it we went around the block to see them all. Of course our blocks can be rather long, and walking is not a great idea. It might take all day long! But here is one of the hot air balloons.

First thing we seen last Saturday is this herd of Elk. They were pretty close to our little town! They were laying down in this farmers field. But when they noticed someone giving them attention they started getting up and getting nervous. The morning was very nasty weather wise. Snow was falling, it was foggy and I really did not want to see the elk running in this weather. These all look like bulls. These elk we have here are very..... shy? Paranoid? In the field they had nothing to hide behind.

I took this Saturday when the snow was coming down in our part of Central Oregon. The canyon was rather entertaining while snowing and we were afraid of black ice, however we got fortunate and got out of the canyon before any black ice was hit. This is a Golden Eagle I captured on a snowy tree.

Mt. Jefferson Sunset. This was taken almost right across the street from the KOA in Jefferson County Oregon. We go past the KOA quite a lot. So if the travelers / vacationers to our area were paying attention last night, this is what they saw.

This snowshoe hare or rabbit is part of the jack rabbit family.

I told my birds as I was taking care of them, cleaning water bowls , food bowls that if they were not going to eat their seed, I could find someone else to eat them real easy! The junkos showed up for this treat!

Just a few hours ago Guy took me around the block. Oh probably ten miles or so?? It was nice to get out of the house! I do not know about other places, but here this species of falcon are not real..... they take off as soon as attention is directed at them. In other words I have tried to get some shots of the sparrow hawk and finally I did. This American Kestrel is the smallest falcon in North America. Used in falconry so they must be pretty smart! I think they are pretty little birds! Eating grasshoppers, other small birds, and rodents so they are good to have around. Oh I believe they eat the lizards we have here too. It looks like we are in for more bad weather here in central oregon but the wildlife need to eat and I was happy we seen what we did on our short drive.

Do you see them? The canyon with the water in it creates this weather for us. Some days only in the morning, some days it can last all day, and sometimes it can last longer then that! This is what we saw as we were heading to better weather yesterday, which was Christmas morning 2010. Mule deer in the early morning fog.

When we left the house the temperature was in the teens, 14 or so. We headed to the creek to let the dogs out to play for a short time. It was really to cold out to let the dogs out of the warm truck for to long. These are some of the shots I got of the icy creek, It was really to cold to hold the camera still. I am a wimp when it comes to the cold! It did reach 25 degrees today in the sunshine!!

This pair of Bald Eagles have been hanging around one of the lakes here for a couple weeks now. Saturday we had snow again, which is not a huge surprise. We took off in it and thought it was not a good idea to go down into the canyon so we headed in the direction of this lake. This pair of Bald Eagles we both agreed they must of came down from the Cascade Mountains for the better fishing and all around prey on what I call the flats. Not sure what others around here call this area. I call it the flats for one can actually walk it. I trekked out into the snow to capture these photographs. The one that is on the left is keeping it's eyes on me, that one seams to be the dominant Bald Eagle and the first to fly. The other followed.

I am very pleased to get these shots of this Northern Harrier. I got these a couple hours ago down the road where we have seen this bird and another or so in a pasture. These birds have been seen on private land and I do not trespass so when this opportunity arose today, while this Northern Harrier was not on the private land I took it! While doing my research on this bird I came to realize why this bird of prey had a problem being still for me. Blending in is what I try to do with the environment, but being quiet is another story. This bird realize on hearing as much as sight when hunting. This bird was hearing me coming! The male and female of the species look very different I found out as well. This Harrier is the male of the species. I thought this Northern Harrier was on some prey, however after looking over the photographs it appears to be on some grasses.

Our adventures start out usually early in the morning. I woke up late, yes I admit! I got up gosh at 4 am or something. Guy was already up and drinking his coffee. I only have to get myself and my camera ready. Guy has the truck, the dogs, our lunch and extra truck supplies to get ready. We left here a little before 5am, before the sun came up and hopefully before to much wildlife movement gets started.......

As we were following the Crooked River here in Central Oregon when we ran across this pair of swans......

I liked this buck for he was acting as if just another family man. Being goofy in one photo, and being a proud papa in another. He towered over the young ones, one of the photographs show this. Not the biggest buck I have captured with the camera, just another one who had a lot of character!

I like photographing such things, nature makes it's own designs and we need to do nothing but look.