Saturday, March 29, 2014

Persistence Pays Off , Nature Can Be Hard !




What an experience this morning! I headed out early to a northeast gate, the temps were in the forties and it felt good not to wear heavy cloths.
My plan was to visit the shoreline and sit for a while hoping to see a coyote walking the last ice in search of food.
I could not have found a better location to watch. I looked right down the reservoir and nothing going on, or flying overhead. I looked left and I’ll be darned, a coyote was moving at a pretty good slip. Why?



Several hundred yards in front of the coyote a deer was running for an island shoreline. How neat is that!  The deer is going to win this hunt!
WRONG!! 

For whatever reason the deer did not jump into the wood line. Instead it hangs a 90 degree turn and continued running on the ice. The coyotes course turned diagonally towards the deer and it was a short chase before coyote grabbed the deer by the leg.
Although distant, my binoculars and camera provided a detailed sequence of events.

The few hours after the kill I watched a coyote pack take turns feeding while crows and two eagles waited for their opportunity.

What an experience to whiteness. Mother Nature at its hardest.

Jim

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Find The Pockets Of Open Water

With the majority of the reservoir still covered with ice, locating isolated pockets of open water can present photo opportunities.
I headed out to my favorite north east gate in hopes of finding something to photograph. Reaching the shoreline I could see an open area of water not to far off.
Using my binoculars I could see two  immature eagles standing on the water ice line.
My plan was to head towards the water and find a place to sit inside the wood line and watch for a while.
This mature eagle flew overhead not to long after settling in.
Below this guy had an opinion about me watching the open water.
Just before calling it a morning. This immature eagle flew overhead.
Jim