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Tuesday, 25 November 2008

Titmice and Jay Birds ;)

I got up early Sunday morning so I could go to Walmart and purchase a doe call to use while on the trails at the Timed Ride. Well, I'm never doing that again. Oh I"ll purchase a call, but not the morning of the event! Why? Because they were all out! Had I had a little more time, I would've run over to another store, but as it was I had very little time to spare. I just had to hope that I would spot the deer without them.

And I did. And I didn't. I saw two does crossing the road barely 15 minutes after I'd hiked out to the main field. Excited I jumped up and "stalked" them. Unfortunately the ground was littered with dry crunchy leaves and underbrush. I got fairly close but before I was able to get a clear shot, the deer caught whiff of me and bounded away. I didn't see them again.

I decided to try and content myself with chasing down some Blue Jays. Unfortunately the Jays were very leery of me and easily flew a good distance away. I did get one shot of one Jay in the underbrush, however, before he spotted me.

Probably an hour later I noticed that there were a few small birds in the brush that seemed relatively unafraid of me. One even landed directly over my head and looked at me curiously. I later identified these little birds as a species called the "Tufted Titmouse" (when plural is it titmouses or titmice?). Apparently they are friendly little birds and can be quite inquisitive. I'm glad they were, as I was able to get a couple of fairly good shots. :)

There was also a red-tailed hawk perusing overhead for a good length of time.

Tuesday, 11 November 2008

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QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER (CD) Basil Poledouris
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Wildlife at the Timed Ride (11.09.08)

Sunday's Timed Ride came about as close to perfect as perfect goes. As I was waiting for the first group of riders, I spotted a group of bluebirds squabbling and twittering in the nearby bushes. At first they ignored me completely, so I tiptoed closer to take a shot. The group was made up of approximately two males and three females. The females were bolder than the males and allowed me to come fairly close for a couple of shots before migrating to a nearby tree.

Five minutes later they were still there, so I decided to try and get a few more shots. All but one female flew a few feet away. The remaining bird eyed me for a couple of minutes before deciding I was boring and rejoining the others.

Birds are smart. The third time I started to follow them, they flew a good hundred yards away and kept their distance from me. I still managed to get one or two more photos before they decided I was not too cool and left me for good.

The Timed Ride itself was awesome. You can read all about it and see photos of the riders on my blogspot page. As this post is mostly about the wildlife I encountered, I will skip talking about that and jump right to the end.

It was 1:25 and the ride was scheduled to end in 5 minutes. I was lying in the graze, "cloud gazing" when I heard twigs snapping. Maybe it's part of growing up in the country, but I didn't bolt upright. I sat up slowly and looked carefully over my shoulder. I felt my heart start beating faster as I saw a doe at the edge of the gravel road leading up toward the trailers.

I am by no means an expert, but my understanding is that deer have a keen sense of smell, but not so great hearing and sight. At least, that was the impression that was given me as I lifted my camera and began firing away. The shutter on my camera is fairly noisy and I was kneeling in the middle of an open field less than fifty feet away from the white-tailed deer, but she did not notice me. As she disappeared into the brush, I rose to my feet. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and froze. Another doe was standing at the edge of the path leading into the woods and she had spotted me. I began shooting again, careful to keep my body as still as possible. Although she stared at me for a good five minutes, the doe eventually moved on - deciding I was not a threat.

I started to follow the deer. They had advanced into a thinly wooded area at the edge of the field and were blissfully unaware of my presence. However it was hard to get a clear shot because of the tall grass framing the field so I crept in, hoping to get a closer, clearer shot. Unfortunately, in a snort and flick of a white tail, they were bounding away.

I had not realized it, but there were more than simply two deer. As I stood to full height, I could see somewhere around 10 deer (most of them does) leaping away from me. They stopped running just out of camera range (the trees had grown too thick) but kept walking until I could no longer see them.

Thus was my weekend wildlife adventure! I hope you enjoyed reading this! Feel free to comment and/or drop by my website (www.ponyphotographer.com) or flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/freedomsflightphoto) anytime!

Back again soon,

-Amy

All photos © 2008 Amy P Flood (www.ponyphotographer.com) Do not copy and/or use without permission. Violators will be prosecuted.

Monday, 28 April 2008

I'm bringing Xanga back - drop a comment if you're with me!

Tuesday, 02 October 2007

I went to a Pony Club meet yesterday night w/my family - it was quite interesting. Watching them, I wanted to ride so bad, but had to be content w/taking my pictures. A few of them (the pictures that is, lol) turned out well, but the majority of them were rather grainy after the sun went down.

Thursday, 27 September 2007

So. I am sitting outside here at Elon, (It seems the only place I ever get to write is Elon) and I am watching for this little squirrel who keeps running past me. I have my camera out, and I've taken a few shots, but for some reason he doesn't want to come close today.
The weather is BEAUTIFUL today! It's perfect under this tree here. I have had a fever for the past several days - at this point I just wish I could sit here forever under this tree and stay cool just like this. :)
I saw Sarah today at the library at 7:30 a.m. Our GST teacher let us out of class early (@ 9) and we had a test in my Geo class so I got out of that one early too. I need somewhere to plug my silly laptop in, now, but there's no where I can think of sooo...