Animals and Birds of Prey (Chickadees, Ruffled Grouse,Beaver and Otters) on the Vermilon River. A Post to SWF.

 Rapids Of the Vermilon River.

I know you're saying to yourself, prey, those guys, chickadees, beavers, otters, grouse. But step outside the box for a moment. These are the hardest guys to photograph in the wilderness. They prey on poor amateur wilderness photographers such as me.Sure you can go to the zoo for beavers or otters; you can feed chickadees at your feeders, and even lure them to your hand, but try photographing them in the forest, their own environment. They'll drive you you nuts, just as the beavers or otters do. And the Ruffled Grouse, she even wears her own camo in a forest floor that's dressed in fall brown.. All these photos were taken on the west side of the river on a very gray day, and strangely enough after other people and dogs had passed through. Does that mean Boom & I are getting more woodsy all the time?

Rapids

White Water.

Beaver Area.

 This is a female Ruffled Grouse that I was fortunate enough to capture, but only one good photo out of four. She's an incredible beauty isn't she.She represents the fourth attempt at capturing some photos of a grouse. 

These are four Black-capped Chickadee photos of one of the most interesting but flighty birds in existence. They're so fast that by the time you have them in focus, they've moved.

This beaver was photographed in the river area shown above. He slapped the river, dove, and kept me waiting for at least 10 minutes, while he resurfaced Not only that but I have about 10 frames of a deadhead log that I thought was him.

The Otter are equally illusive. About a year ago I was seated by the small creek near the east track, when two of these guys passed. I had the 500mm lens on and got two photos of black smudgy fur because they were so close. I've been hunting them since and found the three of them in the wetland next to the abandoned RR line on the west side of the River. Of course, they dove and I had to wait for them to resurface also.

The red squirrels are a bit easier to photograph  now as they're frantic to gather food for winter, but try to get them in the summer. But I think you know, what I mean by birds and animals of prey. A Post to SWF @ http://skyley.blogspot.com/

To activate the slide show, click any photo.