We returned from shooting in AZ for a week to 5-6 inches of snow on the ground. It was dark when we pulled in. The next morning I filled the bird feeders and did some other home chores before picking up Maggie at The Palace not noticing anything out of sorts. Around 10:00 we were back with Maggie and Sharon and her were out in what we call the Back 9. I was in the office dealing with stuff when Sharon burst in very excitedly saying, “There’s a dead buck in the yard!!!” (Not a good thing for her to find, she’s attached to all our deer). Now partially uncovered in the melting snow, I went out to inspect it. There were a ton of “dog” tracks around the carcass which had died about ten feet from where it now laid. We had a deer killed our first year at The Ranch up in the raven that brought in Bald Eagles and it is not uncommon where we are in the Sapphires as one of our neighbors said, “Your turn.” This buck though, 3 tines on one side, 4 on the other was literally easily in sight of our morning room, we could see it from the breakfast table! Nearly totally consumed, its death had happened within the last couple of days prior to our coming home with the Coyotes present the night we got back. All of this brought up the big question, what to do with it?

With temps hovering around the 20s, there is no smell or flies which if summer would be a major issue. There are a number of ways to dispose of carcasses here in MT. But one of the things I’ve always wanted to do was stake out a carcass and witness the process of it disappearing. I’ve been able to do it twice for just a day in Yellowstone but that is not long term, and it was not up close and personal. So me being me, and to absolutely no surprise to any of my neighbors, I put up a hide, stepped inside, and spent over a week (and still at it) watching the process unfold. (Photo of view from inside the hide below.) What unfolded and who showed up I was not prepared for!

I was so excited by the prospects, that my mind went to mush. I have a permanent hide set up already and moving it wasn’t an option. It had my only hide chair. I needed a solution fast but it took Sharon to come up with it. “What about the kit fox hide” she said. I totally forgot about it and my kit fox chair and within a few minutes, I was in business. Keeping in mind the MFD of the Z600f4 TC I set up the hide so I had front lighting around the noon time when I thought I would be shooting. With warm shoes, jacket, and gloves (so white hands can’t be seen looking into the window) I got in the hide, zipped the door, and waited.

The Black-billed Magpies were back on the carcass fifteen or so minutes after I was tucked in. The Coyotes had cleaned out the chest cavity pretty thoroughly. The Short-tailed Weasel, known as an Ermine in the winter had been coming and going so now it was time for the Magpies to go to work. I had been in the blind for about an hour when I heard a sound to my right, I looked in time to see a Golden Eagle on a glide path going right between the hide and the carcass and looking right at me, eye to eye, as it glided by! A Golden Eagle (new bird for The Ranch)! How it found the carcass is still a mystery but it wasn’t its first no last time to the carcass. I’d spend a couple of hours in the hide per session and by the end of the first day, had gotten some nice images but not the one I really wanted.

By the next day, all the snow had melted and the activity had slowed down a bit. Carcass was getting pretty bare. Again, I was in the hide for an hour and here flew past the Golden Eagle again. The next day, it had snowed a little bit which brought some of the images I had envisioned. That one image, the one I had seen from my office window of the Magpies perched on the antler, never appeared in the viewfinder. The second image I wanted was a Magpie perched on the top of the rib cage and the rib cage was not all bloody. I did get that shot. A week into this adventure the Coyotes had come back during the night and tugged on what I thought was a rather clean carcass. They exposed a shoulder where some meat remained. Maggie and I checked it out the next morning and I pulled the head around for the next session in the blind. I was in the office about an hour later when I saw the Golden Eagle back, on the carcass eating! Argh! It just goes to show to be on your toes when death comes knocking!

Yeah, it’s just a Mallard Duck, a species you can find basically at every pond in North America. But when you can make the common, uncommon, then you turn heads and you can tell your visual story. In this sitution, it was the background that caught my attention and what drove the photograph. The reflection of sunrise, grass reeds on the left and blue sky on the right in the water as it swirled had me mezmorized as I looked at it through the viewfinder. It was then I scambled to put a subject on that stage and the closest bird was … a Mallard. Sure, I would have loved a Wood Duck but there were none and it was going to be a cool shot, of a Mallard. To bring out the tones in the water I overexposed +1/3. A side benefit of this was it brought up the colors in the drakes head. A downside was it slowed down my shutter speed a tad. To make up for that I went from f/11 to f/8 and while I would have liked more of the flank in focus, I wanted the photo. I just love the feel of that water! In the end, I am very pleased with the image it all works cause the background drove the shot!

Telling a story, as photographers are most potent tool is how we speak about the light. This is a Say’s Pheobe, a real common bird that often doesn’t feel the love from photographers. Common subjects often suffer from this. I was taught from the very first that there was money in the common is you spoke about it in an uncommon way (and that was such great advice, thanks Gary!) In this case, the Say’s Phoebe was on a perch in kinda bright light. As you can see, part of its body though was in shade from another part of the tree. By simply dialing in -07 exp comp, the overal brightness was brought down with what appears to be a spot light on the head. Now the common is uncommon. It’s pretty simple to accomplish, just gotta think about telling the story. The best part though is when talking about the Say’s Phoebe I get to use an old birder’s joke. Say what?

Our timing is perfect for the fall color on magnificent Caddo Lake. It’s not so good for migrating fall waterfowl. Either we are early or they are late, in either case their not in our viewfinder where we want them. It’s not like we hurting for subjects, but there is just something about spending time with critters. Stepping into the void is our best friend, the Great Blue Heron. They are present on a view of the boat channels, the ones lest traveled by the faster bass boats cause they don’t like the wakes. Hard to see prey with wakes lapping at their legs. So easing up on them is key in getting a shot. Being “common” I am always looking for the uncommon. And while I have a gazzilion image of them, I still don’t have enough. Handholding the Z 9 / Z600f4 TC (shooting at 840mm) we eased up on this individual. I wanted to get the fall color reflection behind it but because of submerged logs, we couldn’t get the boat over to the left far enough. I watched the GBH as we floated towards it and it was this moment it saw another GBH fly into “its” water to forage. It raised its crest as a sign of displeasure and before too long, flew off to warn of the intruder. While not the most amazing photo of a GBH, it’s always fun to spend time with a wildlife photographer’s best friend!

The snow was steadily falling but not really building up. The temps weren’t cold as Montana goes but cold enough to create a layer of ice for the snow to fall upon. It was the first snow of winter and Yellowstone, more accurately its visitors, weren’t ready for the white stuff. Before long the roads of Yellowstone were being closed not so much because of a thick carpet of snow, but because of accidents and all that is required to pull a car off the side of a narrow, two lane road. And there I was outside of the park …

We had already had two amazing days in the park with wolves, Bison, the usual critters and super dramatic skies and light from the incoming storm. Everything was lining up for some killer photography and there I was “stuck” in my room. We were at the marvelous Park Hotel and its giant windows look into the northern entrance of the park. It’s a gorgeous view, when it’s not “forced.” I wanted to shoot really bad. Then this little band of five Mule Deer walked in front of our window (we were on the second floor). They were inside this sudo fenced area munching on the brown grasses. At first we just watched them and then I couldn’t handle it and grabbed the Z 8 with the Z400f4.5. If I got on the kitchen chair so I was standing at top of the big window, I could shoot over the fence. Yeah, I was shooting though the window but I found a clean, none scratched porthole. It was a challenge and at that point, it was welcomed. There was some great biology going on but much I couldn’t shoot because of the fence. But for an hour at least I wasn’t bouncing off the wall. I had the deer through the looking glass.