A little bit faded and worst for the wear, our giant flock of Evening Grosbeaks have returned from their nesting grounds to the north. It’s another sign that fall is just around the corner for us (which I’m just not ready for). Their early return kinda took us by surprise being run out of seed almost instantly causing us to make a run to the feed store. Probably more important to them has been the water feature where they spend a lot of their time with the heat wave going through. As I write this, there is about thirty just in the platform at the office window watching us, they are everywhere. So finding a “nice” place to photograph them that’s not “end of the summer green” has been made easier with there being so many. It’s so nice to hear them, they’re back!

Wart was a yearling when we first moved to The Ranch. He kinda adopted us (could be because of the apples I fed him) and spent much of his time rambling about. His second year he started to show signs of deer warts, better known as cutaneous fibromas. A kinda gross infliction, it normally isn’t fatal, just horribly unsightly and Wart (what we named him) had a mild case. As they grew they got to the point they would pop off (got as big as a softball). Wart had one below his left eye, a small scar remains today which is how we know it is him. We’ve not seen Wart for perhaps 18 months and often wondered what happened to him.

Then a few days ago he showed back up. Looking with bins I saw the scar under the left eye and between that and the fact he walked right up to me and ignores Maggie, we knew Wart was back. And he has grown up a bit sporting a nice rack! In the past, we have seen nice bucks but only as they moved through, never staying around. I’d always hoped Wart would grow up, grow a big rack and make for a great subject. It would appear at least for the moment, that might come true. What’s even cooler is he has a friend he brought with him, an even bigger buck. The last couple of evenings they bed down about thirty-forty feet from the deck in the tall grass and chill until sunset when they move to the green grass in the front. Up until last night we just watched cause the light was hot, nasty as it squeaked through the trees. The new buck was a little camera shy but Wart, yeah, no shyness there. And after the first few clicks, I knew for certain it was Wart, always was a character. We’re looking forward to fall to see how this all plays out because it’s started with great August surprises!

The drama unfolding on the bluff a half mile away was unknowns to us at first. We were with a couple of Kodiak Browns on the flats in front of us, 180 degrees from the bluff. Eagle Eye Chris, one of the best guides, period, spotted the mom and three cubs on the bluff and the giant 1200lbs male above them and made us aware of the drama unfolding. You look very closely, you can see the three, two year old cubs clinging on for dear life below the edge of the cliff in the brambles. Between them and the big male is mom, a great mom doing what they have done since the beginning of time, defend their young.

The males try to kill the young for one reason, the birds and the bees! Mom goes into estrus right after they loose their cubs and the males know that. It’s really that simple! In the video above you will see mom charge up that slope, and it’s quite a steep face, and challenge the male three times. You’ll see her smack that giant three times in the head, full force. And you’ll see the male shake it off as if to say, “That’s the best you’ve got?” Then the male will go off and scratch its back and finally wonder off. In the end, the cubs come up and curl up with mom and finally nurse. All of this transpired over about a half an hour, at least what we witnessed.

On the photographic side, I was shooting with the Z 8 / Z600f4 w/Z1.4x when I first swung 180 degrees to see the drama. The action was unfolding fast and while I would have loved to shoot it all as a video, I didn’t have the time to make the changes in the begining so I went to DX crop shooting at an effective focal length of 1762mm and as the action unfolded, I simply depressed the shutter release and never let up until the moment had passed. I then brought the 318 frames into Premiere via PhotoMechanic. PhotoMechanic converted the Nefs to Jpegs and Premiere turned the Jpegs into a video.

I have been incredibly fortunate in my lifetime to witness much of the big bears biology but this was the first “long defense” of young I’ve seen and been able to photograph. It’s something I will never forget and a constant reminder to me that the world can be tough!

South of Tucson and just north of the border is a small piece of heaven, Madera Canyon. In the heart of the canyon is Santa Rita Lodge. Sharon & I first visited the lodge in 1980. We had driven all night and fell into our room late, real late! It seemed we’d just hit the pillows when there was the faintest of light out the window. Then the buzz started and as the light levels increased, so did the buzz. I just wanted to sleep and all I could think was we had a beehive outside our window with the loudness. I got up to close the window to find a ONE gallon hummingbird feeder surrounded by what seemed all the hummers on the planet. I was hooked! We’ve been going back ever since!

That sound is why I photograph the hummingbirds the way I do, so the wings are blurred. It’s why folks call them hummers. Up until this year, getting that shot required nearly all my attention. But technology has broken through so now I can concentrate more on the story then the settings. With the rig mentioned above, I watch and work at capturing the charisma that is wrapped up in all those jewels. In this case, it is the hummers ever present desire to chase the next hummer. They are constantly looking up to either chase or be chased. To me, they appear to be on launching pad just blasting off. I made strides in moving my hummer photography forward this year, I’m very excited. I’m more excited to keep working on it the rest of this summer at The Ranch as I have a whole bunch of hummer shooting planned for next summer. A “how I do it’ video will be posted soon, but it’s off to the moon, a small step.