Re: Couple New Bighorn Shots. . .
[Re: Tony Bynum]
#8009
04/25/07 12:46 PM
04/25/07 12:46 PM
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Joined: Feb 2006
Donner Summit, CA
glamson
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Feb 2006
Donner Summit, CA
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Quote:
here's s a couple from last weekend, check out the curl on that guy, he's must hide during the rut or just run fast!
shot with nikon 200-400 afs, vr. 14 miles on a bike, 4 miles on foot to get to these guys. 40 lbs on the mountain bike makes the trip a bit more demanding!!! LOL I had bad light, but at least the critters were there when I arrived, or it would have been just a bike/hike for the day!
Tony,
Great pics of what can be a truly elusive animal. I know you shoot at Glacier and I was wondering if that's where this was. The reason I ask is that my best experience with big horns was at Glacier in 1986. My wife and were hiking out the Garden Wall trail to Granite Chalet when we came upon a group of a dozen Bighorns with another group of 6-8 Mountain Goats. The amazing thing was that when we sat down to watch them they came to within 10 yards of us (see pick below). The real downer here was that I had somehow left my film supply in the car and only had the 36 pics in the camera to take (today I probably would have shot a couple of hundred with my D200). Also it was overcast and the light was just so-so and I was shooting Kodachrome 64. We spent about 30 minutes thoroughly enjoying this close interaction and I still look back on it fondly. I've yet to get back to Glacier, but it's high on my list of places to get back to. Thanks for rekindling that experience with your pics. Here are a couple of scanned slides from that adventure (unfortunately the scanning doesn't do the images justice).
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Re: Couple New Bighorn Shots. . .
[Re: glamson]
#8010
04/25/07 12:58 PM
04/25/07 12:58 PM
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Joined: Feb 2005
Montana
Tony Bynum
OP
Pooh-Bah
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OP
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Feb 2005
Montana
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Ah yes, mid to late august, that's a great location to find BH. Those two shots were in glacier park too, but very little of the Park is open so I rode my bike past the gates as far as I could them hiked the rest of the way. I seldom go to logan to find them anymore.
Of late, over the last two/three years, the sheep have not been as dependable as they once were around logan. They seem to move around a lot.
As for how close you can get, youre right, if you get in a position to "intercept" their movement and sit still they soon will ignore you. However, this is not always a good thing as once they ignore you, they also tend to keep their heads in the dirt, so to speek, sleep, or, they put their butts to you.
Dull, overcast light is the BEST for BH's. I would give up 10 days if shooting them in the sun, for one day shooting them in overcast. . .
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Re: Couple New Bighorn Shots. . .
[Re: James Morrissey]
#8013
05/01/07 03:15 PM
05/01/07 03:15 PM
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Joined: Jan 2007
austin
wapiti
Tracker
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Tracker
Joined: Jan 2007
austin
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I hope that someday I will get that close to a large big horn ram. However, the days of hikeing up a mountain are long behind me. Great images. Bill
Bill in Austin
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Re: Couple New Bighorn Shots. . .
[Re: Dee Dee]
#8016
05/02/07 08:39 AM
05/02/07 08:39 AM
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Joined: Feb 2005
Montana
Tony Bynum
OP
Pooh-Bah
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OP
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Feb 2005
Montana
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It's stretching, and scratching. This time of year they often use their horns to rub their necks - there are a lot of ticks this year.
Rams almost always are competitive. In fact, they compete for dominance year round. If you ever get to be around them, just watch how the males always are trying to get in front, or lead the pack. Sometimes you will see one or two larger males off, on the edges - they, to me are the smart ones. They sit back and save energy while the younger, more aggressive ones peck at one another. Until the rut, some of the larger males don’t play in that game. On the other hand, some of the larger, older more mature males never seem to out grow it. It's a preservation mechanism.
If a larger, mature male is killed, there always will be one or two to replace him. Mule deer are similar in this fashion. In a hard winter, the one's that save their energy survive to breed, usually that's the ones that are NOT always on the hook so to speak, or always fighting for dominance.
Thanks for looking and for your comments.
Tony
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