summer_jackel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
summer_jackel) wrote2009-11-08 10:18 pm
summer_jackel) wrote2009-11-08 10:18 pm
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Autumn on the California/Oregon border
My friend Roq and I enjoyed a brief journey up to Siskiyou County on the CA/Oregon border this weekend. I haven't spent very much time in this forest, and seeing the area in its fall colors is pretty spectacular. I am inspired to spend more time in these woods in fall, and perhaps in general. Long drive, though.
I will start you off with a young whitetailed buck who was hanging around Roq's house in Mendocino county.
Storm coming in over foothills
We don't have the cold snap in the coastal temperate rainforest where I live, so the bigleaf maples don't color up so amazingly. Siskiyou is a different story.
This is the prize of them, though. Driving out, we saw this golden eagle feasting on a roadkilled buck. Amazingly, she did not fly off when I pulled slowly off the highway, rolled down my window and stopped the truck. I was struggling to get the zoom on the camera while I watched her, knowing that roadside raptors are shy and not wanting to take my eyes off her and miss a precious instant of the experience. I snapped off this one pic with the short lens first for insurance, and it was a good move, because she soared off majestically just as I fumbled my zoom into place. The lesson here is to leave the zoom on whilst driving through places where there might be wildlife on the road. I continue to learn.
Pictures or none, though, it was incredible to be this close to the bird, who was perhaps only three truck-lengths from me, and the time spent just watching her was worth the fumbled camera. She must have continued to feed for almost a minute. The power in her beak as she tore and swallowed big chunks of meat, the focused intensity of her gaze as she scanned the area (including looking right at me for a penetrating few seconds before returning to her meal) her sheer size (for reference, she is standing on a fully grown buck that likely weighed in excess of 200 lbs.) and everything about this shining, golden bird were indescribably beautiful. I have rarely been this close to a wild raptor for any length of time, never feeding, and never an eagle, and until this I'd only seen golden eagles distantly in the air. I remain quite humbled and awed.
She finally winged away into a nearby pine, taking off between the trees with startling grace and silence for such a huge bird. I left her alone so she could have her meal in privacy. Still awed.
Mt. Shasta
North of Yreka
I think I want an ice axe. And a skill set I don't have yet.
Back in the lowlands, the buck herd. Here's that spikey yearling again:
This handsome fellow is in his prime.
I would guess this guy is the oldest, or at least the biggest and the one with the heaviest antlers. Compare his rack to the guy above; his top branch is double-tined, but he lacks the spike near the crown. Call them both four-pointers? I love his scarred nose. Fine and handsome autumn buck near the end of the rut.
I will start you off with a young whitetailed buck who was hanging around Roq's house in Mendocino county.
Storm coming in over foothills
We don't have the cold snap in the coastal temperate rainforest where I live, so the bigleaf maples don't color up so amazingly. Siskiyou is a different story.
This is the prize of them, though. Driving out, we saw this golden eagle feasting on a roadkilled buck. Amazingly, she did not fly off when I pulled slowly off the highway, rolled down my window and stopped the truck. I was struggling to get the zoom on the camera while I watched her, knowing that roadside raptors are shy and not wanting to take my eyes off her and miss a precious instant of the experience. I snapped off this one pic with the short lens first for insurance, and it was a good move, because she soared off majestically just as I fumbled my zoom into place. The lesson here is to leave the zoom on whilst driving through places where there might be wildlife on the road. I continue to learn.
Pictures or none, though, it was incredible to be this close to the bird, who was perhaps only three truck-lengths from me, and the time spent just watching her was worth the fumbled camera. She must have continued to feed for almost a minute. The power in her beak as she tore and swallowed big chunks of meat, the focused intensity of her gaze as she scanned the area (including looking right at me for a penetrating few seconds before returning to her meal) her sheer size (for reference, she is standing on a fully grown buck that likely weighed in excess of 200 lbs.) and everything about this shining, golden bird were indescribably beautiful. I have rarely been this close to a wild raptor for any length of time, never feeding, and never an eagle, and until this I'd only seen golden eagles distantly in the air. I remain quite humbled and awed.
She finally winged away into a nearby pine, taking off between the trees with startling grace and silence for such a huge bird. I left her alone so she could have her meal in privacy. Still awed.
Mt. Shasta
North of Yreka
I think I want an ice axe. And a skill set I don't have yet.
Back in the lowlands, the buck herd. Here's that spikey yearling again:
This handsome fellow is in his prime.
I would guess this guy is the oldest, or at least the biggest and the one with the heaviest antlers. Compare his rack to the guy above; his top branch is double-tined, but he lacks the spike near the crown. Call them both four-pointers? I love his scarred nose. Fine and handsome autumn buck near the end of the rut.
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I have my wallpaper set to change every minute or so to a different picture from my folder full of wildlife images. Most of those aren't mine, but I think I'm adding some of the deer shots. :)
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And the look on the face of the yearling buck is amusing. "OMG CAMERA!!!"
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I giggled when I saw how the baby buck pictures came out. That face...
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