Blind Date - Bird Photography Weekly #25

Last Saturday (yes, Valentines Day) I had a blind date in the Delevan National Wildlife Refuge. That's a photography blind date. Doug and I arrived at the parking area a little before 6am. We decided to sit in the truck a few minutes since you don't have to be in the blind until an hour before sunrise, 7:02am on Saturday. Just before six we walked the 150 yards to the blind sign (points to the blind). I looked to the left and saw about forty yards of water between me and the blind. This one is supposed to have a boardwalk to it! The refuge website says there is a boardwalk to it! We came without waders! Neither of us was about to wade out there then sit in a cold blind with wet feet.

Fortunately just before leaving my house I threw my bag containing not one but two pairs of waders in my truck. We were in luck but now were going to be a little late getting in the blind. Not our fault I say! I expected a boardwalk. Doug's feet (size 11) were a little cramped in the neoprene waders stuffed in my spare boots (size 11) with socks too. But he managed to wade out there and took the boots off in the blind.

Speaking of the blind. It is a nice one. I (6' 3" tall) could stand up inside. That is a big improvement over blind #2. There is also lots of room to maneuver our equipment, packs, chairs and somewhat over sized bodies around.

While we were waiting in blind #4 for a photo opportunity this Snow goose wandered along the edge of the tules eating stems. It would stick it's head underwater and grab the stem then jerk the tule back and forth until it came out. Then the goose would eat only the very tip of the stem. Cool behavior to watch.

It was a very overcast and windy day. This was the only bird that came anywhere near enough to the blind for a photograph. But, as usual we had an adventure.

And by the way, I did make it home by 1:00pm to spend time with my wife. We got to babysit our grandson, Jack, overnight. What a blast.

The Slide

Dad and grandpa used to call this the slide. I looked it up on the web and found several names for it: hay slide, beaver slide, hay stacker. Surprisingly I found that at least one in Montana is still in use.

Visit it at: (I had to remove the link. It has a virus.)

This one was "parked" about a quarter mile north of our house. I remember it used to be up against a rail fence but the fence has been removed. Dad and grandpa used to stack hay with this thing and a couple teams of horses. They used a buck rake (maybe I can find a picture of one of these later) to bring the hay to the slide. The rake put it's tines down on the slide tines. The slide tines were then raised by horses pulling the long cables to the top where the hay would drop off in a pile. It is about thirty feet high maybe more.

It is mounted on metal wheels so it can be towed by the horses too. That way they could make several thirty or so foot tall haystacks around the farm to later feed to the cattle.

Now, I don't remember any of that. I just remember it being a place to go play or hide out. As you can see there is a large area under the slide that is shady. The only thing that was a little spooky was the bones. There were always bones under it. I think rabbit size.

After photographing hawks and owls for a few years now I understand what was going on. What a great place to take your kill, eat it and still be on lookout for more. But the bones and owl pellets were always a little disconcerting.

Brandy Creek

Brandy Creek
Originally uploaded by jga154

Last Saturday Frank Kratofil and I went to Brandy Creek in the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area to photograph small things and the stream. The area where we park was not closed but there is a sign at the south end of the parking area at the entrance to the trail that say's it's closed. We decided to go in on the west side so as not to violate the sign too obviously. We did return on the trail where the sign was posted but there was no writing on the back of the sign. We took many pictures and got a few really nice ones too.

You can visit the photos at my Flickr site: http://flickr.com/photos/jarnold154/
Or my website: http://www.jimarnoldphoto.com/

After hearing about how beautiful it is there just after the rains Mary decided she would like to see it on Sunday. We arrived a little after sunrise which is ok as there is not much light in the creek area before sunrise. We parked in the same spot, took the same route (so's not to violate the sign). I got a bunch more pictures including water blur stream shots, mushrooms, and other little scenes. We spent about three hours there and were not washed away by the big avalanche upstream (because it didn't happen).

As we got back to the car, Mary discovered something on the windshield under the the wiper blade. Yep, it was a ticket. A $75 ticket at that. Not for kind of disregarding the sign but for not having a pass posted on the dashboard or anywhere else for that matter. In our big hurry to get past the sign violation glaring at us I forgot to put my $85 annual pass in the window. I told her I would fight it and at least get part of the fine dismissed, maybe.

As I was leaving I watched for a Ranger in case he/she could be talked into dismissing the whole ticket right then. I found one at the headquarters which was closed on Sunday but she was just leaving. I asked, she radioed the other Ranger who wrote the ticket, he agreed and the ticked was gone. Thank you. He also told her to admonish me for going in the closed off area. She did but it didn't seem to enthusiastic. Maybe they really don't care about that?

Ash Creek Wildlife Area

Last weekend Mary and I visited my brother and sister-in-law in Fall River Valley. Saturday morning we got up at 4am and left the house at 5am. I wanted to check out the Ash Creek Wildlife Area in Big Valley. In the past I have gotten some very good shots of birds and other wildlife.

It is about one hour and forty-five minutes to the area. We arrived about fifteen minutes before sunrise. Perfect. The air temperature was 18 degrees and Mary was not too happy about driving around with the windows down so I might get a shot. But, we bundled up, turned the heater up and made the best of it. Actually we were quite comfortable and soon were shedding clothing. I only put one window down at a time.

Unfortunately it was cold. The water was mostly frozen and there were only a few birds. Hawks, geese and swans mostly. None of which would come near enough for a portrait. I did get a not too close shot of a Red-tailed hawk on a barn. It also did not help that the Department of Fish and Game had not opened the gate to the drive through area either. We visited several areas I had not been before. Still not much in the way of bird photography. Oh well.

I did much better photographing birds at my brothers house . There were junco's, nuthatch's, titmice, and a robin that liked to get drunk eating Juniper berries.

We had a nice visit, ate well and came home on Super Bowl Sunday.