Ekalaka Montana

During the last week of May, 2022, I had the chance to head south and east to Ekalaka, Montana. I was actually born in Ekalaka, so it was a bit of a homecoming for me. Well, technically I was born in Miles City, Montana which is over 100 miles away, because Eklaka did not have a hospital at the time, but Ekalaka was still my first home. Ironically, when I visited, I found out the house we lived in is no more. There was just a vacant lot with some remenits of a foundation and some debris laying around, but I guess I am getting a little ahead of myself. My family left Ekalaka when I was still very young, so the memories I had of the area were a bit murky and fragmented. So it was kind of interesting to see how those memories lined up to reality almost 40 years later.

One of the great looking signs coming into Ekalaka.

We had a good trip down, heading through Winnet, Jordan, Miles City, over to Baker and then down to Ekalaka. Despite the drought conditions closer to home, they have been having an abnormally wet spring down there, so we found it to be surprisingly green and lush, which was a contrast to the dry prairie of my memories. I had been as far as Miles City in my adult life, but I had not been any farther south or east than that since leaving Ekalaka as a young child. 

In my memories, the only places I had any recollection of (besides our house, the swimming pool and the school) were Medicine Rocks and the forested hills outside of town. And even those memories were vague at best. Our dad was a teacher and coach for the school there and he worked at the pool in the summer. So that is why I think I still have memories of those. The pool was a lot smaller than I remembered though. The school had changed a lot too, I think portions of it might even be new since I was there. I could remember where our house was based on a few landmarks, most notably a tower that was practically in our backyard with a siren on it that was used to warn of approaching storms. The tower still stands, but as I already mentioned, the house was gone. I don’t know if it was torn down, or lost to a fire perhaps? Whatever the case, the house and its ugly shag carpet of my memories are gone. 

A panorama of some formations at Medicine Rocks State Park.

On our way to Ekalaka we stopped at Medicine Rocks State Park. It was actually closer to town then I realized and there was more to the park than I remembered. There was a storm approaching, so we did not linger there too long, but we took a few minutes and walked around some of the formations. They were pretty cool to see again. If I ever get back to that area (hopefully it’s not another 40 years) I will make a point to take a little more time and look around. I think from a photography perspective it might have some real potential in either sunrise or sunset. I was there in the middle of the day, so except for a few storm clouds, there was not a lot to add any drama to the scene. I played around with some black and white photos, just to see if maybe that would make things a little more interesting. It would also be an interesting location for some astrophotography, as it is recognized as an International Darky Sky Sanctuary.  

An information display at the entrance of Medicine Rocks State Park.

One of the rock formations with some small formations in the background.

There were some trees and various plant species mixed in amongst the formations.

A tall rock formation at Medicine Rocks. It is difficult to capture the scale, but many of the formations are very large.

It was amazing the shapes and holes that erosion has formed into the rocks.

As I mentioned, I tried playing around with some black and white due to the middle of the day conditions. I tried to work with the approaching thunderstorm to give a little drama.

I liked how the shape of the thunderstorm clouds kind of mimicked the shape of this rock formation. If you have a preference for the color vs. the black and white, leave a comment.

By the time we got into Ekalaka the storm had caught us. We decided to take refuge and visit the local museum while we waited for the storm to pass. The Carter County Museum was a fun little stop. Its focus was on the dinosaur discoveries in the area, but it also had a lot of Native American history and artifacts and items from the first settlers on the plains. The museum was free, but I still made a donation and we purchased a few items at the gift shop. The staff, just like everyone we met in Ekalaka, were very nice and happy to chat. Maybe it’s nostalgia, but I feel like Ekalaka still has that old, small town Montana charm and friendly atmosphere that I am afraid we are losing in most places. It’s been a long time since I have been somewhere as a complete stranger and had so many people strike up a conversation and greet you with a genuine hello. 

A triceratops skull.

A Trex fossil at the Carter County Museum.

Duckbill fossil.

Saber toothed cat skull.

A panorama of Capital Rock Natural Landmark.

While in the area I had the chance to also visit the Ekalaka Hills and nearby Capital Rock Natural Landmark. I am not sure if we ever visited Capital Rock while we lived in Ekalaka or not. My hunch is that we probably did, but I just didn’t have any memory of it. It was very cool to see, and I highly recommend it if you are in the area. I don’t know if it was because it was the spring time or just the low population in general, but we were at the landmark for over an hour and never saw another person. It is not very often that you get that experience anymore. If you do plan to visit the landmark, I would recommend you approach it from the east side on Highway 323. We drove through the Forest Service land coming from the west and the road was very treacherous. We were in a high clearance 4x4 and looking for some adventure, but you would not make it in anything else. While in the Ekalaka Hills we also visited MacNab Pond, which is where I first fished as a child. Like the swimming pool back in town, in my memories the pond was a lot larger than it actually is. I kind of wished I had my fishing pole with me though, just for old time’s sake...

A view of the backside of Capital Rock as we were coming over the old Forest Service road.

For some sense of scale, my sister is sitting on a hill between myself and Capital Rock. There is whole low lying area between the hill she is on and the rock, so this still does not really do it justice.

A plaque at the site proclaiming it as a Registered Natural Landmark.

One the way to Capital Rock we found a pond with these painted turtles sunning themselves.

Some of the wild flowers with the “dome” of Capital Rock in the background. I was going to try and do some focus stacking to get a clear picture of both the rock and the flowers, but the wind was blowing hard enough that was impossible. So I settled for letting the rock fall into the background.

There were also a lot of frogs in the pond, including this one my sister was holding for the camera.

Spring 2022 Catch Up

I am starting to run behind on my blog posts again. I have a post I am still working on from a recent trip to extreme South East Montana and I also just returned from an awesome early summer trip to Glacier National Park. Please check back in the near future to view those posts. Since I am still working on those, I thought I would make a real quick post to share a few of my pictures from a little closer to home I have taken this spring (in some cases, so close to home they were in my backyard.)

I recently had a flock of Cedar Waxwings hanging out in our apple tree in the backyard. I had seen a few in the neighborhood a couple of years ago, but I was not able to get any good pictures at the time. I have since been hoping that someday I would see them again. Luckily this spring was my chance. Since the apple tree was still full of blossoms (which the birds were eating) it made for some great pictures. It was an overcast day and the wind was blowing pretty hard, so it wasn’t the best day for photography, but it was still fun. We have also had a pair of Mourning Doves build a nest in the same apple tree. The nest is not very substantial, but it has survived several storms now, so I guess it was sufficient. We also had robins nesting in both of our neighbors' yards that have been fun to watch. I did not take pictures of either of these however, as I didn’t feel comfortable pointing a large lens and camera into my neighbors’ yards. 

A Cedar Waxwing getting ready to pull off and eat another pedal off a apple blossom.

A Cedar Waxwing posing with some apple blossoms.

Another Cedar Waxwing eating an apple blossom.

A Mourning Dove sitting on her nest keep an eye on me.

I also took a trip out to Benton Lake National Wildlife Refuge the other day. If you follow my blogs you know that is one of my favorite spots to visit. With the drought conditions this year, the water levels are fairly low in the area, but I was still able to view several bird species. As I am typing this, we are luckily finally getting some much needed rain. I was out there when it was a little windy and a bit cool, but on the upside that meant the bugs were not too much of a problem which can be the case during our warmer months. This trip was also my first chance to try out my new Canon 100-500 RF lens. Since I primarily shoot with the Canon R5 now, I am starting to get tired of always having to use EF to RF adapters with my old lenses. It just complicates things and makes packing/planning what gear to bring more difficult. I cannot afford to replace all of my old lenses, but the 100-500 is something that I will leave on my camera most of the time so it seemed like a good investment. This will replace the Canon 100-400 II that has kind of been my workhorse from my DSLR days. That is a great lens so the 100-500 has some big shoes to fill. So far I have been pretty satisfied with the 100-500. It does have a minimum aperture of F7.1 at 500mm which is kind of a bummer (the 100-400 was F5.6 at 400mm), but for the most part I can work around that. It is a little bit lighter and you do get an extra 100mm focal length over the 100-400, so I think it’s a fair trade. It will still never be a replacement for my 600mm F4, but that is not always practical to pack around. 

A White-Faced Ibis wading in the water at Benton Lake NWR.

A Black-crowned Night-Heron along the shore at Benton Lake NWR.

A gull flying over Benton Lake NWR.

I am not 100% sure on the ID of this bird. Please leave a comment if you know.

A Northern Shoveler just coming in for a landing.

Spring Burrowing Owls

On the evening of May 7th my sister and I were able to observe some burrowing owls in Central Montana. We visited the site earlier in the day when we were coming back from a different outing, but it was storming and I did not have all of my camera gear with me. We only saw two owls during our initial visit, but with the wind and rain coming in, we did not stay very long to look more closely. After it looked like the storms had passed for the day, we decided to take a chance and make the hour long drive back to the site to see if we could get a better look at the owls. Upon arriving at the site, it was still windy as the last of the storms were just leaving the area and we did not see any owls. But not long after, as the weather cleared, we started seeing several owls moving about the area. They were so active in fact, it was difficult to keep track of how many owls were present. Our best guess is there were somewhere between about 6 and 10 owls.

Burrowing owls are small birds and we were only able to get so close to them, as to not disturb them. I had my longest lens on (Canon 600mm F4 version 2) and I also attached my 1.4x Canon teleconverter (version 3) to try and bring them in as close as possible. Even with all of that glass, they were still very small in the frame of my Canon R5. With that in mind, I actually ended up concentrating more on trying to get some video footage. The Canon R5 has a crop mode in video, so I enabled that to try and make the owls as large as possible. I also attached my external Rhode VideoMic Pro+ microphone to try and capture the sounds of the owls. Please check out the video link at the end of this post so you can see and hear the owls around their burrows. I did try to take some still photos and I am including a few here, even though the quality is not the best. These photographs are heavily cropped, so the quality is severely degraded, but I still wanted to share them for illustrative purposes.

Burrowing Owl taking a walk. It looks like he was on a mission.

Burrowing owl looking into the camera. He did not seem very happy about having his picture taken.

Burrowing owl, giving me a bit of a side eye look.

A pair of burrowing owls in the entrance of their burrow.

We only had about an hour with the owls by the time the weather moved out, so there was not a lot of daylight to work with. It was still worth the trip though, as it was one of my goals this year to try to locate and photograph some burrowing owls. I plan to revisit the site to try and get some better photographs. I am hoping if I had more time on the site, I might have the opportunity to get the owls a little closer for some better pictures. I am also hoping later on this spring, that perhaps I can observe some chicks as well, which would be a first for me.

A burrowing owl perched on a sage brush plant against the settings sky.

Closing Out April - Benton Lake NWR

I closed out April spending some time at one of my favorite local spots to visit, Benton Lake National Wildlife Refuge. I actually took two trips since it’s relatively close to my house. I went out shortly after sunrise the first trip. It was a sunny start to the day, so the warming temperatures were actually very difficult for photography. I have run into this issue several times out there before. The warming air close to the ground mixes with the colder air above and makes for a lot of distortion when trying to photograph through the atmosphere. It was a great morning for observing wildlife though. I was greeted by a small herd of pronghorn antelope. I also observed a short-eared owl as I was entering the refuge. Farther inside the refuge, I saw a couple more short-eared owls flying and doing some aerial acrobatics. They were too far away and there was too much distortion to get any clear photographs, but they were fun to watch. There were too many other species to list them all, but some of the highlights included swallows, sharp-tailed grouse, pelicans, Canada geese, snow geese, red-winged black birds, yellow-headed black birds, several gull species, willets, pheasants, stilts, many duck species, meadowlarks, horned larks, ground squirrels, muskrats and even a porcupine. I could hear some coyotes off in the distance, but I never saw them. As always, you can click on the pictures for a larger view (depending on your viewing device.)

Male pronghorn antelope looking into the camera.

Another shot of the antelope buck. I like the way he has some extra prongs almost growing on the top of his antlers, very unique. He was also spending a lot of time rubbing against the brush. It looks like they are losing their winter coats, so I am guessing that might be why he was rubbing so much.

Tree swallows fighting over a bird house. I spent a while watching them bicker with each other. I did not have my shutter speed quite fast enough to really freeze the action, but I still thought it was worth sharing.

Another action shot of the tree swallows interacting at the bird house. I do like the way the sun makes their colors shine.

Tree swallows more calmly sitting on the post above the bird house.

The best consensus from other bird photographers I talked to is this is a willet. I am not an expert when it comes to the variety of shore birds that pass through during the spring migration.

A black-necked stilt in the foreground with a sleeping American avocet behind it. There is also a killdeer out of focus in the background.

Muskrat cruising around. I saw quite a few of them, more than usual.

A porcupine was looking a little out of place, I am not sure where he was trying to get to, as there are not a lot of trees in the area.

I returned in the early evening hoping that the heat distortions I experienced earlier in the day would not be an issue. By this time however, the weather had turned to very overcast and even some light rain off and on. So this presented its own challenges, requiring higher ISOs and lower shutter speeds whenever possible to account for the lower available light. The change in weather did resolve the distortion issues though. I was again greeted by the same heard of pronghorn antelope. I also encountered a short-eared owl perched in a small tree just inside the refuge. This gave me a great photo opportunity and probably the highlight of the trip. I did not want to linger too long to disturb the owl, so I continued deeper into the refuge. I observed some of the same species I had earlier in the day, but overall I would say there were fewer birds due to the worsening weather conditions. Once I got around to the ponds, I did find a small flock of white-faced ibis that I had not observed earlier in the day. They were in an area that had been burned earlier this spring, so it made for a unique picture to see a water bird in a burned landscape. The gulls especially were also enjoying the burn areas. They were conducting controlled burns to help clear out some of the old vegetation that had built up. There was already fresh green grass coming up. On my way out of the refuge I observed some red-tailed hawks and some white-tail deer, but it was getting too dark by then for any pictures. All in all it was a great day and a fun way to close out April 2022. All of the pictures were done with my Canon R5 and my Canon 600mm F4 version 2.

Short-eared owl perched in a small tree.

Another shot of the short-eared owl kind of looking over its shoulder. It was a lot of fun to see it.

A white-faced ibis in some of the burned area.

Greater Sage-Grouse Lek, April 2022

Over the weekend of April 2-3, 2022 I was able to visit one of my favorite Greater Sage-Grouse Leks in Central Montana. It is always one of my favorite trips to make in the spring. The first morning I went out was not as productive as the second. As always, I still had a great time, but there were clouds in the sky and I was also not setup quite in the right spot for the best viewing of the grouse on the lek. The second morning I had some amazing sunlight right at sunrise and I was also in a better position for some closer pictures of the grouse.

Male Greater Sage-Grouse displaying on the lek, with the first morning sun rays shining through his feathers.

A close up portrait of a male Greater Sage-Grouse with his tail feathers glowing in the morning sun.

A profile picture of a male Greater Sage-Grouse displaying at sunrise on the lek.

The only downside to these trips are the early mornings. I have about an hour and a half drive from my sister’s house in Lewistown to the lek. Sunrise this time of year is before 7 AM, and you need to be out there about an hour before sunrise. All I can say is 4AM comes all too early. Luckily I have time to consume a lot of coffee on the drive over. I have considered staying the night closer to the lek, but in early spring the nights are still pretty cold and there is not a lot of protection on the open prairie if the weather comes in.

This year there were about 70 grouse on the lek and that was encouraging to see. Those numbers are slightly higher than the last couple of years. With the Greater Sage-Grouse being a species of concern, I am always happy to see when they are having a good year. Hopefully we have a good spring so chick recruitment will be as high as possible.

Most of my photography and videography were done with my Canon R5, Canon 600 mm F4 ii and I had some help at times with my Canon 1.4x iii teleconverter. I was also using a Manfroto fluid video head instead of my gimble head. I was also using my Rode Video Mic Pro+ for capturing the audio. I had recently upgraded the firmware and that seemed to be causing me some issue on my R5. If they do not put out a new firmware soon, I may have to consider reverting to an older firmware. I was able to work around if for the most part, but it was causing my camera to occasionally lock up.

Portrait of male Greater Sage-Grouse.

A close up picture of all of the details in the tail feathers.

I am not sure if I will get another trip out for Greater Sage-Grouse or not. I still want to get out to a Sharp-Tailed Grouse lek and maybe try something new this year and find some mountain grouse during their spring rituals.

Two male Greater Sage-Grouse fighting over their position on the lek.

Two male Greater Sage-Grouse on the lek. You get to see the front and the back of the grouse.

A male Greater Sage-Grouse with his large yellow air sacks full of air on full display.

A relaxed (non displaying) male Greater Sage-Grouse.

Freezout Lake WMA, March 2022

On March 19, 2022 I decided to take a quick trip out to the Freezout Lake WMA North of Fairfield, MT. I knew it was going to be a little bit early to hit the peak of migration, but with some upcoming commitments, I wasn’t sure if I would get out there later on or not. Most of the lake(s) was still frozen. There were some geese and ducks in the area, as well as some swans, but well below average for this time of year. There were a lot of Bald Eagles though, which was awesome to see. I was told the eagles were feeding on frozen fish in the ice. I also observed a coyote out on the ice looking for a meal as well. After driving around the WMA for a while I eventually found a Great Horned Owl sitting in a tree. I would guess if the weather remains mild, by next week the water should be opening up and I would guess the numbers of migrating waterfowl will increase significantly. Typically the last week of March is around the peak of migration, so that may turn out to be true again this year. If you want to monitor the status of the migration, Montana FWP does have a website with migration updates. You can find that site at: Freezout Lake Wildlife Management Area (arcgis.com). You can also check out my page about the Freezout Lake WMA here: Freezout WMA — Josh Rutledge Photography you may also find a blog I posted last year helpful as well. Freezout Lake Wildlife Management Area, March 20, 2021 — Josh Rutledge Photography. As always, please select the pictures for a larger view.

A flock of snow geese before sunrise at Freezout WMA.

Another shot of migrating snow geese against the color of the predawn sky.

Tundra Swans flying in formation against an early morning sky.

A mature Bald Eagle flying over the frozen water of Freesout Lake. You can see a glimpse of the mountains of the Rocky Mountain Front in the background.

A tree with several Bald Eagles perched in it just off Freezout Lake.

Snow Geese flying against the hills at Freezout WMA.

A flock of Snow Geese on the ice.

A flock of Snow Geese taking off from the lake, with a view of Fairfield, MT in the background.

Great Horned Owl perched in a tree at Freezout WMA.

Another photograph of the Great Horned Owl I found at the Freezout WMA.

Snowy Owls

On the morning of February 6, 2022, I drove about an hour east of my home to meet my sister to look for Snowy Owls. Finding Snowy Owls was on my list of goals for this winter. I had also wanted to try and photograph Great Gray Owls this winter, but I have not been successful yet. The conditions in town were warm and dry when I left, but by the time I got about 30 miles out of town the roads turned very icy. I am not sure if it was new snowfall overnight that froze or if it was blowing snow that had recovered the roads. I had to slow down, but I still made it to our designated meeting location on time without issue.

We were probably looking for about a half an hour when my sister spotted our first snowy owl. It was on the edge of a stubble field not far off the road we were traveling on. I would guess we were probably still about 100 yards away when she spotted it. With it being so close to the road, we did not want to scare it, so we stopped and I took a few stills and some video from the car. It was too far away to realistically get any good photos, but we were not sure how long it would stick around, so I figured I better at least get a few pictures for documentation if nothing else. I was shooting with my Canon R5 and my Canon 600mm F4 II. I forgot my extender, or I might have considered putting it on. After we watched it for a while we decided to see if we could get any closer. The owl was along the road we needed to travel along anyway, so we figured it was worth taking a chance by getting a little closer. We were able to get a little bit closer, but it ended up flying away while we were still pretty far away. It did not fly real far, but it was still too far away for good photography. We continued down the road a little farther and we stopped to look around a little bit and I spotted a 2nd snowy owl sitting on the railroad tracks. This owl was even farther away than the first. So we just observed it with our binoculars for a while.

Snowy Owl on the edge of a field.

Slightly different pose of the first Snowy Owl we saw along the road.

I had already been out unsuccessfully a couple of times this winter looking for Snowy Owls, so to see two owls in less than an hour was really awesome. I was a little disappointed we had not been able to find one closer though. We continued to look around the countryside and after a little while we stumbled upon a third owl that was sitting out in the middle of a field. This owl was also too far away for any good photographs. When we first saw it, we were not 100% sure if it was one of the first owls we saw that had moved, or if it was a third. After we watched this owl for a while, we decided to go back and check where we saw the first two. Sure enough, those two owls were still where we left them, so we could confirm we had seen 3 Snowy owls.

Snowy Owl perched on an old fence.

Snowy Owl in flight.

Eventually we decided that the owls were not going to cooperate and give us any closer views so we decided to call it a day. We did not want to harass the birds by trying to get too close. Seeing three Snowy Owls in one morning was still an awesome experience and I was able to cross off one of my winter goals. Hopefully the owls will stick around a little bit longer so I can get a chance to try again for some better pictures. All of the photographs and video were cropped to try and showcase the birds. As a result they are not very high resolution. As the morning went on (it was abnormally warm for February) I was starting to get some heat distortion in my pictures as well, which further degraded the image quality. Since the owls were white, there were white patches of snow in many of the scenes and the sky was relatively bright I was shooting with between 2/3 and a full stop of positive exposure compensation to correct my exposures.

Snowy Owl landing on a fence.

Slightly different pose of the Snowy Owl perched on the fence.

Besides the owls, we saw many pronghorn antelope, white-tail deer and I briefly saw what I think was a coyote. All in all it was an awesome morning.

White-tail deer amongst some old farm equipment.

Pronghorn Antelope.

A young buck pronghorn antelope on the run.

As I mentioned, I was hoping to photograph Great Gray Owls this winter too. I found this one (along with a couple of others) in the fall, but I only had my cheap camera with me at the time, so this blurry picture was the best I could do. I was hoping to get back into that area with my better equipment, but I got snowed out. I had not previously posted this picture, so I thought I would include it on this post.

New Year

It’s the start of a new year already and I realized I have still not posted my photographs from my Glacier National Park trips from the summer. It has become apparent that I am probably never going to get around to doing a full blog post about the trips, so I thought I would just go ahead and do a photo dump to at least get them posted. I will try to do a little better going forward about keeping this blog up to date. This fall was really busy for me and the last couple of weeks have been busy with the holidays and also a lot of bad weather has kept me from getting out to do any photography.

We ended up taking two trips to Glacier National Park over the summer. One trip was in July and we spent a lot of time on the East side of the park, including Many Glacier. And then we took a second trip later in August and split time between Many Glacier again and the West side, including staying over night in Apgar and a day trip North up to Polebridge.

Please remember to respect the wildlife when visiting national parks (or anywhere.) I have long telephoto lens that allow me to keep my distance from the wildlife, so while it may appear that I am close to my subjects, that is not the case. We saw many instances of people not following park directions and getting dangerously close to the wildlife. Since this is not a full blog about the locations we visited or the equipment I used, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Also remember you can click on any of the images below for a larger view.

July Trip

A cow moose feeding in Fishercao Lake in Many Glacier.

A cow moose walking in Fishercap Lake shortly before sunset.

A profile shot of the cow moose feeding in Fishercap Lake.

A ram bighorn sheep on Logan Pass in Glacier National Park.

A mountain goat on the cliffs near Logan Pass on the Going to the Sun highway in Glacier National Park.

Ram bighorn sheep on top of Logan Pass in Glacier National Park.

A ground squirrel that was feeding behind the visitor’s center on Logan Pass.

A sunset pano from behind the Many Glacier Hotel overlooking Swiftcurrent Lake.

A smokey view of Wilde Goose Island in Saint Mary Lake.

The lower part of Redrock Falls in Many Glacier National Park.

The upper falls of Redrock Falls in Many Glacier National Park.

A colorful pool above Redrock Falls in Many Glacier National Park.

A grizzly bear feeding on berries near Many Glacier.

A black bear eating berries near Many Glacier.

August Trip

A smokey morning at Avalanche Lake in Glacier National Park.

Avalanche Lake in Glacier National Park.

The Polebridge Mercantile.

A collared sow grizzly bear with it’s two cubs near the East entrance of Glacier National Park.

A cub grizzly bear standing up in a berry patch.

A very light colored grizzly bear cub in a berry patch along Saint Mary Lake, Glacier National Park.

The two grizzly bear cubs spent a lot of time playing and wrestling in the berry patch.

A black bear standing up eating berries in Many Glacier, Glacier National Park.

Black bear near Many Glacier.

A large male black bear near Many Glacier, Glacier National Park.

A grizzly bear feeding, flipping rocks along the shores of Saint Mary Lake in Glacier National Park.

A female deer feeding in Fishercap Lake in Many Glacier, Glacier National Park.

Last Trip of the Season

I decided to take one last trip to the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Range on October 2, 2021. I had not planned on making another trip this fall (my third) but I had a free afternoon so I decided to make the trip. I thought the fall colors in the trees might be at their prime so I should be able to get a few good shots. The afternoon was unseasonably warm (in the mid 80’s) so the elk were a little quite when we first got there. Most of the elk were just lying in the shade of the cottonwood trees. After about an hour the elk started getting up on their feet and started to get active. There were still a lot of elk in the area and there was plenty of bugling to be heard. The bulls seemed to have their harems pretty well established so most of the fighting was just lite tussles between younger bulls. I pretty much used my Canon R5 and my Canon 600mm F4 Version 2 lens for most of the pictures, but I did have my Canon 70-200mm 2.8 Version 3 on my old Canon 5D IV I used to take some wider shots. For it being a Saturday the crowds were actually not too bad. I can only attribute that to it being later in the season and maybe the hot weather.

A mature bull with this cows with the fall colors of the cotton wood trees on full display in the background.

An intimate moment between a bull and a cow while they were still laying down in the heat of the day.

A mature bull strolling around the cows.

This bull was caked in mud that gave him kind of a grey, ghost like appearance.

A mature bull making his way through the sage brush.

A bugling bull seranating a cow.

A large bull amongst the colorful under brush.

A colorful sunset with the elk and fall leaves of the Missouri River.

A bull elk near dark.

Labor Day Weekend Elk

I am still working on trying to post a blog(s) about our trips to Glacier National Park earlier this summer, but I have not had the time to gather everything for that. But I did want to put out something updated, so I thought I would create a post about my quick trip to check out the forthcoming elk rut in the Missouri Breaks in North Central Montana over Labor Day Weekend.

A large herd of elk with a large bull in the center.

Typically I don’t visit the site on the C. M. Russel National Wildlife Refuge until later in September, but I thought I would try going early this year to avoid the crowds. While the crowds were less than they are typically later in the month, it was already pretty busy for my liking. I was hoping if I could avoid the crowds maybe I could get some video with clean audio for once. To me half of the fun of watching the elk is listening to all of the various sounds they make. When the crowds are large and there is so much traffic on the roads, trying to hear the elk clearly is almost impossible. Even with the lesser crowds, it was still impossible to get any clean audio without crowd noise or vehicles driving in the background. I will post a video with unedited audio at the end of this blog. It was still worth the visit however. I would guess there were probably about 100 elk or so. There were two mature bulls and a lot of smaller bulls, spikes, cows and calves. There was a third large bull elk that came out right at dark and he was probably the biggest of the bunch. There was also a large flock of wild turkey’s this year which were a nice bonus. All of these pictures were produced with my Canon R5 and my adapted Canon 600mm F4 II. If you click on an image you will get a full screen version of the images.

The mature bull we saw with the large herd of elk.

The 2nd mature bull elk we saw late in the evening.

With smoke and clouds in the sky, we were treated to a very colorful sunset. The downside is that it did get darker a little sooner than normal with so much of the sunlight being blocked. I may get back to the viewing area again later this fall, but at least if I don’t get the chance, I was able to get this trip in. For more information about the elk on the C.M. Russell NWR please check out my page here: https://www.joshrutledgephotography.com/c-m-russell

The smoke and clouds made for a colorful sunset.

I put together this little video digest from the evening. I decided to leave the audio as is, as there was just not much I could do to save it. You can hear a few bugles and some other vocalization, but there is also a lot of wind, crowd and vehicle noise as well. You will also see the wild turkeys we were enjoying watching along side the elk.

Yosemite National Park - Part 3

In part 3 of my Yosemite blog I am going to try and wrap up the rest of our trip to California. On July 6th we woke up early and hit the road to visit Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. We headed west and then south as we traveled through Fresno and then headed east to Kings Canyon National Park. We stopped at some fruit stands along the way and took in the California country side. We entered through the Big Stump entrance and our first stop was Grant Grove. This grove of giant sequoias is home to the General Grant Tree which is also known as the National Christmas Tree. We spent some time walking the trails around the grove and checking out some of the exhibits. We also made sandwiches from the food we brought along. From Grant Grove we continued north and west to travel up the canyon. The canyon was interesting but it was very dry and desolate compared to the mountains I am used to in Montana. I am sure to some it has its own beauty but I couldn’t help but feel like it needed some trees and green grass. We drove to the end of the road and then came back through Grant Grove and then headed south to Sequoia National Park on the Generals Highway.  Since we had already had a pretty long day driving by this point, we decided to kind of do a really fast overview of the park. Of course we stopped to see the General Sherman Tree which is the largest tree in the world by volume. There was about a mile long round trip trail leading down to the tree. The trail was paved and included several sets of stairs. It was midafternoon by the time we got to it, so it was getting pretty hot and there was a pretty good crowd. If there are shuttle buses running, I believe there is a stop closer to the tree along the main road, but it was only for buses and handicap parking. After we saw General Sherman we headed down the road deeper into the park to check out large sequoias that are along the road. Since we did not have a lot of time we were not able to get out and do any hiking or explore things too far off the main road. I found the photography to actually be fairly difficult. It was technically a little difficult just because you had the shadows at the base of the trees and then the bright midday sun behind the tops of the trees. So it was really difficult trying to balance those two things. I also found it very difficult to really capture just how large the trees are. Most of the trees are fenced off so you can’t get right up to them, so you couldn’t put a person directly in front of them for scale. And even if you could, I still don’t think you can REALLY portray the real size of the trees in a single frame. We still had a good time and I am glad we took a day to check things out. After we drove a few hours back to our hotel we decided to relax for the rest of the evening with plans of getting up the next morning for sunrise. You can click on any of the images for a larger view.

The entrance sign for Kings Canyon National Park.

A couple of sequoias at Grants Grove.

Another large sequoia at Grants Grove. I like the base of this one and the bark I thought was interesting.

The General Grant Tree also known as the National Christmas Tree.

Another giant sequoia at Grants Grove. You can see an old burn scar at the base and I also like the starburst up in the branches.

A view of the landscape along the road into Kings Canyon National Park.

A view of Kings Canyon from the end of the road looking into the wilderness.

Entrance sign for Sequoia National Park.

The General Sherman Tree. If you look at the base you can see people standing at the base for some perspective. This is the largest tree by volume in the world.

We did get up early the next morning (July 7th) to shoot the sunrise of the Yosemite Valley again. This time I chose to setup from the Tunnel View area, which is a popular spot for sunrises. This time I was not as fortunate and the parking lot was already pretty full with people. I did manage to find a pretty good spot to setup though. My setup was the same from the morning at the Valley View area. I had my canon 16-35mm with my Canon R5 setup on my tripod. I was having a little sense of dejavu from my first morning in the park, the sky was hazy and pretty boring to look at. The advantage of the Tunnel View area over the Valley View area is that you are high enough up on the valley that you can see Half Dome in your composition. The downside, besides being more popular, is that you don’t really have anything of interest in the foreground. Luckily the sun came in and cast a lot of color on the valley floor so that made for some interest. I also hung around long enough to get some sunrays as they appeared from behind El Capitan.

Sunrise over Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View. I like the sun lighting up the valley floor and also the streak of light shooting up from El Cap.

Another shot of sunrise at Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View. I waited for the sun rays to appear from behind El Capitan to add a little interest.

Upper Yosemite Falls as seen from the creek near the boardwalks in Yosemite Valley.

A large color phase black bear we saw in Yosemite Valley. Not a great picture but I wanted to share anyway.

A young black bear we saw later in the morning in Yosemite Valley. This bear has been tagged.

A nice buck in velvet we saw in Yosemite Valley.

Entrance sign for Yosemite National Park. We finally stopped and took a picture on our last day in the park.

After we were finished with the sunrise, we poked around the valley a little more and managed to see two different black bears and some deer. We went down and hiked around the boardwalks and some of the trails along the river. After that we packed up and drove back through the park over the top and started heading back west to Montana. We stopped the first night in Idaho Falls and then got up early the next morning and came home through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. It is always fun to drive through the Tetons and Yellowstone, but with the large crowds and being a little late in the day for wildlife it was a bit of a letdown. I was happy when we finally got home. As much fun as it is to be on the road having adventures, it is always nice to be home in the comfort of your own home. If you have any questions about Yosemite or the surrounding area, feel free to reach out to me on my contact page.

A panorama from Mormon Row in Grand Tetons National Park.

An ewe bighorn sheep with her lamb near the north entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

Yosemite National Park - Part 2

On the morning of July 5th we got up early and decided to head to Yosemite Valley. I knew I wanted to get some sunrise shots and we decided the view from the Yosemite Valley View was a good place to start. We circled around the valley (due to the one way streets and certain areas being blocked off, you had to drive all the way around the valley to get heading West again) and eventually found the spot we wanted to stop. When we first got to the pullout we were the only ones there. It did not take too long for others to join us however.  I setup my tripod and picked out a composition I wanted to shoot. I was using my Canon 16-35mm 2.8 version III lens adapted to my Canon R5. I wished I had brought a second tripod so I could have setup a time lapse with a second camera, but I was trying to travel light on this trip. Once I got my initial composition I wanted, I hurried and moved over just a little bit to get a couple of variations while the sun was still just peaking over the valley. I was a little disappointed when I saw the sky that morning, as the smoky haze and lack of clouds was leaving the scene a little flat. So I decided I would wait for the sun to rise so I could capture some sun rays to add a little visible interest. I was already shooting a small aperture to keep everything in focus, so I did not need to adjust anything to create the effect. For those of you that don’t know, to create the sunrays or some people call it a starburst, you need a really high (small) aperture. And the number of rays you get is dependent on the number of aperture blades your lens has. I was also intentionally using a fairly slow shutter speed so I could create the milky effect in the water.  Once the sun was actually up I no longer had that option however, as the slow shutter speed with direct sunlight would have been too bright and would have overexposed the image.

Sunrise photo of Yosemite Valley as seen from the Yosemite Valley Viewing area with the Merced River in the foreground.

Another sunrise view of Yosemite Valley just downstream a little bit for a different composition.

Another view from Yosemite Valley View.

Once the sun was completely up and we felt like we had experienced everything we wanted to see at the Yosemite Valley View we decided to make the drive up to Glacier Point to see what that view was like. Looking back that was actually a bit of a mistake. By the time we drove up there (I think it takes almost an hour as it’s a very steep and winding road) the sun was getting higher in the sky and there was so much smoke that morning the view was just not worth the drive. I tried to take some pictures and even tried using a polarizing filter to cut through the haze, but I just did not end up with anything worth sharing. And maybe the bigger issue was by the time we drove back down to the valley it was starting to get warm and we still had some hikes we wanted to do. We should have done the hikes first while it was still a little cooler out and then maybe did the drive to Glacier Point later in the day. But hindsight is always 20/20.  While we were on top at Glacier Point we did see some lizards, ground squirrels, a grouse and we saw several deer on the way up, so I guess it wasn’t a total waste.

A grouse hanging out on top of Glacier Point.

A lizard on top of Glacier Point, which was strange to see as someone coming from Montana.

A ground squirrel perched on a rock soaking up the sun at Glacier Point.

Another lizard on a tree at Glacier Point.

Once we got back down to the valley we decided to do the quick hike up to the Lower Yosemite Falls. Saying it’s a hike is an exaggeration, it is actually a pretty easy walk up to the lower falls. I think it’s maybe about a mile round trip or so. With it being such a dry year and later in the season, the falls was not spectacular, but there was actually more water coming down then I thought might be the case, as I had read it sometimes dries up completely. I only took pictures from the viewing area as they had the rocky area below the falls roped off, but that didn’t stop some people from going in there anyway. I was actually kind of surprised by how few Park Rangers we saw during our visit there. I don’t know if that was due to COVID or not.

Lower Yosemite Falls from the viewing area.

A wider shot of Lower Yosemite Falls as seen from the viewing area. If you look closely you can see people on the rocks below the falls.

Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls as seen on the trail to the lower falls.

Another shot of the Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls as seen from the start of the trail to the lower falls.

After we finished at the lower falls we decided we wanted to do the hike to Vernal Falls. By this point it was starting to get kind of hot and I did not leave that morning super prepared for a hike in almost 100 degree weather. We also got off on the wrong trail initially and ended up walking well over a mile extra before we realized our error. I was also surprised by how poor the signage was in the park. Having been to other national parks that usually had things well marked, I felt like Yosemite was really lacking in that department. Anyway, we did eventually get on the right trail and made the climb up to the falls. I would consider this a hike as it was pretty strenuous. Had we not already done a couple of miles that morning and waited until the heat of the day, it probably wouldn’t have been as bad as it ended up being. The trail itself is a good trail and paved for much of it. It is a pretty steep climb the whole way though and not a lot of shade that time of day. You eventually cross a bridge and you get a pretty good view of the falls. If you are in a hurry or don’t want to continue on to the more strenuous part of the hike, that is a good place to turn around. I decided to keep going to the falls and you go up the Misty Trail steps. The “steps” are 600 stairs kind of carved into the rock as you go up next to the falls. They are steep and a little bit treacherous. Once you get closer to the falls you do get hit with mist from the falls, so they are true to their name. I think the whole hike to the falls and back is only about 2.5 miles, but in the heat and I did not bring a lot of extra water, I did struggle a little bit. I had also meant to pack some extra socks as my feet tend to get sweaty, and I forgot those as well.

Vernal Falls.

A wider shot of Vernal Falls. I left the people in the foreground to show a little scale.

Once we got back to our vehicle (we had to walk about another mile back to our vehicle to the parking lot, typically there are shuttle buses to the trailhead, but with COVID they were not running) we decided we were ready for some downtime and we went back to the hotel for a nap. That evening we decided to drive back up to Glacier Point to catch the sunset. When we got up there the smoke had cleared quite a bit and we were treated to some spectacular views. By sunset it had got very busy up there, so I had to work a little bit to find a spot away from the crowds. I was again wishing I had a second tripod along to capture a time lapse of the setting sun. With the large vista I was once again using my 16-35 wide angle lens and I was still having to do some panoramas to take in the entire scene. I usually do not like shooting that wide, but with so many sweeping vistas in Yosemite I found myself leaving that lens on my camera most of the time. After sunset we drove back down the mountain for some much needed R and R at the hotel.

Half Dome catching some color from the setting sun from Glacier Point.

A panorama of the whole valley at sunset from Glacier Point, including Nevada Falls on the right side. Sorry I had to compress this image a lot for posting as it’s a huge file.

Another panorama from Glacier Point earlier in the evening when the colors were a little more muted. I decided to include a little more foreground on this one as I liked the green in the shrubs and the flowers.

Yosemite National Park - Part 1

Over the week of the 4th of July my sister Melissa and I went on a road trip to Yosemite National Park. While in California we also decided to visit Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park. It was a lot of driving but we had a good time. All three parks and many places in-between were new to both of us. On our way home to Montana we decided to detour just a little bit and came up through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. Stay tuned for blogs about the rest of the adventure.

We started our trip early on the morning of July 3rd. On the first day we got as far as Elko, Nevada. It was a pretty long and hot day. We also stopped in Twin Falls, Idaho for a little while to check out some sites there. On the morning of the 4th of July we got up early again and finished our trip to Yosemite. Along the way we took in some desert scenes including a desert fox which was a new species for me.


The Perrine Bridge in Twin Falls, Idaho. A quick cell phone picture.

A quick cell phone picture of a waterfall on the drive down to Centennial Waterfront Park in Twin Falls, Idaho.

A quick cellphone picture from the car of the roadside sign entering Nevada.

A Desert Fox we spotted driving through the desert in Nevada. I did not bring a long lens on this trip to save space, so this is a crop. There was also a lot of heat distortion so getting a clear picture would have been a challenge anyway. But it was still a fun spot for me, so I wanted to share it.

We entered the park from the northeast entrance from the Mono Lake area. The drive over Tioga Pass to the park entrance was pretty impressive. We were pleasantly surprised by a very short line at the entrance into the park. I don’t know if that is typical for that entrance or not. I am guessing it is probably a lesser used entrance. On our way to the valley we made quick stops at Tenaya Lake and then Olmsted Point.

Tenaya Lake. Not a great photo as it was midday and the sun was very harsh. But it was a nice little pull over spot.

Our first view of Half Dome from Olmsted Point. There was some haze in the air from fires nearby, but we still got a good view.

By the time we got over the pass it was getting late in the day so we kept heading south and west out of the park. We then checked into our hotel which was located just outside the park in El Portal. The hotel was nothing much to write home about, but it did provide easy access to the park. Due to COVID the eating options and other amenities were limited. We came prepared knowing this might be the case so we brought a couple of coolers with food and drinks to keep us going. After we got checked in we did drive back into the park and up to Yosemite Valley so we could kind of check that out and get our bearings for the next morning. It was actually relatively quiet in the valley that evening, I am guessing because it was the 4th of July and people probably had plans for celebrating the holiday elsewhere that evening.

Another shot of Half Dome and I believe that might be El Capitan from the road on the way down to the valley. There was a lot of haze in the air so it was hard to get a clear shot.

Benton Lake NWF in June

I had a chance to run out to Benton Lake National Wildlife Refuge last night after work. There was a bit of a breeze when I left the house so I was hoping maybe that would help keep the bugs down a bit. Well, by the time I got out there things had calmed down, so the bugs were just as bad as ever. I try not to let them take away from the experience, but they are very annoying.

Things have started to dry up a bit out there now, so I did not see a lot of wildlife on my way in like I was seeing earlier this spring. By the time I got to the main ponds there were plenty of birds around, but I would say not in the numbers I was seeing before. There were still a lot of Yellow-headed Blackbirds and Red-winged Blackbirds. There were also many species of ducks spread around the ponds, a few Arctic Terns, a lot of Black-headed Gulls, some White-faced Ibis and eventually I saw a Black-crowned Night-Heron. I had been seeing the Heron’s but never when I had a good opportunity to photograph them. That finally changed last night. I am still trying to get some better pictures of the White-faced Ibis, but they are proving difficult. With the grass and cattails growing taller, they are becoming even more difficult to find.

Here are a few of the pictures I was able to capture last night.

I did see this Tree Swallow on my way in. Well actually I saw a lot of them, but I stopped to take a picture of this one. I just like the way the blue really shines on them.

A Yellow-headed Blackbird perched on some cattails. I saw quite a few of them last night, but not as many as I had been earlier this spring.

Cinnamon Teal Duck. Not technically speaking a great photograph, but I just really like the colors.

This Raven was getting harassed by a Red-winged Blackbird. It is perched on the handrail of the boardwalk that goes out into the marsh. I walked down the boardwalk a ways, but I decided with all the bugs it just wasn’t worth it.

Black-crowned Night-Heron. I stopped and photographed this heron for quite a while, as it was my favorite subject of the evening.

More of a portrait style of the Black-crowned Night-Heron.

And one more of the Black-crowned Night-Heron just for good measure.

Busy Spring

It has been a busy spring, so I have fallen behind on my blog. I have been busy with a lot of non photography related things, so I have not had a lot to post. I did finally get out a couple times before and around the Memorial Day holiday weekend. I have been hoping to find some young of the year from various species but I have not had a lot of luck this spring. I don’t know if the weather has had an effect on that, or if I have just had bad timing when I have been out. Most of these are from two sessions. One afternoon was very chilly after we had a late spring snow storm. The other was from about a week later on a warm evening. It’s amazing what a difference a week in Montana makes. Despite the tough conditions during the cold evening I still managed to get a few pictures, so I wanted to share some of those with you along with the others a little while later.

White-faced Ibis.

A very cold puffed up Barn Swallow.

I decided to embrace the low contrast conditions and exaggerate that with this Red-winged Blackbird.

Eared Grebe.

Red-winged Blackbird harassing a Sandhill Crane.

Black-necked Stilt.

Pronghorn antelope at sunset.

Sharp-Tailed Grouse, April 4, 2021

April 4, 2021 I was able to visit a blind to observe the Sharp-Tailed Grouse on their lek. I had just been out the day before observing the Greater Sage-Grouse, so it was a pretty busy weekend for me. If you are interested in that trip please check out my blog post titled for April 3rd. I probably traveled more than 400 miles in about a 36 hour period to travel east for the sage-grouse and back home and north for the sharp-tailed. Although I was pretty tired, I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to get out and do such amazing things. 

The Sharp-Tailed Grouse gather on a lek similar to the Greater Sage-Grouse, but their mating rituals are quite a bit different. The Sharp-Tailed are quite a bit smaller than the Sage-Grouse as well. The Sharp-Tailed grouse does more of a dance and makes much different vocalizations that consist of some cooing sounds along with some clucks and other calls to attract the females. Instead of the large yellow air sacks like the Sage-Grouse, the Sharp-Tailed grouse have some smaller purple air sacks more on the side of their necks. The grouse also make a strange noise while they are dancing which is difficult to describe. I believe it is caused by the stomping of their feet and the shaking of their tail feathers. If you watch the video below hopefully you can hear what I am describing.

During my visit I saw about 30 males on the lek, but no females. It might be a bit early in the season for the females to show up yet. The grouse were most active before sunrise, so it was difficult to capture the peak of the action as it was still too dark. I arrived at the blind about 5:55 AM and I could hear the grouse show up about 6:10 AM, so I was set up just in time. It was probably a good 15 minutes where I could only wait and listen to them before I could really start to see them. Sitting in the dark just listening to them is a pretty cool experience though. The grouse stayed on the lek initially until about 8:35 AM. They flew off for unknown reasons, sometimes you will see a hawk or a coyote or something in the area, but I didn’t observe anything. I started to pack up my gear and got ready to leave when about half of the grouse came back. So that was pretty neat. They probably stayed about another 20 minutes or so and then took off shortly after 9 AM. While I was in the blind I also observed a ground squirrel, a horned lark, western meadowlarks and I observed some geese and ducks fly by as well. 

The grouse got VERY close to me at times, so close in fact they were inside the minimum focusing distance of my 600mm lens. I can’t remember the exact minimum focus distance, but I think it’s about 4 or 5 feet, so that tells you how close they were. I also had more time and plenty of space so I was able to get my microphone off camera this time, so the audio on my videos is much improved over my previous videos this year. I got an extension cord for the mic and I borrowed a clip off my GoPro so I was able to clip it on an opening of the blind and that worked out well. I had my Canon R5 on my Canon 600mm F4 on my gimbal tripod for most of the morning, but I also had my older Canon 5D mk IV with a 70-200mm F2.8 on a smaller tripod to cover some wider shots. I did swap the 70-200mm onto my R5 for a short while to grab a few still photos and some video at a wider angle as well. I filmed the whole thing in 4k at 60 frames per second. That would give me the option to slow things down a bit for some slow motion, but I did not do that on any of the videos I have edited so far, but I may still go back and do that at some point.

Male Sharp-Tailed Grouse doing a dance on the lek.

Close up of a male Sharp-Tailed Grouse, this grouse was very close, if it was any closer I probably could not have focused on it.

Profile shot of a male Sharp-Tailed Grouse on the lek.

Revisiting the Greater Sage-Grouse, April 3, 2021

On April 3, 2021 I had the chance to revisit the Greater Sage-Grouse on their lek. This time I was not as lucky in my positioning. The weather was not quite as cooperative either. There were high clouds all morning to diffuse the light and it was way above average temperatures for first thing in the morning in early April. As a result I ended up with a lot of mirage (heat distortion) when viewing the grouse. The effect was compounded since I was farther away from the grouse so there was more atmosphere to look though. I also had attached my 1.4x teleconverter to the 600mm F4 lens and I am sure that magnified the distortions. 

Similar to last time, I struggled with my microphone again. I had a plan for getting the microphone off my camera, but the way I was positioned I still couldn’t get it far enough away to not pick up the lens motor noise. Since I was farther away from the grouse I had to boost the microphone so that made it even more sensitive to picking up the noise. 

Eventually a few grouse did move in a little closer, so I was able to remove the 1.4x teleconverter and get a few acceptable stills. It also helped tame down the heat distortion on the video. 

After we were done viewing the grouse, we drove around to a few areas we have known to see burrowing owls, but we did not find any. It may still be too early, I am not sure. I am not as familiar with the burrowing owl patterns so I am not sure when they normally arrive. It is on my list for this year to hopefully find one to photograph. We did observe more song birds this trip, so the couple of weeks made a big difference. We saw a lot of Western Meadowlarks, Mountain Bluebirds, Horned Larks, Sandhill Cranes, several birds of prey, and several geese and duck species.

Of course I still had a great time, but overall it was not as successful a trip as my first outing. If you did not see my post about my first trip out this year, please scroll back on my blog posts to review it. I am hoping to maybe get out at least one more time this spring depending on weather and what I have going on. If I do I will make sure to keep you updated.

Male Greater Sage-Grouse. I liked how his feathers curled up around his head on this pose.

Side profile of a male Greater Sage-Grouse on the lek.

Freezout Lake Wildlife Management Area, March 20, 2021

On the morning of March 20th I decided to head out to the Feezout Lake Wildlife Management Area near Fairfield, Montana. It is about an hour drive from my home in Great Falls to the WMA. I had been monitoring the numbers of snow geese, as well as the swans, online and decided I would take my chances and go a week or two earlier than I normally would. Typically the best time for viewing is about the last week of March. That actually turned out to be the case again this year, but prior to that, the numbers had been well below average. The swan numbers the weekend I went were well above average however. I have heard speculation that the warmer than average spring was the cause of the unusual patterns this year. You can monitor the migration by going to FWP’s Story map for the Freezout Lake WMA. Freezout Lake Wildlife Management Area (arcgis.com)

The morning I went there were reported to be about 4,000 swans and only about 15,000 snow geese. The swan numbers were more than double the average, but the snow geese numbers were only about half the average for that time of year. Typically the snow geese fly off the water right before sunrise, but the day I went I helplessly watched as the biggest flock I saw took off as I was pulling off the highway. I heard that they were leaving earlier in the mornings this spring than usual. Since I had missed the snow geese, I decided to concentrate on the swans. 

I found a pond that had a large number of swans on it and I walked down the levy to try and get in front of them. And by “get in front of them” I am referring to in front of them in the direction I predicted they would take off. Swans (like all birds) will take off into the wind, so you have a pretty good idea where they will go. The levy I was on did not run perfectly perpendicular to their take off direction, but it was close enough I could get some quartering head on shots which was much more desirable than getting a rear shot of a bird taking off which would have been the case from the road nearest the pond. 

I spent about equal time taking still photographs and video. I knew I wanted to get some slow motion shots of them taking off, as they kind of run on water to get up to speed for take off and I just find that really interesting. So I was shooting in 4k and 60 frames per second on my R5. With the white birds on a cloudy featureless sky, I was having some trouble maintaining focus with the low contrast scene, but I still managed to get some ok stills and video. The wind was rather high however, so I did not get much for audio.

A pair of Tundra Swans taking off.

Tundra Swans flying in formation.

A pair of Tundra Swans flying towrds the camera.

Greater Sage-Grouse, March 13, 2021

On the morning of March 13th, 2021 my sister Melissa and I got up super early in the morning to go check out one of the Greater Sage-Grouse leks we like to visit every year. Most of the leks I like to visit are on BLM land, but I am very hesitant to disclose their locations since they could easily be overwhelmed with people. I do often get asked about them, but as much as I like to help people, I value the safety of the birds more. So many of my “spots” have become “loved to death” in recent years by too many people, so the few I have left I try to protect.  

This was the earliest I have ever gone out to look for grouse. Normally I wait until about the first week of April, but with the warm weather this spring, I had a hunch they would already be out and I was correct. Besides being warm, it has also been dry this spring, which is also a factor since the roads can become very muddy in that country and makes getting to the leks difficult.

This particular morning we got lucky and we were set up in a good spot. While the grouse are usually in the same general area, it is sometimes difficult to determine exactly where they might congregate. The lighting conditions were good and I was able to capture some of my best pictures of the Greater Sage-Grouse yet. I was able to get the new Canon R5 this winter, so it was my first big outing using it. I had ordered the camera back in August, but I did not actually receive my copy until the last week of October. I was primarily pairing the R5 with my Canon 600mm F4 version ii lens for this morning. So far that is working out to be a good combination.

I attempted to capture some video as well, but I had not taken the time to properly setup my external mic so my results were not great. I have also found that even with the external mic the 600mm lens’s focus motors can be picked up on the microphone. I am still working on some ideas for how to resolve this. 

We saw probably about 40 grouse on the lek that morning. It was about ¾ males to ¼ females. We were so early in the spring that we did not observe any of the normal prairie songbirds we usually spot along with the grouse. The Western Meadowlarks in particular are almost always present and also present an audio challenge as their calls can easily overwhelm your audio track.


Portrait of a male Greater Sage-Grouse on a lek.

Profile shot of a male Greater Sage-Grouse on a lek.

A group of male Greater Sage-Grouse on their mating grounds known as a lek.