On December 28, 2015, Kay and I ventured outdoors on the tail of a winter storm. We hoped to find wildlife photography opportunities up the Middle Fork of the John Day River in Grant County, Oregon. We spotted two coyotes on the hillside that seemed to be interested in a group of mule deer. The first coyote that stopped in the open to look us over was so heavily furred that it looked obese.

The one image I took of him didn’t impress me, so I went to look for the other coyote.

The deer had moved up through the rim rock, stopped and looked for the coyotes that were trailing them. 

I took one shot of the deer and realized that the area just below them was truly a beautiful iced landscape of rim rock and colorful lichen.

When the second coyote started to move into this area, I couldn’t believe our good fortune to have this beautiful animal in such an amazing backdrop. I took several images of him moving, but fortunately, he stopped very briefly in a fantastic setting.

This was followed up with a longer pause in nearly as nice a setting. 

The clarity of the second pose was good enough that we were able to crop it into several variations with satisfying results.

Kay and I both ended up with pretty good opportunities for winter photographs of Bald Eagles that snowy day.

Kay has joined me behind the lens. With both of us able to shoot images, we have doubled the opportunity to capture subjects on either side of the vehicle. 

What a wonderful day.

—Terry

PART II: A Protest in Burns, Oregon – as nature photographers, we stand for wildlife and public lands.

Terry just spoke of one of our best ever winter photography days in eastern Oregon. A few days later, January 2, 2016, our winter photography shoots were driven right off the tracks by the Armed Occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. This is where we spend considerable time pursuing nature photography. In fact, I had spent five weeks living at the Malheur Headquarters doing photography for the Refuge only six months before it was taken over by armed anti-government sovereign constitutionalists. (I refuse to call them patriots.) Their goal? To boot out all federal agencies and ‘return’ our public lands to private interests. As one of our protest signs explained, ‘we’ already own public lands, agencies manage them.

Terry and I felt we had no option but to stand up for Public Lands and the wildlife that depend on refuges for survival. We joined the community of Harney County to confront the militiamen (and women) who marched upon the county courthouse to make their demands.

We arrived in Burns to counter-demonstrate against the militia groups who were staging to protest Lavoy Finicum’s death. They demanded the arrest of the police who shot Finicum and demanded that the FBI leave Harney County.  We, in support of the community, demanded the militia groups go home and let the refuge employees continue with their jobs. As both sides began to gather in front of the courthouse, Terry took his position in the front line (note the arrow pointing to him).

Before long the crowd ballooned to about 400 people, not counting the law enforcement present to keep a lid on things. Approximately 250 community members stood up to nearly 150 militia members from the Pacific ‘Patriots’ Network Militia and the 3% Militia groups. As Terry later mentioned, it was one of the most interesting experiences of a lifetime. It was loud, confrontational (a few tempers flaring), intimidating but in the end, non-violent – in spite of a significant number of militia folks displaying weapons. (Heavily armed law enforcement officers stood nearby.)  

The disruption the sovereign citizen seditionists have brought to our area has been a very sad happening in our lives. Needless to say, winter trips to do photography on Malheur Refuge never happened last winter. Recently, we were considering to go photograph the mule deer that are active on the refuge during the rut. That was until we noticed that some of the freed occupiers were making a pilgrimage to the headquarters on a victory tour. We decided to stick to our own neighborhood for the time being. 

 

 

In late June, 2015, we experienced a wild fire on the North Fork of the John Day River very near to our home in Wrightman Canyon. We had a ringside seat of the event from the first hour the dry lightning storm hammered our region of Grant County, Oregon. This is a testimonial about the nature of this fire, and consequently about our disapproval of some people who (for political gain) have used the hellacious Canyon Creek Complex fire as a wedge to turn local residents against the US Forest Service.

Fire on the North Fork – K. S. Steele

Rattlesnake season has arrived, and we now watch for the lead subspecies of the Western Rattlesnake – aka, Northern Pacific Rattlesnake.

This subspecies, Crotalus oreganus oreganus, occurs in our canyon in northwest Grant County. Its range is very broad – from British Columbia to parts of Northern California, west of the Sierra Nevada divide. It is the only subspecies of the Western Rattlesnake in our area.

The other common Western Rattlesnake of Oregon is the Great Basin Rattlesnake.

Although some internet sites fail to recognize its location throughout areas of southeast Oregon, Terry has extensive experience with this subspecies in Harney and Malheur Counties. Where it overlaps with the Northern Pacific Rattlesnake he has photographed intergraded snakes with very mixed patterns and colors.

Unlike the Northern Pacific Rattlesnake, the Great Basin Rattlesnake does not have white rings at the base of its tail.

The days are warming, and more importantly, the nights are remaining above freezing. May brings the rattlesnakes and non-venomous species out of hibernation and they all become an active part of our diverse community of life. They hunt their prey throughout our garden, orchard and the spring fed riparian regions of our property.

The Northern Pacific rattlesnake is a venomous pit viper. Its appearance can vary widely in size and markings. We will show here two early arrivals on our property this May. The first is a juvenile, not much more than 15-18 inches in length.

Note that it has only one complete yellowish segment on the rattle. The number of segments on a rattle are not  a measure of age. A rattle is added each time the snake sheds its skin to accommodate its growth. That may happen every few weeks for a very young snake and several times a year for adult snakes. Sometimes rattles are broken off, too, so counting them is not a reliable way to determine the age of a snake.

The juvenile was docile. The adult was on the fight and even striking at Terry’s snake hook. As always, snakes that are not safe to leave in our garden or near our home are safely released in unoccupied areas of our property.