Jake Peterson’s Blog

The gulls were only a diversion when the bears were not active. A fun diversion indeed. After about an hour at the falls, which was the allotted time on the platform before we had to walk back to the lower platform so that others could enjoy the bears, we walked down the sky walk and waited for our return trip time. It only took about five minutes to get back onto the upper platform. The worst part was that we lost our spots and had to get new ones again. It can be challenging working our way through 40 people with tripods and lenses on our backs. Well the falls had a couple new bears attending the buffet. This bear (above and below) is called Red Butt by the rangers. He is one of the oldest bears at the falls, well into his teens if not older.

This bear has seen a lot, his scars tell one interesting story. He has them all over his body and even one ear is shorter than the other. He is rather slow moving, going along the falls watching the other younger bears and the fish as they move through. The run is much slower and the salmon are not jumping up the falls, but they are still there in the river. If you have noticed Dad’s blog then you can probably tell that we were setup right next to each other. Great minds must think alike cuz i did not see what he put up before i did this post. Either that or we’re both just nuts that fell off the same tree, nuts fall off trees right?

Red Butt wasn’t the only bear at the falls that was interesting. This guy was also there. He did not have a name, at least one that we were told. Each of the bears does have a number but we were not told them. It’s a identifiable code that the rangers and biologists give the bears for future recognition. He was an aggressive and larger bear in his teens. He did not do anything really exciting besides walking around and trying to take fishing holes from other bears. He did pose for some decent vertical shots. One very fun afternoon down and so is half of the trip.

Images captured by D3, 600f4, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

Bear photography isn’t just photographing bears. When the grizzlies are salmon fishing they leave carcasses, these carcasses are consumed by other critters. Bald Eagles and Gulls are found pretty much anywhere where the bears feed. Not many would think about shooting the gulls that were at the falls, but Kevin, Dad and myself found them quite entertaining. The bears on day three were not as energetic as hoped. When they weren’t doing anything really intriguing or fun to photograph we would play with the gulls. These two are both Mew Gulls. They are smaller, lighter in color and don’t have the red band as the Glacuous Gull does. Those are the two main gulls we saw at the falls.

As you can see the gulls were rather close. Truth be told we were looking down at them most of the time as they would float along the side of the river below the platform eating up guppies. It was quite entertaining to watch as they grabbed up the little green fish. This one Mew Gull kept landing on this fallen log that was above the falls. It proved to have nice character when compared to the gull itself. It’s always nice to find other things to shoot when the action is at a lull.

Images captured with D3, 600f4, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

As i said earlier i can’t keep up with dad’s blogging. In fact I’m getting behind again. This post is from Tuesdays fun at the falls. It started with a very gusty morning. It was so windy that Brooks Lake, where the float planes normally land on, was churned up to the point that it looked like a bay and was impossible to land on. This made the salmon do kind of unusual things. They didn’t go to the falls and weren’t jumping. The bears therefore stayed by the lake shore fishing in the surf. Normally only the younger bears would stay by the shore, it wasn’t the case this time. This one bear walked the shore line, looking for the fish jumping. We couldn’t stay too long because the shore line attracts other people.

From the shore line to the lodge. The light is not as good at the falls in the mornings at Brooks. Everything is back lit and therefore not great for wildlife. This is good because that means we can spend the morning going through images and relaxing by the fire. The afternoon came around too fast, another walk to the falls is inevitable. We were expecting the falls to be quite active considering the previous days performance. We were wrong. The falls were pretty quiet, except for a few bears and this one female sow and her three cubs.

The cubs were about two years old and still pretty cute. There was one very aggresive bear, the one next to mom eating the fish on the log, and the other two were a little less. The one male kept stealing the fish away form the others. It was pretty funny to see. He even went after the bigger males when they caught a fish and he wanted it. The blondish cub was the smallest and cutest. We geussed it was a female but could never really find out. It was not aggressive at all and was very attached to the other cubs still. It would lay next to them and on them as mom fished. Speaking of mom, her fishing technique was rather unusual. She ran all over the stream and snorkeled and dived down.

This is her snorkeling. It was kind of interesting, she was the only bear to dive consistently. The one pool at the foot of the falls was incredubly deep. We don’t know how far down it went but she would dive in it while another bear was sitting on a rock in front of it. She would come out from being completely submerged. A couple times she would catch a fish and her over aggressive son would come out eat the fish along side her in the pool. The four of them made the falls very entertaining that afternoon, what will happen now that salmon is off will be interesting.

Images captured with D3, 600f4, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

If you’ve visited my Dad’s site then you know the three of us along with the Doblers are up in Alaska photographing one of the creatures that we never get tired of, no matter how many thousands of images we already have of them. The Grizzly Bears of Alaska have always interested us and probably will always. Now I’m not as fast to blog as Dad is, no one is for that matter, but after yesterdays first day of shooting i was able to get up this post, slowly. It is the first time i have ever been to Brooks and boy is it different from McNiel. The really big difference, besides the actual shooting location is the people. There are so many people at Brooks, the maximum amount of people on the platform itself is 40. That’s 4 times the number of people that were at McNeil, and that’s just the main platform. At least they chose a good place to go.

We walked down to the platform from the campsite, which in its entirety is about four miles. From the campsite to the lodge is about half a mile. So each day is a good amount of walking which is nice considering the great meals we are getting. There we are the five of us walking down the paths, three of us with tripods and lenses. We get to the platform and there is the falls, whats on top of it but three bears all looking for that easy catch. When the salmon run is good the fish jump up over the rocks and right into the bears mouth. It seemed like we hit it just right.

The more dominant bears are at the top and the younger bears pool up at the bottom of the falls. There was an average of eight different bears at the falls at one time, we saw a total of 15 for the day. All species, bears especially, have optimal foraging techniques, which basically is spending the least amount of calories for the most amount consumed. When the salmon run is good they will only eat the roe, skin, tail and head of the fish. The rest of the meat floats down the river for other critters to pick up. This way they have more space for the higher calorie parts. When the run is slow they eat everything, more calories for less work. The carcasses lined the river and from the looks of things it will be a good week.My blogging will be a little behind but the whole story will be told.

Images captured with D3, 200-400vr, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

This past week i was playing with some of the local mammals that inhabit our yard. I have the great opportunity of looking out my window and seeing these guys all over the place. For a while now i watched them and i finally decided to setup and kind of shooting spot to try and capture some shots. Of course in order to get these few beginning shots i had to use the 600 and the telleconverter. On top of the lens was a SB-800 and better beemer, i was trying to get a little bit better lighting situation for the little guys.

The chipmunks and the kid golden mantle were my main goal. The one adult golden mantle, as seen above, made things quite difficult by scaring off the other ones. The chipmunks did not come in until late in the afternoon at which point it was too dark to do anything about no matter how much flash used. It was a good experiment and hopefully ill get to play with them some more and improve on my shots.

Images captured with D3, 600f4, TC-14E, SB-800, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

Whhhhaaaaaat! a Blue Grouse in the front yard? Thats what my parents were tyring to tell me yesterday afternoon. At first i thought it was a bear, cuz the dogs were out and everyone was excited. They like to tree bears but thats another story. I ran up to the deck and there it was in the pine tree looking at the front. The front yard is a meadow that tends to draw in many species such as the Western Tanager. This is the first time that we have every been able to photograph the mom and even better, two kids. We didn’t even see the kids at first cuz the meadow is so high, even the mom can hide in it. With the bird in the tree i quickly setup my 600 and flash and position myself ouyt my bedroom window. Glad i did too because she came back into the yard and posed a couple times for us. This was the one time she was in a clearing on the ground and we were both able to get clean shots of her. The rest of the time she was hidden or on a stump. Dad was out with the 200-400 shooting from outside. The three grouse stayed for maybe fifteen minutes then left weaving their way down through the houses back towards the mountains where the belong. We watched them ethusiastically the whole time. I can’t wait to see who else shows up this summer.

Images captured with D3, 600f4, TC-14E, SB-800 on a flash arm, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

The opportunities here in the Sierra’s still amaze me. This morning Dad and I went to Mono Lake again trying to find some of the rare birds that still allude us, like the Sage Thrasher. The one bird that we can always play with are the Violet-green Swallow’s. I never get tired of photographing them, always something new. They are also kinda cute and funny. The Sage Thrasher and two Say’s Phoebe’s came out to play but not for long.

We left the shores of the briney lake and went on to another favorite local that we have to work. One of coolest birds, in this photographers opinion, is the American Dipper. This little bird is only about the size of our hand and yet it si strong enough to battle the currents of fast moving streams and rivers in order to survive. They have a membrane that covers there eyes which allow for seeing underwater. The Dipper tends to build their nests around a cliff face or mossy patch by the river. As u can see below they make small cavities in the mud and moss.

This is a juvenile that is still in its cavity. Noticeably they have yellow bills and much smaller feathers at this stage. This one kid kept getting more and more adventurous and would get further and further outside of its hole. At one point we were both worried he would fall off the rock. Thankfully he didnt. The one annoyance with this bird is that they always seem to make their nests in the darkest of places. So in order to get any reasonable amount of light or a decent shutter we had to use flash. O boy! Flash and wildlife photography always is annoying, but useful, especially when you’re trying to light the other side of a fast moving river.

The white specs in some of these shots are actually water splashing off of the rocks, a unavoidable obstacle. In order to bring in enough light for a a range of about fifteen feet we had to use a better beemer. This allowed for light to be spread a further distance. The better beemer helped to cover the distance needed but in order to get enough light, i had to dial in +2/3 on the flasd and -1.5 in the camera. Also since i was using the D3 i was able to crank the ISO up to 400 giving me a faster shutter speed without any noise issues. As the morning went on, the light got higher and brighter on the rock face causing for more adjusements to be made. This became even harder as they would move to the rocks to our right, which was much closer and no river to cross. This was the first time i photographed Dippers but not the last. This was definitely a good leson for me in flash technique.

Images captured with D3, 600f4, TC-14E, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

These past two weeks have been very enjoyable. Doing pretty much nothing always feels good after a long duration of travels. Had some great trips in there, but I’m lad to get a break. This past week Dad had another person come in for private tutoring, which means some fun with the birdies. What better place then down at Mono Lake where the Violet-green Swallow’s are everywhere, along with some other not rare birds but definitely harder to photograph birds such as the Sage Thrasher.

One of the great things about photographing swallows at Mono is there are so many opportunities. Another great thing is the backgrounds. The tufa provides a very nice and clean background when the swallow lands in the right spot. Although they might be the same species of bird, the variances in the background create a wide range of different shots. These two images are good examples of just that, along with the post i did about a month ago on the swallows we photographed during another pt. Both have tufa for perches and background. The differences in light and coloration of the rock makes for great images.

The swallows are a lot of fun to play with and when we were done with them another little fellow came out to play. A Sage Thrasher showed up for a few minutes but that was long enough to gat a couple nice shots. I didn’t feel like posting any of those shots though. This weekend is the foruth of July which means good food, friends and some more fun.

Images captured with D3, 600f4, TC-14E, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film