Close Encounters Videos

The morning light had just gotten bright enough to make out the silhouettes of a small herd of elk grazing below me.  Between the low light and the heavy fog it was difficult to see the size of the herd and although I suspected there was a bull present I had not yet caught sight of him.  Within a few minutes that all changed as the sun raced upward welcoming a new day.  Not only did it illuminate the fog and give it a rosy pastel glow it also provided the necessary light to confirm that a large bull was working his way toward me and closing in fast.  I knew the light was apt to change quickly so I shot frame after frame as I jockeyed for position in hopes of using the morning glow to my benefit.
This particular bull was named Fish Hook and I'm not so sure he was all that happy to be the subject of my attention.  At times his bugling sounded more like a war cry than a love call and I couldn't help but think it was me that he wanted to declare war on.

For the next hour I stayed ahead of this bull and also photographed him and a couple other smaller bulls in hopes of witnessing a fight but other than a bit of chasing there was no contact.  I watched 3 bulls and maybe 25 cows for perhaps a half hour but I could see that things were winding down and I needed to get another game plan.

As I stood there deciding my next move I was hearing a fair amount of bugling further down and into the trees.  I decided that's where I needed to be.  With all my heavy gear I scrambled across the meadow and down into the wooded valley.  I no more than got down in there and became instantly aware that this was the place to be although maybe not the smart place to be.  The first thing I observed was a large bull literally shredding a small sapling as he scraped his antlers.  I quickly set up my camera on the tripod, switched to video and began filming.  I was so intent on filming that I hadn't realized that withing these few minutes I had become surrounded by several bulls and even more cows.  The woods was alive with activity and I had no place to hide so I did the only sensible thing and that was to film.  These videos will hopefully give you an idea of the intensity of the action.  Crank those speakers for the full effect.

Here are a some  links to the Videos I uploaded to You Tube

Early Morning Excitement

Big Bull Scraping a Sapling

Shredding the Hemlock in the Pre-Rut