Favorite Drives

One of my favorite drives is the road (Hwy 224) along the Clackamas River from Estacada toward Detroit… this time of year the road is still closed because of snow… the road past the Ripplebrook Guard Station is not maintained during the winter. There is no cell phone coverage after a couple miles south of Estacada… and no gas stations either… so you are on your own once you leave town.

When the daffodils bloom at my home in Gresham I know it’s time to head up the Clackamas River and check the wildflowers… trilliums and erythroniums… both were in bloom yesterday, April 16, 2013.

A “road closed because of snow” sign was posted roadside as we left Estacada but we were determined to see how far up the hill we could get. A snow shower did not bode well and the road was blocked by snow just after the Olallie Lake junction (FSR 4690).

going uphill… the snow gets much deeper… time to turn around!

byLarry

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Diary

Malheur Mammal List

This winter (2012-13) I had the privilege of spending nearly a month at the Malheur Field Station (MFS) in Harney County, Oregon. If you are ever in need of solitude you will find it here. The population of Harney County is about 8, 500 people and over half of those live in Burns and Hines. Most of my time was spent wandering near MFS and observing the wildlife. Ordinarily I’m not a list maker but I have learned the value of listing what I see. More scientific value could be applied if I also included exact times and places which, eventually, I will extract from my journal. Let’s start with the mammal list (other than humans, which could be added properly to the mammal list.)

Antelope, Badger, Beaver, Bobcat, Chipmunk (Least), Coyote, Deer (Mule deer), Elk, Fox (Kit Fox), Bighorn Sheep, Horses (wild), Otter (River Otter), Rabbit (Cottontail and Black-tailed Jackrabbit), Raccoon, Skunk, Squirrel (Belding ground squirrel), Weasel (long tailed).

byLarry

 

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Birding Malheur Wildlife Refuge

The lakes and ponds of Harney County, Oregon, are shedding ice and migratory waterfowl are arriving by the acre. The day (Sunday Feb 24, 2013) I left Harney County a flock of Snow Geese were taking up residence on Malheur Lake near the Narrows. Birders will be going crazy cataloging recent arrivals as the great northward migration gets underway.

My personal preference for bird watching is to drive to Frenchglen and return to the Malheur Wildlife Refuge via the Center Patrol Road. This strategy puts the sun to my back and improves my chances for that once in a lifetime photograph.

Several ponds roadside give ample opportunity for “park and watch”… you can reside in the comfort of your automobile and watch bird behavior to your heart’s content. You will also see a number of raptors, including the Bald Eagle, Golden Eagle, Rough-legged Hawks and Red-tailed Hawks. If you are lucky you might spot a herd of mule deer.

The bucks should be dropping their antlers about now but there are still some impressive racks to be seen. Coyotes are skulking around looking for an easy meal so bring your binoculars and your camera and be prepared to take pictures.

Make motel reservations in Burns before you go unless you are prepared to camp out. Page Springs campgrounds near Frenchglen are close to the scene of the action… go birding Malheur style.

byLarry

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Birds

Swarovski trial digiscope

I’m in Harney County Oregon, where there is plenty of wide open space, so yesterday when I spotted a herd of mule deer off in the distance, far beyond the reach of my camera lens, I thought of doing a Swarovski trial digiscope. I estimated the range to the deer to be about 1, 000 yards. My eight power binoculars could just make out the antler rack on one of the bucks so that one became the target.

I mounted the Swarovski 95mm on my Manfrotto 504 HD tripod (it weighs a ton and is very stable), leveled the bubble, set the scope to 30X, located the buck and locked azimuth and elevation, zoomed in to 70X, checked the focus… perfect… mounted the camera on the scope and then couldn’t find the deer by looking through the camera.

I took the camera off the scope and the deer was still smack dab in the center of the Swarovski optics. (By the way, at this distance any attempt at adjustment will cause the target to “fly away”) It would be helpful to have a vernier for this thing! Somehow mating the camera to the Swarovski caused a misalignment in the system.

Anyway, eventually the camera and deer came together with a rather poor result… there’s a learning curve with taking good pictures and I have some experimenting to do. Picture added below.

 

Mule deer
Mule deer at 1000 yards

ByLarry

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Swarovski

Swarovski Spotting Scope

Having recently taken up the hobby of bird watching I soon discovered that the lens on my camera was inadequate. I needed a longer telephoto lens. Apparently the birds have adapted to the distance a lens will focus and will fly just at the moment you are within range to take a photograph.

I have a Nikon DSLR and have been working my way through their larger lenses. If you have a weak heart you shouldn’t read any further. Once the lens length passes about 300 mm you will need to start spending the kid’s inheritance. So I started looking at spotting scopes and digiscoping as an alternative.

Swarovski produces some impressive glass. Their latest offering is a modular spotting scope so you can pick the best combination for your application. I want to take pictures of sparrows a fair distance away so I figured bigger was better and the more expensive also means better. I opted for the Swarovski ATX 95mm with the 30-70X eyepiece.

You will also need a camera adapter called a TLS APO (another $490) and a T-Mount for your camera (T2 Nikon adapter… another $30).

You will be left in the lurch trying to figure how all this goes together. Swarovski packages a cartoon strip with the TLS APO to illustrate the connections and with a little thought you can figure it out.

I use a Nikon D7000 for a camera… it can be automatic for everything so a beginner can “point and shoot” with it but the Pro’s like to use  the manual controls. What Swarovski doesn’t spend much time telling you is the spotting scope must be manually focused and has a fixed aperture. They spend no time at all telling you how to setup your camera. Photographers are used to terms like “f-stop” but Swarovski talks only about light transmission percentages. Somewhere I read that the scope gives about an f/10. I use manual mode with manual focus selected, store a shutter speed of 1/800th second and high range for an ISO setting (based on the cartoon strip). If I select any other mode the camera does not fire when I push the shutter button.

A good stout tripod is highly recommended.

Stay tuned for more digiscoping adventures.

byLarry

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