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Night Hunter

By Night Hunter
in West and Southwest

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Team Gecko

+Team Gecko

Posted
Posted (edited)
Thought I would share this little Kestral's portrait.  It displayed some serious mojo as I was hiking up the west side of Black Mountain yesterday morning to wrap up a caching year.

 

The best of caching wishes in the coming year.

-Gecko Dad for Team Gecko

Wow! Great photo Don! :D

It seemed to be a birding kind of week. Here is a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk I encountered on my hike to Chimney Rock the day before.

-GD

 

8dab8f16-0359-4820-902b-2b4d7a337c84.jpg

Edited by Team Gecko
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Miragee

+Miragee

Posted
Posted
Thought I would share this little Kestral's portrait.  It displayed some serious mojo as I was hiking up the west side of Black Mountain yesterday morning to wrap up a caching year.

 

The best of caching wishes in the coming year.

-Gecko Dad for Team Gecko

Wow! Great photo Don! :D

It seemed to be a birding kind of week. Here is a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk I encountered on my hike to Chimney Rock the day before.

-GD

 

8dab8f16-0359-4820-902b-2b4d7a337c84.jpg

That is a great photo. Like TG, I would love to know what kind of camera you have.

 

P.T. and I saw this guy out in Sloan Canyon a few weeks ago.

 

5937232c-bd37-4852-9714-b26437d44707.jpg

 

Can you tell me what it is?

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smilinglady13

+smilinglady13

Posted
Posted
Thought I would share this little Kestral's portrait.  It displayed some serious mojo as I was hiking up the west side of Black Mountain yesterday morning to wrap up a caching year.

 

The best of caching wishes in the coming year.

-Gecko Dad for Team Gecko

Wow! Great photo Don! :D

It seemed to be a birding kind of week. Here is a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk I encountered on my hike to Chimney Rock the day before.

-GD

 

8dab8f16-0359-4820-902b-2b4d7a337c84.jpg

That is a great photo. Like TG, I would love to know what kind of camera you have.

 

P.T. and I saw this guy out in Sloan Canyon a few weeks ago.

 

5937232c-bd37-4852-9714-b26437d44707.jpg

 

Can you tell me what it is?

What grand and glorious pictures ........Nature is just soooo grand.

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Team Gecko

+Team Gecko

Posted
Posted
Wow! Another great photo! What are you using for a camera?

My current caching camera is an Olympus Camedia C-5500 Zoom. This is a medium sized point and shoot with many non-automatic features that make me forget all about my SLRs and large format camera, particularly since I can keep it on my fanny pack waist belt when I'm out running, hiking, or caching.

 

Specs for those interested are 5.1 megapixels and 5X zoom. It has digital zoom too but I never use it since the optical zoom provides better images and more than 5X is very hard to handhold and get sharp photos. I prefer to use a tripod if I can but many animal situations don't provide the right circumstances so most of mine are handheld. I mostly shoot using the LCD screen to ensure the framing but zoom shots are a little steadier when using the viewfinder. A frequent challenge is dealing with low light conditions which often exist when the critters are out and about. In these cases, it really helps to use a tripod or plan on panning with the motion of the animal. You can also select the "low noise" mode which dampens self-generated LCD noise.

 

Another feature I use a lot (as seen in my cache postings) is the panorama mode. Olympus CAMEDIA software provides auto-stitch and free stitch panorama functionality. This camera produces some knock-out panoramas when viewed fulll size. Unfortunately, the Geocaching.com image size limitation means I have to scale them down quite a bit for uploading or use supplemental image compression (such as Resizer) that once again compromises image sharpness somewhat.

 

Although I've been doing semi-serious amateur photography for nearly 40 years, the real secret is being in the right place at the right time and putting yourself in lots of right places. Caching creates many of these opportunties.

 

Glad others are enjoying the photos.

-GD

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Team Gecko

+Team Gecko

Posted
Posted
P.T. and I saw this guy out in Sloan Canyon a few weeks ago.

 

5937232c-bd37-4852-9714-b26437d44707.jpg

 

Can you tell me what it is?

A first look suggest a female Northern Harrier, formerly known as Marsh Hawk. The gray head and white breast are the main features I'm going on. The all-black beak is throwing me, though, and I'm wondering if it is an artifact of the lighting conditions. Alternatively, a male Cooper's Hawk also has a gray head but tends to have some red checking on the breast and a female Cooper's doesn't have a gray head. Seeing it in flight would help with the identification as they have very different profiles and flight behaviors. Both are common in this area.

 

Any serious birders are free to chime in.

-GD

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TrailGators

+TrailGators

Posted
Posted
P.T. and I saw this guy out in Sloan Canyon a few weeks ago.

 

5937232c-bd37-4852-9714-b26437d44707.jpg

 

Can you tell me what it is?

A first look suggest a female Northern Harrier, formerly known as Marsh Hawk. The gray head and white breast are the main features I'm going on. The all-black beak is throwing me, though, and I'm wondering if it is an artifact of the lighting conditions. Alternatively, a male Cooper's Hawk also has a gray head but tends to have some red checking on the breast and a female Cooper's doesn't have a gray head. Seeing it in flight would help with the identification as they have very different profiles and flight behaviors. Both are common in this area.

 

Any serious birders are free to chime in.

-GD

Wow Don! You are pretty knowledgable about birds! I still get herons, cranes and storks mixed up! I used to have a friend that used to know every kind of duck in existance but only because he wanted their feathers so he could tie flys for his flyfishing addiction.

 

Anyhow Miragee, you could try emailing Tuna! He converted from being a geocacher to being a birder. He should be able to confirm Don's opinion!

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TrailGators

+TrailGators

Posted
Posted (edited)
Last photo related post for the evening ...

 

Here is an example of panning as way to deal with motion when lighting conditions present a shutter speed challenge.  This was taken at Yosemite last week on our annual holiday break visit to the Valley.

-GD

eae413ca-8a1c-4253-b405-6dbe66dfd1a4.jpg

Another great shot Don! Nice 8-pointer! Looks like a 3 year-old that's about 150 pounds or so. Whitetail bucks are very hard to get close to! Good job! :D

Edited by TrailGators
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Team Gecko

+Team Gecko

Posted
Posted (edited)
Last photo related post for the evening ...

 

Here is an example of panning as way to deal with motion when lighting conditions present a shutter speed challenge.  This was taken at Yosemite last week on our annual holiday break visit to the Valley.

-GD

eae413ca-8a1c-4253-b405-6dbe66dfd1a4.jpg

Another great shot Don! Nice 8-pointer!

Whitetail bucks are very hard to get close to! :D

Sorry, I should have identified my subject. Actually, this is a Mule Deer, aka mulie (Odocoileus hemionus). Mule Deer background

 

For comparison, here are some whitetails I photographed this past Thanksgiving while visiting my mom. I encountered a pair of two young bucks in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains northeast of Tucson - near a couple of remote caches, of course. This is the Coues' variety indigenous to Arizona (Odocoileus virginianus couesi). Whitetails have smaller ears, tend to have a narrower horns, and have a very large white fluffy tail that pops up vertically when they are on alert (see the first photo). Mulies have a white rump and a narrower tail that has a black tip. I don't know if we have any native whitetails in California. I have never seen any. Whitetails are common in the eastern U.S. but rare in the west.

-GD

 

5fbcc618-9427-40ec-bb2f-0d6266228ddd.jpg

 

259cfe25-bb74-4af7-86a0-fbd3baf43f1f.jpg

 

ade045e6-04f5-4680-ab27-8ea0f0ac24a0.jpg

Edited by Team Gecko
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$kimmer

+$kimmer

Posted
Posted

Three points I want to make:

1. I LOVE guys in kilts, especially when you group 'em. You find them that way mostly in their native environment, Scotland.

2. Don's close up of the buck in Yosemite ain't no big deal, ALL the hooved denizens in that valley are pan handlers, they're at every venue, waiting for a hand out.

3. And this is the most important,,,,TODAY IS SPLASHETTE'S BIRTHDAY!!!!! LOOKIN' GOOD GIRLFRIEND!

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Team Gecko

+Team Gecko

Posted
Posted
Three points I want to make:

1.  I LOVE guys in kilts, especially when you group 'em. You find them that way mostly in their native environment, Scotland.

2.  Don's close up of the buck in Yosemite ain't no big deal, ALL the hooved denizens in that valley are pan handlers, they're at every venue, waiting for a hand out.

3.  And this is the most important,,,,TODAY IS SPLASHETTE'S BIRTHDAY!!!!!  LOOKIN' GOOD GIRLFRIEND!

Don't know about #1. I prefer skirts.

 

$kimmer is correct that the Mulies in Yosemite are approachable. However, they are still wild critters and the cause of some serious injuries. That buck happened to have lust on his mind. There is a doe running just off the left frame and Gecko Mom and I were inclined to high ground since his movements were a bit erratic. :lol: BTW, there is now a fine of $5,000 for feeding any critters in the Park.

 

Also BTW, the Coues' Whitetails are a completely different story. Here is some background from the very informative Coues Whitetail website. I enjoyed this quote from the home page, even though I'm not a hunter in the sense they mean:

 

"The Coues Whitetail (properly pronounced "cows", but almost everyone pronounces it "coos") is a small subspecies of white-tailed deer found in Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico. This deer has developed such a reputation for being able to vanish from view in the smallest amount of cover that it is frequently referred to as the "Grey Ghost". Many people consider Coues deer to be the most challenging big game animal to hunt. Some even refer to hunting Coues deer as the "poor man's sheep hunt" because of the harsh terrain involved. Famous big-game hunter Jack O'Connor proclaimed the Coues deer to be "the most difficult of all deer to kill" due to its extreme wariness and the inhospitable habitat this deer can live in."

 

Yes, Happy Birthday, Splashette. So are you and $kimmer and Harmon taking a trip to The Womb today in commemoration of #39? :P

-GD

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TrailGators

+TrailGators

Posted
Posted (edited)
Last photo related post for the evening ...

 

Here is an example of panning as way to deal with motion when lighting conditions present a shutter speed challenge.  This was taken at Yosemite last week on our annual holiday break visit to the Valley.

-GD

eae413ca-8a1c-4253-b405-6dbe66dfd1a4.jpg

Another great shot Don! Nice 8-pointer!

Whitetail bucks are very hard to get close to! :P

Sorry, I should have identified my subject. Actually, this is a Mule Deer, aka mulie (Odocoileus hemionus). Mule Deer background

 

For comparison, here are some whitetails I photographed this past Thanksgiving while visiting my mom. I encountered a pair of two young bucks in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains northeast of Tucson - near a couple of remote caches, of course. This is the Coues' variety indigenous to Arizona (Odocoileus virginianus couesi). Whitetails have smaller ears, tend to have a narrower horns, and have a very large white fluffy tail that pops up vertically when they are on alert (see the first photo). Mulies have a white rump and a narrower tail that has a black tip. I don't know if we have any native whitetails in California. I have never seen any. Whitetails are common in the eastern U.S. but rare in the west.

-GD

465783da-449d-484a-90ce-37aaef9a04c3.jpg

Thanks for pointing that out Don! To be honest, the black tip on the tail bothered me when I wrote that it was a whitetail, but I figured it was a local variation. So I did some reading this morning and found this website that said this: "These were Mule Deer, ODOCOILEUS HEMIONUS, not Whitetails, ODOCOILEUS VIRGINIANUS. The two species are similar, which might be expected since they belong to the same genus. The easiest-to-see difference is that the Mule Deer's down-hanging tail is narrow and white but black-tipped, while the Whitetail's down-hanging tail is wider and black with a white fringe."

Anyhow, I've seen whitetail with huge horns and small thin horns. It really depends on the minerals in the soil in the local areas. For example, the Mississippi bucks around Lacrosse, WI get huge heavy racks compared with the southern part of the state. Anyhow, they do look very similar, but I'll watch for the black tip tail from now on! :lol:

Edited by TrailGators
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RocketMan

+RocketMan

Posted
Posted
Last photo related post for the evening ...

 

Here is an example of panning as way to deal with motion when lighting conditions present a shutter speed challenge.  This was taken at Yosemite last week on our annual holiday break visit to the Valley.

-GD

eae413ca-8a1c-4253-b405-6dbe66dfd1a4.jpg

Another great shot Don! Nice 8-pointer!

Whitetail bucks are very hard to get close to! :P

Sorry, I should have identified my subject. Actually, this is a Mule Deer, aka mulie (Odocoileus hemionus). Mule Deer background

 

For comparison, here are some whitetails I photographed this past Thanksgiving while visiting my mom. I encountered a pair of two young bucks in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains northeast of Tucson - near a couple of remote caches, of course. This is the Coues' variety indigenous to Arizona (Odocoileus virginianus couesi). Whitetails have smaller ears, tend to have a narrower horns, and have a very large white fluffy tail that pops up vertically when they are on alert (see the first photo). Mulies have a white rump and a narrower tail that has a black tip. I don't know if we have any native whitetails in California. I have never seen any. Whitetails are common in the eastern U.S. but rare in the west.

-GD

465783da-449d-484a-90ce-37aaef9a04c3.jpg

Thanks for pointing that out Don! To be honest, the black tip on the tail bothered me when I wrote that it was a whitetail, but I figured it was a local variation. So I did some reading this morning and found this website that said this: "These were Mule Deer, ODOCOILEUS HEMIONUS, not Whitetails, ODOCOILEUS VIRGINIANUS. The two species are similar, which might be expected since they belong to the same genus. The easiest-to-see difference is that the Mule Deer's down-hanging tail is narrow and white but black-tipped, while the Whitetail's down-hanging tail is wider and black with a white fringe."

Anyhow, I've seen whitetail with huge horns and small thin horns. It really depends on the minerals in the soil in the local areas. For example, the Mississippi bucks around Lacrosse, WI get huge heavy racks compared with the southern part of the state. Anyhow, they do look very similar, but I'll watch for the black tip tail from now on! :lol:

This page has some good info and pictures. Dave

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TrailGators

+TrailGators

Posted
Posted (edited)
]This page[/url] has some good info and pictures.  Dave

Thanks Dave! Your link comments on the size difference between the mulies and the whitetail. The funny part is that (in general) the mulies in San Diego are a lot smaller then the whitetails back in the upper Midwest. I also don't see a huge size difference in the ears in Don's photo of a mulie and the one of the whitetail that I posted. So my point is that are general trait differences but depending on the variation in the population those traits could overlap.

Edited by TrailGators
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Team Gecko

+Team Gecko

Posted
Posted
]This page[/url] has some good info and pictures.  Dave

Thanks Dave! Your link comments on the size difference between the mulies and the whitetail. The funny part is that (in general) the mulies in San Diego are a lot smaller then the whitetails back in the upper Midwest. I also don't see a huge size difference in the ears in Don's photo of a mulie and the one of the whitetail that I posted. So my point is that are general trait differences but depending on the variation in the population those traits could overlap.

Yes, the environment has a lot to do with the physical size of deer and can vary a lot. Those trophy mulies in Utah can be well over twice as large as the Coues 'Whitetails in Arizona. An exceptional Coues' might get to 125 pounds. Check out the photos here (Coues biology).

-GC

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kawikaturn

+kawikaturn

Posted
Posted
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! :P:lol::P:D:D:D

Nice to be back home from the desert, except we had better weather out there. I love it when I am in the desert and it is raining at home. BTW, there are a few new caches out there to be had.... Still a FTF opportunity from Thanksgiving! See: Lucky Lady. I placed a new one out there yesterday, still waiting approval.

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TrailGators

+TrailGators

Posted
Posted
]This page[/url] has some good info and pictures.  Dave

Thanks Dave! Your link comments on the size difference between the mulies and the whitetail. The funny part is that (in general) the mulies in San Diego are a lot smaller then the whitetails back in the upper Midwest. I also don't see a huge size difference in the ears in Don's photo of a mulie and the one of the whitetail that I posted. So my point is that are general trait differences but depending on the variation in the population those traits could overlap.

Yes, the environment has a lot to do with the physical size of deer and can vary a lot. Those trophy mulies in Utah can be well over twice as large as the Coues 'Whitetails in Arizona. An exceptional Coues' might get to 125 pounds. Check out the photos here (Coues biology).

-GC

Interesting! I didn't know this: "In terms of evolution, the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is the oldest deer species, whereas the mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) is the youngest deer species. The white-tailed deer shows up in the fossil record for North America over 3 million years ago. The mule deer seems to be a species that only developed after the massive mega-faunal extinctions about 12,500 to 7,000 years ago."

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TrailGators

+TrailGators

Posted
Posted (edited)
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!  :P  :lol:  :P  :D  :D  :D

Nice to be back home from the desert, except we had better weather out there. I love it when I am in the desert and it is raining at home. BTW, there are a few new caches out there to be had.... Still a FTF opportunity from Thanksgiving! See: Lucky Lady. I placed a new one out there yesterday, still waiting approval.

Good to have you back Dave! This rain sucks! I was going to go hiking/caching today but it is so muddy that I'll have to wait a week....

Edited by TrailGators
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Dr. Boggis

+Dr. Boggis

Posted
Posted

'Ello folks. We're back from ye olde Englande, and I have to say, the weather was better there than it is here!! Couldn't quite face reading through the 15 pages of the thread to catch up, so if there's anything I've missed in the last month, let me know. Looking forward to getting back to some caching action, and I really must do some maintainance and replacement of my MIA caches. I ordered some ammo cans in November but they never turned up. Gah.

 

What did turn up though was that Fossil PDA watch that Parsa posted the link for, at $30 from Amazon. A nice bonus Xmas present for myself, I've got Cachemate on it already so should be ready for anything :lol:

 

Happy New Year to you all!

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SD Rowdies

+SD Rowdies

Posted
Posted (edited)
.

3.  And this is the most important,,,,TODAY IS SPLASHETTE'S BIRTHDAY!!!!!  LOOKIN' GOOD GIRLFRIEND!

Yes, Happy Birthday, Splashette. So are you and $kimmer and Harmon taking a trip to The Womb today in commemoration of #39? :lol:

-GD

Happy Birthday Splashette, The Womb......do it, do it.

Happy birthday Splashette darlin'. For an old gal you ain't all that bad.

 

I'll be right behind you and $kimmer all the way into The Womb. Let me know when we're going. For you and $kimmer I'll wear a kilt.

 

Did I mention that I'm a Scottish descendant?

Edited by SD Rowdies
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splashman

+splashman

Posted
Posted
TODAY IS SPLASHETTE'S BIRTHDAY!!!!!  LOOKIN' GOOD GIRLFRIEND!

Happy Birthday to you -- HAPPY!

Happy Birthday to you -- HAPPY!

Happy Birthday, dear Splashette -- HAPPY!

Happy Birthday to you!

 

And many more.........

:P:lol::P

Thanks everyone! I am trying to ignore this, so it won't count, but since Don mentioned the big '39' I'll go with that!!!

We were going to go caching today, but I don't have any good mudders, so that's out. :D Gee, and we were going to do the Womb too, however , it probably would have involved rescue personel to pull us out after we got stuck!

Thanks,

Splashette

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FlagMan

+FlagMan

Posted
Posted
'Ello folks. We're back from ye olde Englande, and I have to say, the weather was better there than it is here!! Couldn't quite face reading through the 15 pages of the thread to catch up, so if there's anything I've missed in the last month, let me know. Looking forward to getting back to some caching action, and I really must do some maintainance and replacement of my MIA caches. I ordered some ammo cans in November but they never turned up. Gah.

 

What did turn up though was that Fossil PDA watch that Parsa posted the link for, at $30 from Amazon. A nice bonus Xmas present for myself, I've got Cachemate on it already so should be ready for anything :lol:

 

Happy New Year to you all!

Glad to see you back. Now get to work on that Musical Micro Southern Comfort Remix Podcache in Oceanside. I'm not too proud to admit that this one may never be solved with considerable IMing between you and Tony!

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SD Rowdies

+SD Rowdies

Posted
Posted (edited)
Announcing a new Forum Topic, San Diego County Cache Critters.  Looking forward to seeing what other critter encounters are taking place out there.

-Gecko Dad

Great idea Don! I'll look through my photos some pictures of SD critters I've taken! :)

How about a kilted cowboy leading you into a drain pipe? Does that count for a critter or not?

 

Thanks LLOT, I needed that.

Edited by SD Rowdies
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TrailGators

+TrailGators

Posted
Posted (edited)
1.  I LOVE guys in kilts, especially when you group 'em. You find them that way mostly in their native environment, Scotland.

...and Ireland! :)

Northern Ireland is full of Scotts, yes?

True! Actually my Dad's side has some Scotts that settled in Northern Ireland and then came here. So does that make me Scottish or Irish?

Edited by TrailGators
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