A Series of Unfortunate Events

I had been looking forward to traveling back home to North Dakota pretty much ever since I last left, and did I ever have big ideas of how the trip was going to go. I was going to photograph whitetail bucks in velvet and was going to focus on doing more landscape shots. But unfortunately all of the smoke from the Canadian wild fires made for a very hazy trip that was nothing but ideal for the type of landscape and wildlife photos I had imagined.

I never really was able to find the whitetail bucks I was hoping for, but that wasn’t from a lack of trying as I went out every morning I was able to get out. Even though my target species wasn’t cooperating I had some fantastic wildlife experiences. They maybe didn’t result in fantastic photos, but they resulted in memories that I will forever cherish and am very thankful for.

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

On my first morning adventure of the trip, I was lucky enough to spot a mink on the river bank. Growing up most of my life hiking around this river I had a fair idea of what the mink was going to do. Because of this I quickly hiked ahead of the mink so that I would be ready to photograph the little creature when it arrived at where I figured it was heading. Unfortunately for me, I predicted the mink’s behavior too well and instead of me photographing it, I was surprised by it popping out of the river only a few feet away from where I was laying down.

This is where I was hoping to photograph the mink as it swam to where I was laying but instead, it went directly to the rock I was laying on. Because I had my Tamron 150-600 lens I was unable to get any photos of the mink because it was too close. So, unfortunately, no mink photos, but this was an extremely fun little moment that I am so happy I was able to experience.

I believe this is a Spotted Sandpiper. I had a fun time watching this little guy while I was recovering from my shock over what just happened with the mink.

One of the next mornings I went back to where I saw the mink hoping for another chance, but I was unsuccessful. I did photograph what I think were House Wrens for a little while. What busy little birds.

If you look very closely, you can see some kind of insect in its beak. My research says they eat mosquitoes, and that makes me like this little bird even more.

I also found some bigger birds to photograph. I only had one morning of photographing these turkeys, but the morning I had sure was fun. I was testing out a portable blind, and the turkeys did not care about me as long as I was underneath the blind. I am excited to try out the blind again. Unfortunately, this morning the turkeys came up behind me at an angle that just wasn’t very good for photography, but I again had a blast enjoying the moment even though I wasn’t very successful with my camera.

The last evening I was able to go out, I hiked to a clearing where I was hoping to find some deer. Unfortunately, to continue with the trend of the trip, I didn’t see any whitetails, but In this clearing, I found lots of beautiful Canada Goldenrod (I believe). I sat down among the flowers hoping for some type of small bird to photograph, but the moment just never happened. I did take the time to photograph the flowers a little and made a plan to come back to this spot in the morning to sit under my blind.

Unfortunately, the next morning it was raining, and I was never able to get back to the clearing with the beautiful flowers.

On the very last morning of the trip, I was busy packing the car, getting ready to leave in a couple of hours. Of course, this would be the day that a whitetail buck in velvet decided to show up. I had everything I imagined! I had interesting lighting, the correct subject matter, and the buck had no idea I was there. But, just like the rest of my trip, there was an “unfortunately”. My shutter speed was slower than I normally keep it because I was dealing with the buck being in a dark wooded area. The buck never stopped moving, and when I took the shot the photo of the buck was blurry. I was shooting at a very weird angle which caused me to have a shaky base, and with the slow shutter speed, this resulted in the photo having too much motion blur. I decided to post it here anyway so that you could see what I missed. I am disappointed in myself for not getting this shot, but I will rejoice and give thanks. in spite of the unfortunate events, this whole trip was a wonderful blessing from God.