In Search of Elk

I made a drive up to Ponca early Saturday morning with the intent of photographing elk. My brother David and his family are up from Texas visiting his in-laws in Harrison so he met me there. We drove through Boxley Valley looking for our subject but visibility was realy poor. There was a heavy fog in the valley and even if the elk were there, taking a picture of them was out of the question. As it turns out the elk did not come out of the forest on that day. According to a lady at the Elk Education Center in Ponca, the elk are feeding on acorns and that tends to keep them in the woods. They still venture into the fields but there is no way to predict when. It would be a case of the right place at the right time to get a photo. Oh well...we drove down to Steel Creek to check it out and ran in to Michael Dougherty while we were there. Michael is a local photographer that earns his living photographing the Buffalo River region and is especially good at photographing elk. I am adding his website to my links so you can check it out. He is always full of information about where the elk might be or where to take landscape photos, etc. After visiting with him for a while, David and I went down to the low water bridge in Ponca and took a few shots there. The leaves are starting to change color now. Below are a couple of examples.

The Buffalo River from the Low Water Bridge in Ponca (In the fog)

A bluff down river from the low water bridge.

Longpool Falls 2

What an interesting weather year this has been in Arkansas. We have experienced floods, tornados, and the remnants of two hurricanes. When Hurricanes Gustav and Ike made their way into the state we got more than our share of wind and rain. Ike was especially impressive to me because our power went out in the middle of the night and I was wide awake. I could hear the wind howling and the rain slamming into the house. I looked outside and the trees were reaching for the earth. Of course, I had to experience this so out the front door I went at 2:30 am. I stood out there for at least 20 minutes facing into the wind. I even spread my arms out once as if I was riding high up on the bow of the Titanic. Every once in a while a gust would push me backwards a step or two. I couldn't help but wonder what it must be like to actually experience hurricane force winds. After all, these were maybe 50 mph gusts at best. I finally had my weather fix and went back inside. When the adrenaline rush subsided I went back to bed.

Now back to the rainfall. All of the rain we received gave me visions of waterfalls dancing in my head. So...on the Sunday after Ike left the state, Melissa and I went back to a fall I visited earlier this year. Long Pool Falls is located off of highway 7 north of Dover Arkansas. We drove down to Long Pool Recreation Area and the first thing we noticed was that there was absolutely no one else there. Yee Haw!! We had the fall all to ourselves. We did the short hike to the fall and I set up my camera and tripod and shot away. It was good to be back in the woods after a long summer. Fall is around the corner and we can't wait.

The first two photos below are of Long Pool Falls and the last one is a cascade downstream of the fall.

It Tastes Like Chicken

Melissa and I were on our way back from a wedding in El Dorado Arkansas when we saw this Timber Rattlesnake. I wanted to make a stop by my deer camp on the way back so I took a detour. We were on Hwy 274 between Hampton and Tinsman when I saw something on the road ahead that looked like a stick. As we zoomed by I saw that it was a snake. I turned around while Melissa grabbed my camera for me. I got out of the car and walked to it. It saw me coming so it coiled up and serenaded us with its rattle. The last picture below was actually taken by Melissa from inside the car just before we drove away. I have never eaten Rattlesnake but I hear it taste like chicken.

Big Dam Bridge

I took some night shots at this bridge several months ago but didn't like the results. I decided to give it another try with some longer exposures. I like these a lot better. What do you think?

Two Rivers Park

As mentioned in an earlier blog, I made another trip (actually 2) out to Two Rivers park. Two Rivers park is located in West Little Rock off of highway 10. It has hiking and biking trails and some nature trails. The trail I took the following pictures from is 3 miles long. It is paved the whole way and is even wheelchair accessible. It goes out to a peninsula that you can see when you travel south on the I-430 bridge into Little Rock.When my brother was with me we saw easily over 100 deer. Not so many on a return trip with Melissa.

One of the many herds living in the park.

Whitetail Doe watching us stroll on by.

Whitetail Buck in Velvet.

Melissa at the peninsula watching traffic go by on the I-430 bridge.

I-430 bridge facing N. Little Rock.

Feathered Friends

I took a walk recently around lake Willastein in Maumelle to see what I could see. Well......

Killdeer: This is a very unique bird. It builds its nest on the ground. If anyone or anything ventures too close it will pretend that it has a broken wing and lead trouble away. When it's far enough away it flys off. Cool huh? If you look closely you can see eggs below her.

This is her future family.

Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher...I wonder how it got its name. Hmm

Canadian Geese: There was a pretty strong wind blowing in off of the lake. The geese would face into the wind a spread their wings.

4th of July

I hope everyone had a great Independence Day. Melissa and I took in a little of Maumelle's 4th fest celebration. Then we went and secured our spot for the fireworks. I took the pictures below at Maumelle's annual firework show.