Montana Bull Elk Jumping A Fence At Dawn

The elk near the Centennial Valley spend most of their time in the nearby mountains that border the valley on the south.  They’re spooky of humans and our trappings for good reason as they’re hunted relentlessly in season and poachers are a risk year-round in that remote location.  But occasionally small groups of them dare to come down to the valley at night to graze and browse and when they do, if you’re an early bird like I am, you stand a chance of catching them out in the open in the very early morning.  When they see you coming they invariably high-tail it to the cover of the mountains so whatever glimpse of them you might get isn’t likely to last long and it’ll probably be a view of their strikingly blonde butts as they run away from you.

We always leave camp just before dawn (in Montana that’s about 5:50 AM in late June and early July) to look for birds but I’m always on the lookout for the possibility of elk.  On the morning of June 30 just before the sun came up and as we were leaving camp we spotted a group of four elk out in the open and over a half-mile away and I knew that as we got closer on the dirt road I was driving they would make a break for the cover of the mountains to my left.  My goal was to photograph them jumping one of several fences between them and the mountains but timing was critical – the sun wasn’t even up yet but it was very close.  I watched the light move across the valley floor and tried to time two unpredictable forces of nature – the movement of elk reacting to a possible threat (my pickup) and the sporadic movement of light across the uneven and sloping valley floor as I alternately accelerated and slowed down in an effort to get the timing right.

My mind was racing.  What camera settings should I use in such low light (if I had any at all) when they jumped the fence?  How close should I try to get to where I predicted they might jump it?  They were on my right as I drove up the road so I knew I’d have to allow time to stop my pickup, get out and shoot without a tripod in very low light which meant slow shutter speeds for action shots.

Sheesh, there was a lot going on and I hadn’t yet had enough coffee to effectively process it all.

 

elk 0782 ron dudley

 1/640, f/6.3, ISO 1000, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc

Amazingly, the timing worked out well.  There were three bulls and a cow and the lead and larger bull jumped first.   All I could do was fire off a burst as he went over the fence and hope I had enough shutter speed, even at ISO 1000.  I wish I’d gone to f/5.6 for a little more SS but that’s water under the bridge (or elk over the fence…).

Note: The transition between the background mountains and the sky looks a little funky and I don’t know why.  It happened in all 40 shots I took of the three elk jumping and it’s in the RAW files so it’s not from processing.  Perhaps it was caused by atmospheric conditions at that time of morning or what we call “lake fog” that was in the valley in the background.

 

 

elk 0783 ron dudley

  1/640, f/6.3, ISO 1000, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc

 The light angle didn’t quite give me any light in the eye but I thought the action and behavior compensated to some degree.

 

 

elk 0784 ron dudley

  1/640, f/6.3, ISO 1000, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc

 Here the jump looks effortless – almost like the bull is floating over the fence.

 

 

elk 0785 ron dudley

  1/640, f/6.3, ISO 1000, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc

 The back feet seem to barely clear the wire.

 

 

elk 0786 ron dudley

  1/640, f/6.3, ISO 1000, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc

While I was processing this image I was puzzled for a moment by the horizontal lines near the upper left leg which made it appear as if the wires were between me and the elk.  But those lines are only shadows of wire out of frame to the right (they also indicate how very low the sun was).

 

 

elk 0788 ron dudley

  1/640, f/6.3, ISO 1000, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc

The bull cleared the fence without mishap and I focused my attention (and my lens) on the other three elk.  Perhaps I’ll post some of those images sometime down the road.

Whenever I see a large bull elk at this stage of antler development I always wonder how large those antlers will be after another month or 6 weeks of growth (incredibly, sources indicate that antler growth can be as much as 1-2 inches per day).  I don’t know a lot about elk but I suspect that this bull will be a very impressive specimen come September.

I hope he makes it through the hunting season.

Ron

19 Comments

  1. Ron–given the setting you describe…echoing in the mountains on a frosty morning–they would probably sound quite different than how I heard them…in a hollow,ringed by giggling left-over summer people , somewhere near Estes Park, Colorado, on an early Fall afternoon…NOTHING seemed regal to me, only frustrating and annoying! Because we had spotted the elk in an open area bordered by Aspen,and stopped,a respectful distance away, others stopped out of curiosity, a crowd quickly formed and instead of being quiet and respectful, they crowded in, making all kinds of stupid comments and noise. We chose to leave the scene of the circus feeling disappointed and pretty pissed off as we did so.

    • Patty, your story reminds me of one of our visits to Yellowstone where an adult guy was harassing a female elk. He was lucky that she just tried to avoid him finally walked off. And it reminds me of another encounter, possibly during the same visit, where a young boy – probably about 10 years old – was talking about wanting to kick a buffalo in the ass. That’s a direct quote. Those things make me hopping mad, too.

  2. Jane Chesebrough

    What a beautiful animal, that is a lot of muscle going over the fence.Great capture.

  3. Patty Chadwick

    Re: barbed wire avoidance…thank you! I really do hate the damned stuff!!! Whenever I see one of these regal looking guys, I also remember the niot so regal “bugling”
    they make…like air being slowly let out of a balloon!

    • Patty, I guess “regal” is in the ear of the beholder. To me their bugling does sound regal, especially on an early, frosty morning in a magnificent setting with the sound echoing off the mountain tops. Gives me chills…

  4. Charlotte Norton

    Incredible shots Ron, thanks for sharing.
    Charlotte

  5. Great capture, Ron~!

  6. You take the very best butt shots. Thank you.

  7. That’s one big bulky body to get over that fence! I am amazed they can even hold their heads up when their antlers are full-grown…they are so heavy!!! Their neck muscles must be incredibly strong! What a relief it ,Usted be to finally shed them!!! Beautiful shots of a magnificent animal! Glad to see it’s NOT barbed wire…pronghorns aren’t always as lucky, especially with barbed wire…I hate the damned stuff!!!

  8. Magnificent bull elk and fabulous shot, Ron! This will (hopefully) energize me for the day ahead in humid New England. 🙂

  9. Beautiful sequence Ron, Incredible light !

  10. EFFORTLESS!! Nice to see that fences can’t coral them! Great capture! Thanks for sharing.

    • Dick, those fences don’t even come close to containing them and the fence is higher than it looks from this perspective and with all the vegetation in front of it. Thank you.

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