In my previous article, I showed you the animals we could see at our fishing place. Certain species are wilder (more shy) then others and hard to get close to. Then there are the wild 
animals that should be scared of humans but somehow got used to their presence.
That week, 3 events took place and marked this fishing year as special. The 1st event was the repeated presence of the Sandhill crane. My friend had seen them a few years ago. But at that time, we didn’t have that much of a big zoom and megapixels to make what it was exactly. He had seen them at the end of the bay and had tried to get close but they would walk away and eventually take off. We had no idea what species it was. They had the same color of a deer yet they were flying ! He had dubbed 
them as “chevreuil à plume” the deers with feather 🙂 The next year, the water level was low enough at the end of the bay that had the chance to walk where the crane were supposed to be. We could see the tracks and figure out that they were actually pretty big birds. The years after, photography gear evolved and we had upgrade ! We could actually see a little better of their head and determine that the Sandhill crane had a red color surrounding their eyes. This year, for some reasons, they got closer to the camp. It gave us the chance to photograph them with greater details. I had my 70-200mm non-stabilized lens and with the APS-C crop factor, it gave me a reach of approximately 350mm. Evidently, I had to crop in the picture afterward to get the maximum details !
The next encounter was the moose. When we started going fishing at that camp, with knew the location had also been chosen for hunting. It’s at the end of bay where there is a marsh. We walked the area a few times with long boots and had seen big mammal tracks. We knew there was something here ! Then, two years ago, my friend had the chance to see a moose crossing the lake far from the camp. At that time, I was still snoring but at least he had the pictures to prove the facts !
This year, the moose made its sneaky appearance: I had gone outside after diner to take care of some personal matter 😉 When I got back to the camp, I glanced around the bay as usual to look for wildlife. And there it was: right across the camp, staring at me ! Boy, wasn’t I surprised… My instinct reaction was to run like a mad men, knock on the door of the camp and yell to my friends: “mooooooooose” ! They bolted out of their chair. One brought his camera and while he was snapping away, I went inside and got mine. Fortunately, the wind was blowing between the beast and us, bringing the sounds we made at the end of the bay. I had my zoom, burst mode and high ISO selected and fired away. The moose was still pretty far even though it was in front of the camp. My meager 70-200mm was just enough so that the picture wouldn’t turn out a brown spot on a green background…
I know the pictures aren’t contest winners but at least it was caught on film (like the old saying !)
Still, I’ll end this article with a nicer picture of a seagull: a moody ambiance created by the morning fog.
In the next article, the exceptional encounters: the duck that could read minds…
