Motif: Searching for Spruce Grouse

previously posted last year
Favorite Experience: Bushwacking for Spruce grouse
A boreal spruce swamp in the Adirondacks
Canon 10D, Canon 100-400, Canon 420EX and flash extender
ISO 400, F5.6

Searching for a Spruce grouse in May 2003 was one of my favorite outdoor nature photography experiences. This bird is perhaps plentiful in the boreal woods of Canada and Alaska, but has a very limited population in the Adirondacks of New York and northern New England.

For this adventure . . .on the one hand, I had a major advantage of looking for this bird by accompanying 2 researchers studying this bird. But that day in May 2003 was far from easy. Not a walk in the park, but we ended up bushwacking for miles through thick stands of dense spruce in ankle deep water, looking at droppings and searching tree limbs. The dense blackflies would have been perhaps negated with a head net, which I could not wear with camera in ready mode. We eventually found a radio-collared study bird which I photographed, but with secretly-held disappointment that it was such a bird. But after more water and bugs, we came upon a grouse not collared. The researchers were thrilled and celebrating and I took dozens of photos. Besides the experience itself, I learned a few things about bird photography on this adventure.

-Fill flash - despite my flash becoming entangled in tree branches, I'm sure the photos would not have been as satisfying without the flash. It was overcast and dark at times within the woods.

-Go tripodless- We covered difficult thick trailless woods that would have made a tripod unbearable to carry. While one can argue that any photo might be sharper with tripod vs IS handheld, there are times when handheld means getting the shot.