ELK
OF ARIZONA HIGH COUNTRY
birdfotos.com
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TID-BITS
On 03-06-06
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Nineteen images on this page.
Wanting to get out of the extremely dry and polluted air of the Phoenix area
I headed north toward the Grand Canyon's South Rim and the COCONINO PLATEAU.
I don't know which is worse, the polluted Phoenix air; or all of the tourist at the South Rim of the Canyon :-)).
Therefore on this trip I decided to spend time driving the dirt roads in the forest just south of the
Canyon's South Rim and just South of Tusayan a few miles off State route 64 and then West on road 306.
I was told to check out the TANKS. HUMM, tanks,
I started looking for metal tanks with water in them. I didn't know if they
meant big tall round metal tanks or low open top tanks with water in them.
Much to my surprise neither of the above tanks were correct.
I soon found out that a tank up here is no more than a big scraped out hole in the ground
to hold run-off water from the rains and snow melt.
I guess a tank could be anything that held something, thus qualifying a large
depression in the ground no matter how it got there as a TANK.
Many of the tanks were dry, parched, cracked dirt, and no water.
This also meant no wild life would be coming to drink so I kept on driving.
Some of the tanks were numbered and some named as you will see.
After several hours of being driven around with by my friend Don we came across this tank
with a smidgen of damp mud in the bottom of the hole, well, maybe just a bit more than a smidgen.
Inasmuch as there was no water any where else we started to see birds immediately coming in to drink.
Get out those cameras and let's start taking photos I said as I jumped out of Don's vehicle almost before it had stopped.
And this is what it called
AH, yes there seemed to always be a jerk out there that likes to shoot up signs,
no brain connection between trigger finger and brain.
I wish they would all stay home and if they have to shoot something, shoot out their own house windows :-))
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We didn't get here until almost the end of the day so I planed to come back early the next morning.
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The TANK at first light about 6:45 AM!
You may not see them but there are Elk coming in so let's be very quiet
and just maybe they will come on down to take a drink,
however the water is froze so this should prove very interesting.
The (X) and (Y) will be explained below. That's my blind in the left center foreground.
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(Y)
I guess maybe someone put these very nice sticks out there for the birds to perch on to drink.
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(X)
Now this is the perfect bird landing field or place as you will soon see.
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OK, let's see if we can get an eye ball on those sneaky old Elk,
if you blink twice they will see you so I shall stay in my van and photograph them out of the drivers side window.
Here comes the first brave Elk.
The sun hasn't quite got up high enough to really light the area for good photography.
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Yes, I do believe it is going to try to get a drink from the frozen water.
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It's fellow Elk is staying in the back ground to see just what is going to happen.
They may see my van and are being extra cautious about coming in to drink.
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Yep, they are looking directly at my van, however I don't don't think
they see me in the front seat as long as I don't move or blink.
I think I shall wait a few minutes for the sun to get a bit higher in the sky so I can take better photos.
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7:30 AM give or take a few ticks.
Before I didn't see there were more Elk up in the treed area.
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OH YA, there are keeping a sharp eye on me or my van.
They know the van hasn't been a part of the land scape in the past.
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Here comes the brave one.
At this time of year they don't have antlers so it's difficult to tell the males from the females.
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It knows there is water some where here.
Note how its front feet are sinking into the soft mud.
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Now it sees the water, so it thinks.
Note the right front leg is over 50% in the mud.
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You see the water really is froze.
It could not get a footing on the iced surface of the water and it almost went down.
I guess if you can't drink the water the next best thing is to lick it. :-))
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And lick it the Elk did.
I don't know that it got any good from licking the ice but it licked for quite some time before giving up.
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Forget it sister, they ain't no water to be had here.
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Looks like they are all going to forget the drinking for this morning.
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The one on the left is thinking maybe just one more try.
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Nope, they all are headed off into the woods. I thought they might come back later on but they didn't.
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Yes, this is going to be a long show and if you want to continue
please click HERE.
I have listed the pages separately in case you don't want to have
to go through the whole article one page at a time just to see what's on the site.
Page 1b Grand Canyon Deer - Page 1. Townsend's Solitaire - Page 2. Butterfly, Mountain Chickadee, Unknown Hawk -
Page 3. Plain Titmouse & Pygmy Nuthatch - Page 4. Tiger Salamander - Page 5. Grand Canyon Big Horns - Page 6. Red Crossbills -
Page 7. Red-shafted Northern Flickers - Page 8. Aberts Squirrels - Page 9. Pinyon Jays - Page 10. Stellers Jays -
Page 11. Dark-eyed Juncos Oregon race. Page 12 Hairy Woodpecker
TID-BITS Index Page - WHAT'S ON THE SITE PAGE - BIRD INDEX PAGE
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