Although there may be a substantial difference in size, the bear and the hummingbird are two animals that have a lot in common.
What do they have in common you ask? Answer: They're both busy-busy in search for their next sugar meal, whether it is buzzing from one blossom to another or stripping gobs of berries from a vine with their big black paws. This serious sugar addiction is as serious as I have ever seen it, well besides Emily's. They are suckers for sugar.
These hummingbird pics are from a recent trip to Utah at my parent's place. Although there were a few species of hummingbirds around the wildlflowers, the blackchinned seemed to be the most photogenic. The green aspen made for a great background contrast.
Do you know how fast of a shutter speed you need to capture a sharp hummingbird wing? I do, but it took me a while to find out.
When I returned to Oregon from Utah, my friend Ron came over for his third annual bear hunt, and like the first two years, the bears in the sweet berries didn't dissapoint this year. I really, really like to hunt bears when the berries are on strong.
Although it took a lot of work glassing,we managed to spot 6 bears before he decided to take this heavy boar that we spotted feeding on black cap berries across Oregon's coastal version of the Grand Canyon...806 yards away with nothing but steep cliffs, poison oak and thick berry patches between us and the bear. Long distance shooting comes easy for Ron since he has spent years practicing and fine-tuning his custom built 30-378 WBY. I was confident that when he pulled the trigger the bear was going to go down. We were happy to have harvested a bear, but it was 7:30 PM and we had a lot of work ahead of us. To shorten this story a bit, I'll just say that we ripped and tore our way through berry vines and cliffs eventually made it back to the pickup with meat and hide sometime after 3 AM . I remember Ron saying several times while inching our way back to the pickup that this was the hardest thing, mentally and physically, he had ever done. That is saying a lot. The treacherous packout only made this hunt that much more rewarding.
On our way up the steep coastal hills to reach the bear before dark. Ron is in the center of the photo
We finally made it to the bear right at dark
Family photo
Sometime in the wee hours in the morning within a couple hunderd yards below the pickup. Ron is packing head and hide. I packed the meat.
Back at the truck and soaked with sweat
1 comment:
I'd have to agree with you about Emily's sweet tooth. She makes the best cookies. You should ask her what happened in your kitchen to me...sneaking a cookie. It was so funny.
I like the family photo too!
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