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Alan Bauer
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Joined: 11 Jan 2002
Posts: 942 | TRs | Pics
Location: Fall City, Washington |
FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 2004 - OAK CREEK WILDLIFE AREA; L.T. MURRAY WILDLIFE AREA
DNR YAKIMA MAP
Last Friday I had planned my trip to the wildlife mecca of these wildlife areas NW of Yakima but freezing rains in the Columbia Basin kept me home. Today was make-up day and thus off Gary and I headed east to see how many elk, bighorn sheep, and other wildlife we could see and photograph in one day. As expected once east of Snoqualmie Pass the eastern areas are in the typical winter inversion and dense fog ruled the day. However once we got to Naches along Hwy 12 west of Yakima the cloud deck lifted just enough that ground level was open and bright from the snow covering the area!
First stop was to locate the WDFW bighorn sheep feeding area up on the south slope of Cleman Mountain. I was thinking we weren't going to see anything until suddenly reaching the wildlife viewing area that was somewhat hidden from the road until you got there. Wow! On the other side of the elk fence from the small parking area in the snow there were over 140 bighorn sheep congregated! Of all things 11:00am is the feeding time and as we pulled up at 10:45am the truck with hay and pellets was just pulling in. This of course makes for the most stunning opportunity to view these majestic mammals up close that you can find anywhere in the Northwest! Not 15 minutes later I was coldly sitting/kneeling in the snow shooting through the fence at creatures often not more than 15' away from me! No need for the 400mm lens for a lot of this. But I did use it often to isolate individual specimens and to work the ones further away to make them seem more naturally in their surroundings. Plus there is nothing like an image up close of just a bighorn sheep eyeball---one of the most mysterious looks I've ever seen! The up close sounds of rams horns clunking together, bumping, and the thud of dominant rams whacking a female or young one in the rear hard to knock them out of the way to get to the food...what an up close and personal sound to hear! After 45 minutes of watching and shooting suddenly three huge 6-point bull elk came charging down the cliffs/hillsides from above to meet up at the area. They initially really created a stir as they pushed in to the sheep crowd! They then settled in and ate some food too. One fun aspect of this visit was an enclosed fenced area being established near the feeding station with enclosed tarp walls. The WDFW will be capturing about 30 of the bighorns from this area next week and be relocating them to re-establish a herd on Chelan Butte! Historically there were healthy populations there as well and this was a good chance to move some to that area. The L.T. Murray herd is pretty well established as in-tune to what it will support at about 150 individuals. The incredible success rates the past two mild winters has pushed the population to over 200 animals! Thus relocating 30 will help this regions herd health as well. When asked if they knew which ones they were taking, the warden simply smiled and said, "Which ever ones get in the darn enclosed fence!". I laughed hard.
OK, so after shooting 4 rolls of slides and >600mg of digital images in 1 1/4 hours with the bighorns we went back to the junction of Hwy 12/410 and made the 2 mile drive to the Oak Creek Wildlife Area headquarters office and the popular elk feeding area. Pulling up the hill into the parking area and WOW! You don't see them from the highway...but once up there the sight of seeing >1500 elk about knocks your socks off. Numbers at this time are estimated to be about 1700 elk that are feeding here. One more heavy snow and they suspect a few more lingering herds that are remaining high in the wildlife area lands will likely come down to max out the crowd at a near record 2000-2100 individuals! And so on went the next two hours that we hung around here from 12:00-2:00pm. If you care to know, 1:30pm is feeding time. However I personally enjoy being here long before then to get the animals somewhat naturally hanging out and as time passes more and more groups come down from the canyons and cliffs north of the feeding flatlands. Of interest were watching three bald eagles sitting in distant trees and soaring in and out of the canyon directly north of the barns. One of the three calves that has died this winter died up in that canyon a couple weeks ago and the eagles are certainly benefiting from it. From the immense numbers of young in this crowd of 1700 it is amazing that to their knowledge only three have died in the locality of the headquarters area. It was fun watching huge bulls get pushy, get antsy, and get lazy and close their eyes to sleep too! The only thing I wish I'd of done better was be here at daybreak to get the mammals with frozen frost on their fir and around their faces from frozen moisture of their breath! A few young still had frosty ear-tips. But know I know what I'll do differently next visit to obtain a completely different array of image stock here. Feeding time brought fun antics of the animals all stand up, alerted by the single start up of a tractor engine, and turning to face the barn areas! It looked like a church choir preparing to sing! A sea of brown elk, all facing the same direction. A spectacle that I'll return to see over and over again. For a day without sun the photography was wonderful---now I'm sitting back and hoping to catch a sunny day over there (great to check the local weather on WDOT web cams!). I'll run over to get a different feel of photos in the sun then.
Heading home we headed over the Naches-Wenas Road to cut over to the Wenas Valley, and then made the sloppy rough icy haul over the Wenas Road over Ellensburg Pass and that back way over Umtanum and Manastash Ridges and eventually the back way into Ellensburg. Don't drive this road unless you are capable of winter conditions. It's plowed but narrow and if not cold enough the road will become a soft mess to avoid! However from many trips over this route in the past few winters it is early enough to enjoy it still before it's too sloppy. Snow was three feet deep up at 3000' on this western end of Umtanum Ridge--the location I've SNOWSHOED in the desert before for great fun! Seems it's ready for a return to do that again as well.
We shot images of a lovely herd of 19 mule deer in this area as well. A very nice way to end an incredible photographic journey in one day! Over 7 rolls of slides, over 1.5 GB of digital images, over 700 images taken today today....let me know if you want to see more images of other aspects of the day such as feeding and things like that. I'll be busy this weekend editing over these, that's for sure! Alan L. Bauer 01/16/2004
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Alan Bauer
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Joined: 11 Jan 2002
Posts: 942 | TRs | Pics
Location: Fall City, Washington |
...and here are a few images of the elk, and one mule deer friend to round out the day 
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crwdog
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Joined: 03 Jul 2003
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Location: Battle Ground, WA |
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crwdog
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 Sat Jan 17, 2004 12:06 am |
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Great pics Alan!
Would you be willing to post/email the hi-res version of "The bighorn dinner bell has rung-Vert.jpg"? I love this image, and would like to set it up as a background on my home PC. Could I trade you some beer for it?
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Newt
Short Timer
Joined: 21 Dec 2001
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Location: Down the road and around the corner |
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Newt
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Sat Jan 17, 2004 8:38 am |
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Fantastic Alan. Especially the little wanna-be. All those critters look pretty healthy.
N 
It's pretty safe to say that if we take all of man kinds accumulated knowledge, we still don't know everything. So, I hope you understand why I don't believe you know everything. But then again, maybe you do.
It's pretty safe to say that if we take all of man kinds accumulated knowledge, we still don't know everything. So, I hope you understand why I don't believe you know everything. But then again, maybe you do.
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MooseAndSquirrel
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Joined: 10 Nov 2002
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Stunning images Alan. Do they have feeding stations set up all year or just in winter? Why the need for them at all- too many obstacles for self-sustaining sheep & elk herds there?
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Alan Bauer
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Joined: 11 Jan 2002
Posts: 942 | TRs | Pics
Location: Fall City, Washington |
| MooseAndSquirrel wrote: | | Stunning images Alan. Do they have feeding stations set up all year or just in winter? Why the need for them at all- too many obstacles for self-sustaining sheep & elk herds there? |
The feeding areas are only up for a short period of time in winter, mainly January-February and maybe into early March. I think the reason behind the feeding is two-fold. Sure, the little bit of food that they do eat is helpful to their winter survival, especially in the young that were just born last winter/spring. However, especially with the huge elk herds, I think it has a strong purpose in keeping them in range during times of short food supplies. If they didn't have a place "to hang out" like this then they would be dispursing in a very broad and wide range in search of food during the hard winters. Times like this winter there is snow on the ground even in the lower elevations over there and once out of the valleys just a little bit it is 2-3' deep and covering much of the sage even. That large of number of animals being pushed down low would cause them to move into more inhabited areas looking for food. Maybe not so much at Oak Creek since so much of the area is within elk fences near population areas or roads. But what is to keep them from getting down along the Tieton or Naches River drainages further up into the mountains, head down valley, and enjoy roaming golf courses and home gardens?
So I think the concentrated population effectively stems a large portion of this potential problem from arising.
The opposite is true in a sense here too---there IS NO real way out of the L.T. Murray Wildlife Area in the wintering regions of the herds. They have no way to get to easier food sources due to man having built the fences to hold them in check. Thus it really is also necessary to give them "winter range food" through this means. We wouldn't need to do so if we allowed them to roam out of the wildlife areas to find food. But then the other issues would arise almost immediately. And more would die due to roads...and poachers along the roads likely.
Wildlife management is a very complex story and it is really beneficial to learn from wildlife biologists their side of the work too and never just listen to too radical of environmental groups who want hands off no matter what. Plus you learn a lot on the locations and behaviors of OUR herds which greatly enhances the viewing of them and what to be looking for where.
Personally, I'm thrilled to death that the LT bighorn herd is too large now and that efforts are under way to enhance a population further north on Chelan Butte this winter! The moving of 20-25 to the upper Tieton drainage in 1998 (???) was successful and they are holding their own and staying in the 20-35 headcount so far. The more game we have naturally occuring in more places, even things like cougar populations will benefit greatly from, and if they have more natural means to survive, less need to potentially move into human populated areas. A fascinating circle of life indeed to witness and learn as much as possible about!
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MooseAndSquirrel
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Joined: 10 Nov 2002
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Hey, thanks for that information sir, very appreciated! Yes, this wildlife mgt. thing is definitely complicated, but fascinating, and ultimately tries to save these animals from their worst enemy-us!
Of course.....having all those magnificent animals herded together in a convenient spot makes it that much easier to photograph them too!  No wonder you're keen on this management thang!
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Alan Bauer
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Joined: 11 Jan 2002
Posts: 942 | TRs | Pics
Location: Fall City, Washington |
Oh, did I say there were feeding stations? Hmmmm....my report was SUPPOSED to go over how I hiked and snowshoed for nine days to get into the heart of the Enchantments or William O. Douglas Wilderness to sit in the -15 degree weather for three MORE days to finally get these images!
Disregard my earlier trip report.
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MooseAndSquirrel
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Joined: 10 Nov 2002
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You should be ashamed of yourself! ANYBODY can drive over to the Sheep & Elk Feeding Zoo and click away and come out with some adequate, maybe slightly better than disposable camera images, and profess to be a Nature Photographer! 
I tried to take it easy on you but my dander is up! (I think they make shampoos for that condition)
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Alan Bauer
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Joined: 11 Jan 2002
Posts: 942 | TRs | Pics
Location: Fall City, Washington |
Not only that, but they might start selling ice cream cones there for the kiddies, hot dogs for lunch, and hand warmers for the wimps who only sit in their cars to watch them critters vs. "the strange visitors" like me who stood out in the cold for >2 hrs photographing them!
Hey, it was hard work---there was no Honey Bucket at the bighorn region and you ain't gunna find anything to hide behind to relieve the mornings 2 1/4 hr drive of drinking coffee all the way unless you go behind someones idleing car and do business there. So I was under pressure out there in the cold, so leave me alone.
Maybe I could have run in to hide behind one of the three huge bull elk that came into the area. I could have pet him on the forehead, I bet.....
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Slugman
It’s a Slugfest!
Joined: 27 Mar 2003
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Slugman
It’s a Slugfest!
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Sun Jan 18, 2004 12:41 am |
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Sounds like we need a urination emoticon!  Or maybe one of a person dancing around on one leg. 
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