Another fall enjoying the elk rut on the Missouri River in Central Montana. I happened to be in the area over Labor Day weekend, so I thought I would check things out, even though it was a little early in the season. I found a few right at dark that decided to come out of the trees. They were wanting to go to the marshy area to wallow in the mud. I could hear a few other bulls bugling back in the trees as well, but they never showed themselves. With it being so dark, I only took one image. I was down to 1/25 of a second and still had an ISO of around 4000. With a little editing I was able to clean it up enough to make an acceptable image for sharing purposes, but certainly not anything I would want to print. I did take some video, and I was really surprised by how much light I was able to capture. To the eye, it looked basically dark out, but with my Canon R5 II and my big 600 F4 lens, it actually had enough light to make some ok video files.
A bull elk after dark in some cattails with cow elk behind him, Labor Day weekend.
We had a pretty warm fall, so it was pretty late this year before the rut really started to pick up. I finally made it back around the 25th of September. It had been a little cooler during the week, but the temperatures were starting to warm back up by the time I made it out, so I was not optimistic. The first night out there was a pretty good showing, although a lot of the elk did not come out until almost dark again. But there was a smaller herd that came out earlier I was able to make some images of.
You can select individual photos from the gallery below for a larger view.
I went back out the next morning, but there was very little activity. The few that were out stayed pretty far away back in the trees. I did not create a single image that morning. I did take some videos but not a lot. It was still a nice morning out, so it was not time wasted. With things quickly heating up, I went back to town with the plans to come back in the evening, even though I knew it was going to be hot.
My predictions were correct, with the heat, the second night was not much better than the morning. Again, the elk chose to stay back in the shade of the trees, and only a few came out and none with any great photographic opportunities. I was able to chat with some photography friends that were also out there since it was slow and we enjoyed the nice evening. It was a full moon so I took a moment to capture a few images of that.
Bull elk staying back in the trees during the second night out.
Full Moon.
The elk numbers have continued to stay pretty low out there the last few years. The speculation is that it probably has something to do with the drought conditions we have had. I would tend to agree with that. Others have mentioned increased predators on the landscape, which I also agree with, and increased hunting pressure on areas near the viewing area. I am sure they all contribute. I am hopeful that in future years things will start to pick up for the better.
If you would like to view some of my other posts about the elk rut, please check out these links below.
A quick video of an elk bugling during the rut.