![\"sandhill](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/sandhill-crane-9634d-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOnce again it’s that time of year. This winter’s been a long one and “the great out there” is calling me. Camping in the relatively\u00a0wild public lands of the west recharges my batteries and right now the needle on my personal battery charger is pegged at “discharge” so\u00a0a weather forecast window that includes a few days of nice weather this week\u00a0became impossible to resist.<\/p>\n
Later this\u00a0morning we’re heading south in search of dirt roads, solitude, quiet, spectacular vistas and photo subjects.<\/p>\n
Especially birds.<\/p>\n
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1\/1000, f\/8, ISO 500, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n One of my goals is migrating\u00a0Sandhill Cranes. This crane\u00a0image was taken in March\u00a0on my first camping trip two years ago and I’ll be in the same general\u00a0area this time so maybe I’ll get lucky with them once again.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/5.6, ISO 4000, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n Sage Grouse are another target species for this trip. I took this image of fighting males\u00a0in March of\u00a0last year and I’ll certainly be looking for them again this time.\u00a0One potential complication is snow. The high country in the area I’ll be\u00a0visiting\u00a0got lots of snow this winter so the dirt roads to this area may be impassable. I won’t know until I get there. If I do find them I hope I’ll have better light than I did when this shot was taken. ISO 4000 isn’t territory I\u00a0wish to visit again.<\/p>\n If the back country is still snowed in I’ll be looking for birds in other areas. Birds are always a crap shoot this early in the year but with the vagaries of bird migration I just never know what might turn up. For me that’s one of the draws of bird photography – that exciting and unexpected find that allows me a photo-op.<\/p>\n Due to unreliable internet access and other potential complications, blogging on the road is a dicey proposition at best so we’ll see what happens. I may not post every day and I’ll likely be mostly\u00a0unable to respond to comments but I’ll do what I can.<\/p>\n Let the adventure begin.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Once again it’s that time of year. This winter’s been a long one and “the great out there” is calling me.<\/p>\n![\"sage](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/sage-grouse-3798c-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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