With the rising temperatures of summer the American Bison on Antelope Island need to find a reliable freshwater source.
Antelope Island American Bison herd making their way to the freshwater springs – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1/1000, ISO 250, Nikkor 18-200mm VR at 38mm, natural light
There are 40 freshwater springs that are located near the shoreline of the island and the American Bison make use of them to quench their thirst. The bison move down from the grassy slopes in large herds like the one in the image above. They can tie up traffic on the roads for quite some time.
Life is good.
Mia
Click here to see more of my American Bison photos plus facts and information about this species.
For more info on Antelope Island State Park:
Wild and Wonderful – Antelope Island State Park – The Wildlife
Wild and Wonderful – Antelope Island State Park – The Birds
Wild and Wonderful – Antelope Island State Park – The Scenery
As always, I love your photos. I have a general question for you…you are outside A LOT taking your photos and this time of year, especially with the heat as of late, I was wondering, what do you do about deer flies or any biting flies for that matter. I t was in the UP a few weeks ago at Seney NWR and got mobbed by them. My only relief was the swarms of dragonflies early in the day…they would fly in and grab them for a snack…love the dragonfly.
Thank you Deb, I am glad you enjoy my photographs.
Deb, I wear light weight, long-sleeved shirts (with sun protection) and light weight hiking pants in the summer along with either a baseball cap or a wide brimmed hat, those help some with biting bugs. As much as I hate to use insect repellents I do apply them to keep some of the biting insects away. That said though, I haven’t found much that helps with deer and horse flies other than swatting them away. I’ve been bitten through my shirt by deer flies in just the last week. They seem very bad right now in certain locations. If I figure out something to keep the nasty buggars away I will let you know.
Thanks for the tips…I pretty much do that already…but in this heat, it’s hard to put on the long sleeves and pants. I did hear that some kind of fly strip type tape stuck to the top of your hat works well, but I just can’t see walking around with a bunch of dead and struggling insect corpses on my head….and I would hate to get a dragonfly stuck on there as well.
Thanks again….happy shooting.
Deb,
I wear this style of shirt most often, ExOfficio Women’s Dryflylite Long-Sleeve Shirt, they are very light weight, wrinkle resistant and the light colored ones reflect heat very well. I can wear them even in temps of 100 degrees and feel comfortable. I usually wear a light weight cami underneath them.
For comfortable hiking pants in the heat I wear Mountain Hardwear’s Mesa or Ramesa pants for women, the material is light weight and they don’t bother me in the heat. Both the shirts and the pants I mentioned dry very quickly too in case you get wet and do offer some protection from (some) bugs and the sun.
There are hats & shirts that have a bug screen attached but when I look at them I can’t imagine trying to see through them well enough to use my camera!!
Glad I made you laugh and not annoyed you 😉
Yep you made me laugh and no, you didn’t annoy me 🙂
Great shot,… though part of me thinks you just added some brown crayon dots to an old picture 😉
You made me laugh this morning Stu!
What a wonderful image, I can almost envision the herds of old
Thanks Susan, it must have been terrific to see these beasts in herds of hundreds of thousands!
The Herd!! This image makes me think of that instinct these creatures have to herd, and how important it is.
Thanks for commenting Maria!
Thanks Julie. It is a great sight to see and hear when a large herd is getting close or moving past.
A most beautiful scene! I would love to see a large herd of Bison like this.