HUNTING BIRDS WITH A CAMERA 



1(3:^ 



may sometimes select his position and his 

 subjects; if he has the patience to wait 

 hours and maybe days, he can get the 

 make-up of his picture. 



This we did in the case of the Caspian 

 Terns nesting on a tule island in Lower 

 Klamath Lake, Oregon. We set our 

 camera, carefully concealed in a blind, to 

 get a small bunch of tales in the fore- 

 ground and the lake in the background. 

 \A'ith this combination for a picture we 

 exposed j^late after plate at the Terns 

 flying past. Out of 20 exposures one 

 was successful. 



In southern California I\Irs. Finley and 

 I tried for days to get a combination pic- 

 ture of Gull, clouds and waves. Both 

 Gull and waves were moving so rapidly 

 that the highest speed was necessary. The 

 distance between the two objects made it 

 impossible to get both in focus at once. 

 With the bird near enough at hand to 

 show clearl}', one had to forfeit the clear- 

 ness in the balance of the picture. When- 

 ever the waves were breaking just right, 

 it was almost impossible to catch a Gull in 

 the right position and vice z'crsa. 



THE GREAT r.LUE HERON IS AN ARTISTIC 

 POSER 



Some birds make up much better in 

 photographs than others. The attitude of 

 the Great Blue Heron at rest is in itself 

 artistic. While photographing in a colony 

 of these birds in the San Francisco Bay 

 region, we hunted for several days to se- 

 lect a position that would have an artistic 

 make-up. The best we could find was the 

 outermost branches of a tall sycamore. 



The only viewpoint for the camera was 

 from the top of an adjoining tree. At 

 this place we had to erect a small stand 

 and tie the camera in position. The dis- 

 tance was too far for the regular lens, but 

 with the telephoto attachment a good pic- 

 ture was obtained after the old Heron re- 

 turned from fishing and perched on a 

 dead limb at the side of her nest (see 

 page 173). 



The first trills of any consequence that 

 Bohlman and I took to study bird life 

 were in 1897 and 1898. During the sum- 

 mers of these years we made two long 

 canoe trips to the headwaters of the Wil- 

 lamette River and into the mountains. In 

 the summer of 1899 we cruised Lewis 

 River in Washington as far as Tum Tum 



Canyon. During this trip we were cap- 

 sized in one rif the swifter rapids and lost 

 the camera and part of our e(iui]jment. 



STUDVINC, Si;.V i:iR])S FK(J,M R(ICK\' CEIFFS 



Our first intensive work in making pho- 

 tographic studies of wild birds was one 

 summer, wlien we were landed on some 

 of the rocks off the Oregon coast bv sea- 

 lion hunters. .Vt this time we had our 

 first glimpse of the great colonies of birds 

 that lived on the sea cliffs. 



We decided to return at the first oppor- 

 tunity and make a careful photographic 

 study of the sea birds. This could not be 

 done in a day or several hurried trips, so 

 we decided to hazard a camp on the ledges 

 and stay until we could complete our 

 work. 



Two }ears later we pitched our four- 

 by-seven tent on the beach opposite Three 

 Arch Rocks. Although it was the latter 

 part of June, the sea winds were cold and 

 the rain continuous. Occasionally the sun 

 would break from the clouds for a da\- 

 and our hopes would rise as the size of 

 the breakers diminished, but this would 

 be followed by a sou'wester that brought 

 a steady drizzling rain and lashed the 

 white caps as high as ever. We were wet 

 half the time, but did not catch cold. We 

 soon reached a sort of amphiljian state, 

 where a condition of water soak was 

 normal. 



Three Arch Rocks are aljout a mile off- 

 shore. These great stacks of basalt, so 

 named iDccause each has a huge arch 

 through the base, are the largest islands 

 ofif the Oregon shore. They lie two and 

 a half or three miles north of the narrow 

 entrance to Xetarts Bay and ab(uit six 

 miles south of the entrance to Tillamook 

 Bay. 



We had but one way of reaching the 

 rocks, and that was by means of a 14-foot 

 dory. We tried twice to go out over the 

 bar, but we were not able to discover a 

 break in the oncoming line of combers. 

 The treacherous current nearly wrecked 

 us on the outer spit. We decided the onl\' 

 wav to get out from the ocean beach was 

 to land our dory in the snrf at a point 

 opposite the big rocks. 



For 16 days we lay in camp while the 

 waves throbbed incessantly. We often 

 lay awake at night, hearing the rain lieat 

 on the canvas and listening to the wind, 



