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RMA Wildlife Refuge

Discussion

8 replies
Posted by Jeff Sirota on January 11, 2010 at 12:03 AM
Took a tour at the Wildlife Refuge today and came away with a few shots I thought I'd share. Thanks for looking...

-Jeff
Posted by Todd Caudle on January 11, 2010 at 9:49 AM
You sure posted the pick of the litter here! I really like your framing choice with the oof grasses.
Posted by Dave Showalter` on January 11, 2010 at 9:56 AM
NIce Jeff - coyote and geese 2 is also really cool - love to see animals sharring space. Who led your tour?
Posted by Kurt Bowman on January 11, 2010 at 11:06 AM
nice shots Jeff. I was considering taking one of those tours. Wondering....do they take you to parts of the refuge that ae closed to the general public?
Posted by Brian Jackson on January 11, 2010 at 11:39 AM
Great shot. Would be curious to hear what you thought of the tour. I've heard from a few people that it's kind of a waste of time, but I've only talked to 2 or 3 people that have went.
Posted by Bill Brennan on January 11, 2010 at 3:44 PM
Enjoyed seeing your work at RMA; especially seeing how the geese play "catch me if you can" with their predator.

Bill Brennan
Posted by Morris McClung on January 11, 2010 at 5:38 PM
I kind of like the coyote and geese 2. It's like he's saying, I'm not paying any attention to you geese at all. :biggrin:
Posted by Dan Walters on January 11, 2010 at 8:43 PM
Looks like you got a good variety. I like the image with coyote and the geese in the background.
Posted by Jeff Sirota on January 11, 2010 at 11:38 PM
The tour was led by one of the RMA refuge volunteers. Overall, I would give the tour mixed reviews. It does take you to parts of the refuge that you can't get to on your own, and we did see quite a bit of wildlife. However, the set up was not really conducive to getting a lot of good photos. The van that they use is a four row van with one set of double doors and windows that don't open. There was one guy sitting up in the front seat next to the driver who probably got great shots because he could shoot out of his open window at whatever wildlife we came across. For the rest of us, though, when wildlife was spotted and the van stopped, we would all climb out of the double doors, and by the time I got out from the back, the animals had for the most part been scared off. It was quite frustrating, and for some reason, there was no changing seats for the duration of the tour.

I have hiked a lot of the trails at the refuge and did not see nearly as many animals, but the nice part about being on foot was that I could be on my own schedule and not be frustrated by the limitations of the van and tour.

I was a little leery of taking a van ride to begin with, but I had taken a good tour in Denali where you could shoot through open windows, so I was optimistic. Unfortunately, this was not the case here.

So overall, a mixed review -- the tour was free, but you get what you pay for in this case...