Earlier this week, just before the mayoral election, reporter Ted Gregory and I got an email from the folks at the Nature Conservancy’s Nachusa Grasslands with an unexpected surprise; One of the bison had a calf.
Because of the election and other projects I was working on I couldn’t get out there right away. But yesterday I drove out to have a look at the little one. I have to say thanks again to Bill Kleiman and Cody Considine for always welcoming me out at Nachusa and a big thanks to Kirk Hallowell for driving me out to find the mom and calf, not an easy job.
It took us a little bit to find the pair and when we did the calf wasn’t immediately visible. She was laying in the grass snug up against mom with a cover of tall grass blocking any view. Kirk and I stayed back and sat with the herd, just waiting and watching. I was hoping to get a tight shot of the calf so I was photographing with a Canon 600mm f/4 IS II lens and a 2x extender to essentially give me a 1200mm f/8 lens on a 1DX camera body. This allowed us to stay far away from the herd so as not to disturb them, but still get close shots. After waiting for a short while one bison got up and started to move, then another, and another. Before long the whole group was up and moving and then then little orange calf stood out easily among the dark adults.
I photographed the mom and calf as they moved with the herd, then Kirk and I circled back around away from the bison so as not give them the sense we were pursuing them. Instead we went away from the animals and came back around to the front of them. We moved along the fence line on foot and I was able to get some last frames of the mom and calf before needing to transmit images back to the newspaper.
Today one of my photos of the mom and calf landed on the front page of the print edition. It’s great to see so many people taking an interest in the project and the bison herd. It’ll be fun to go back out there when there’s a bunch of the little ones running around. It’s a great opportunity to see a new generation growing up in Illinois.
Ted Gregory’s story on the new addition to the Nachsua herd can be read HERE.
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