While out railfanning

[Warren]

Saw this guy while out railfanning and got a pretty good shot just seconds before he took off. He looked to be between 2 and 3 feet tall! Thirty years ago you would have seen maybe a handfull of them and today I must have seen forty or fifty of them along the Mississippi in St. Charles County. They are not so easy to get so close too and I don't have a good enough lens to get a good photo from a distance so I thought I would share this lucky shot with you all.

[JimThias]

Nice catch, Warren. I'd love to see one of those around these parts. We have large hawks and other predator birds of the like, but so far I haven't spotted a bald eagle here.

By the way, this thread title sounds like a great subject for pictures of odd & ends that you catch while out railfanning. Someone should start one.

[Christopher Muller]

I also like to shoot eagles and sometimes other birds when I'm out. If I wanted to see an eagle, I could very easily do so as I live on the Chippewa National Forest near Cass Lake - who's town motto is "Where Eagles Soar".

[Carl Becker]

Originally Posted by JimThias

By the way, this thread title sounds like a great subject for pictures of odd & ends that you catch while out railfanning.

No picture here, but a good thread since I forgot to post earlier about a bizarre scene from a few weeks ago...

While waiting for this thing a few weeks ago:

PhotoID: 219983 Photograph © Carl Becker

I pulled up to another location to see if I could see it yet (in the middle of our city). Some distance away, I noticed a pickup pulling a trailer (and not a railroad vehicle) parked in the railroad property right up by the track (trespassing!). I zoomed in with my camera (360 mm) to see what they were doing, and got a sight of something I didn't want to see...the passenger outside of the truck taking a leak. They noticed shortly afterward that they had been spotted and seemed to leave in quite a hurry...

~Carl Becker

[JRMDC]

Originally Posted by JimThias

Nice catch, Warren. I'd love to see one of those around these parts. We have large hawks and other predator birds of the like, but so far I haven't spotted a bald eagle here.

The Potomac Eagle tourist RR in Romney, WV says they have a 90% success rate in seeing eagles; the run goes through a gorge that is not highway accessible.

[JimThias]

Originally Posted by JRMDC

The Potomac Eagle tourist RR in Romney, WV says they have a 90% success rate in seeing eagles; the run goes through a gorge that is not highway accessible.

While out railfanning one time, I got this picture...



Chessie LIVES!

I tell you what, if we had bald eagles around here, that cat wouldn't have lasted more than a couple of minutes out running along the rails.

[WembYard]

I have never seen anything as impressive as an eagle to photograph. Have seen quite a few foxes, this one was quite brave - I was a matter of feet away standing on a station platform.



This friendly cat in Germany would not us leave alone and followed us all round the station



Other catches include ducks, a stoat and a squirrel fishing for discarded chips (fries) in a litter (garbage) bin

[gbrozny]

Last summer I was setting up for a shot, I heard behind me the sound of what I thought was someone throwing a rock and it falling short of me, I turn around and see this guy sitting in the ballast:



I then look up thinking he got dropped by a hawk, as he hit the ground hard. After a few moments he got up and generally kept within a few ft of me up until the sun set that evening.

[Ween]

I saw this guy at the Amtrak Station. It's a Yellow-headed Blackbird. I'm used to seeing Red-winged Blackbirds, just not these suckers...

[JimThias]

Originally Posted by Ween

I saw this guy at the Amtrak Station. It's a Yellow-headed Blackbird. I'm used to seeing Red-winged Blackbirds, just not these suckers...

Wow, I don't think I've ever seen on of those. We have tons of red-winged blackbirds here, too. And then we have these...





Mess with my girl again, and I WILL throw you off this rail!

[Ween]

Why shotguns were invented...I hate those things!

[foss0244]

Originally Posted by Ween

I saw this guy at the Amtrak Station. It's a Yellow-headed Blackbird. I'm used to seeing Red-winged Blackbirds, just not these suckers...

Man, its been a few years since I've seen one of those. For a couple summers in a row I had two of them hanging around the wetland behind my house with all the regular red wing blackbirds

[JBCagle7073]

The Ring Necked long legged things appear to be Killdeer. They tend to stay on the ground a good bit, and also nest there. When they lay eggs they will act injured to distract a predator away from the nest. A friend of mine's girlfriend picked up one with hopes of rehabilitating it until she called me and I pointed out nothing was wrong with it.

[Ween]

Speaking of 'ring-neck', here's a shot of a Ringed-neck Pheasant and Peter CottonTail I saw while out in June...

[EMTRailfan]

Originally Posted by gbrozny

Last summer I was setting up for a shot, I heard behind me the sound of what I thought was someone throwing a rock and it falling short of me, I turn around and see this guy sitting in the ballast:



I then look up thinking he got dropped by a hawk, as he hit the ground hard. After a few moments he got up and generally kept within a few ft of me up until the sun set that evening.

One of these guys would not leave us alone a few years back when we were rapelling. He wasn't trying to attack us or anything, just seemed like he was a lost puppy or something, and kept following us. My brother actually layed down on the ground, and it came over and sat inches from his head.

[JimThias]

Originally Posted by Ween

Speaking of 'ring-neck', here's a shot of a Ringed-neck Pheasant and Peter CottonTail I saw while out in June...

Nice catch. I see a few of those pheasants around here in the country quite often.

[foss0244]

I encountered this buck while walking through a "nature center" to get to the BNSF mainline that runs parallel to the here. Never thought that I'd get so close to wild deer, but its happened a few times. This idiot actually ran closer to me, within about 5 feet. Lucky urban deer have no fear and will never know hunting season. Sorry that the pic is bad quality. It was a heavily wooded area and I sure wasn't expecting this.

[Railfan Ohio]

Over the summer, my dad and I were about a half mile back from a road crossing on the Cumbres and Toltec. The train was fighting hard up the grade, and scaring all sorts of wild life on its way. Just as it came into view, my dad hit me and pointed to my left. A deer was charging almost at me and I managed to grab a shot of it with my P&S without time to think. Its blurry as hell, but there you go.

[Wonka001]

I've photographed skunks on the tracks before, unfortunately I forgot to reset my ISO, they were grainy, and they aren't on my computer at home.

[JimThias]

Originally Posted by Wonka001

I've photographed skunks on the tracks before, unfortunately I forgot to reset my ISO, they were grainy, and they aren't on my computer at home.

So what you're saying is, the shots are a bit...skunky?

[trainboysd40]

*slaps Jim with an albacore*

[SDavey]

You can also see pheasants in the Middle of Detroit. One scared the crap out of me about a month ago when it flew out from under some brush near the tracks when I was trying to shoot a CN Train with a new SD70M-2 and an old Algoma SD40-2.

Not a fan of deer anymore either after bagging my first one this fall….With my Chevrolet.

[JRMDC]

Originally Posted by SDavey

Not a fan of deer anymore either after bagging my first one this fall….With my Chevrolet.

Funny! I hope that didn't cost you too much.