Pa Elk .Com

We took this video yesterday while on Winslow Hill in Benezette Pa. The quality of the video is not so great because we were totally not prepared and just happened upon this one while out for a drive. It appears to be a 6X6 but I could not be sure.

At about 46 seconds in the elk lets out a really nice Bugle and started to move down into the woods. I did not stay to catch more than one bugle since I was parked in a pull off and I don’t like staying on the side of the road for long, but I heard him several more times from the viewing area that was about a quarter of a mile from here.

For those who want to hear elk bugling first hand, now is the time to get out there. Right now you can hear them at just about any time during the day and late into the night as they are getting ready for the rut.

When you ask most Pa Elk  pros they will tell you that going up on Winslow Hill in Benezette Pa is a great choice to see mature bull elk. What they don’t know is it is not the best place to go in Benezette. There is a little known location very close to Winslow Hill that few know about and even fewer take the time to visit. Ironically, it is way easier to locate elk there and many people drive right through it without ever knowing there are so many there.

Here are a couple of the elk I saw at my “secret spot” when there were none to be found on Winslow Hill.

This one was way off in the distance standing on the crest of a hill. It was hard to get a good picture because there were a lot of weeds between it and I, plus the bull would not stay still. Read the rest of this entry »

We were at our camp in Benezette Pa this past weekend (7/31 – 8/02), and as usual we took several trips up to the designated elk viewing areas there. Here are some photos we took while at the Primary viewing area. (The one that has the visitors center, lecture area, benches…. If you are coming from the Benezette Store up Winslow Hill it is the second viewing area you get to and is located on the left hand side of the road.)

In this photo you can see the field off in a distance where you are most likely to see elk from this viewing area. On most days to get a close up look you will need a good set of binoculars or a spotting scope. On the good days you will have elk standing only a few feet away from you in the designated “Human Viewing Area” checking you out just as much as you are checking them out.

This is a photo from the right side of the viewing area looking back away from the lecture pavilion. This is actually only a small part of the actual viewing area where you can stand or sit, but since I had the wrong lens on my camera I could not get a wide shot. In any case there are several benches and picnic tables here  and along the rock wall there are informational plaques as well. All in all it is a good place to come and relax and see some elk.

This is the Visitors Information Center, where (when open) you can speak with a Game Commission officer as well as collect elk pamphlets and fliers and get an up close look at a Pa bull elk by checking out the huge stuffed one they have in there. (See Photo Below!)

Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you who are avid PA elk watchers, chances are you have also taken a gander at the mural on the side of this barn. It is very common to see elk in this yard, but on this day they seemed to be especially interested in the mural. At one point all three of these bulls were standing side by side staring at it like it meant something to them.

Actually, it does mean something to them. Food is near. Not only do they have green grass to munch on here, there are fruit trees not too far away.

So, if you are out looking for elk and you see this barn you are on the right track!

I was browsing back through some of my old photos and found this cute little guy staring back at me. This is actually one of the very first elk I photographed. This picture was taken roughly 7 years ago while I was out hiking near our camp.

I remember being amazed that this elk, by all accounts, was still a baby; however, he was larger than most of the mature whitetail that I was used to seeing. I also remember wondering how those skinny, knobby kneed legs can hold up those massive animals.

I found another picture of this huge bull elk that gave a closer look at his awesome rack. Not only is it fantastic because of its size, but the remnants of its velvet just hanging there like it was melting off was really neat as well.

As you can see in the background this bull had captured more than our attention. These folks were part of a long string of people lined up on route 555 to take a look at him. You can completely understand why, but we have to mention that stopping in the road like this is both dangerous to you in the car and rather annoying to those behind you who are trying to get somewhere.

So, when you see an animal like this that you just have to see, find a safe and legal place to pull over to view it. When there is nowhere to pull over and you want to see it, you may just have to be satisfied with seeing it in passing. Stopping or even drastically slowing in a situation where the other drivers are likely to be distracted as well can be a recipe for a good ole fashioned fender bender.

Since elk have to constantly eat to keep up their weight most of the photos you get of them will be of them out having a snack. Here are a couple of the pics I have taken of them out grabbing a snack.

One of the best times to catch a glimpse of a big Pa bull elk is when they are out just before dusk grazing in the fields. This fella was standing a few feet from a local camp munching away.

Another great way to catch up to big elk is to learn their travel patterns and favorite snacking spots. You can almost set your watch by this guy as he travels from one grazing area to the next. If you look carefully behind him you can see the fence set up to keep the elk out, but trust me it does not work on this guy.

This bull (#57) is another example of a creature of habit. I see this bull on a regular basis, however he tends to travel quite a bit. It appears to me that he has a route he travels with consistency, but instead of it being a daily route it seems that he has a large territory he travels over the course of several days. About every 3 days or so he makes it back to this spot, but the other times I seem him he is up to 2 miles away from here.

This is one of my favorite photos of an elk eating. This guy stopped chomping long enough to check me out and had a leaf hanging out the side of his mouth. I took several photos of this bull while he was eating and several of them turned out like this with food hanging out.

Tip For Locating Pa Elk:

A rule of thumb to follow when looking for elk grazing is to check early in the A.M. when they are just waking up and are hungry, just before dusk when they are getting a pre sleep snack and just before a weather front passes through when they are trying to get a bite before a storm.

These two young bulls were testing out their sparring abilities on each other just outside our camp. This was just a couple of pals rattling their antlers together and not a full on battle, but it was still a lot of fun to see. The one on the right had a much larger rack than the other but that did not stop the little guy from giving the big one a few good pokes here and there.

They sparred for about 10 minutes and then walked about 100 yards and bedded down. I saw them several times over the course of the next few days and they were never more than a few yards from each other.

This big boy was out for a stroll at the same time I was and neither of us realized the other was there until we were within about 20 yards of each other. He browsed around for a while keeping tabs on where I was, but since the Elk here are so used to people he never ran off. I actually moved on well before he did.

This is another nice young bull that I came across on one of my walks. He seemed to be very fascinated with me and was way more wary of me than the bull above. He kept me down wind as I walked and seemed to be keeping me in a clear line of sight as I moved through the woods. I got several really nice pictures of this one on this day as well as a couple cows he seemed to be tending.

We took a picture of this huge bull Elk late one evening on our way back from DuBois. It was lounging in a yard in Bennezette Pa. This big guy had traffic backed up for quite some distance. In fact this is probably the largest (antler size) Bull we have seen in Benezette to date. From our best count this was an 13 X 11.