By Stan Tekiela
I am not a stranger to getting up at O’ dark thirty, to be able to get out and capture some images of wildlife. Over the past 40 years I would say it is definitely in the hundreds if not thousands of times I’ve dragged myself out of bed so early. So, last week when the alarm went off at 4 am it wasn’t a surprise. For what felt like the millionth time, I got up and got ready to go out.
I grabbed a few snacks for breakfast and a bottle of water and headed out to my truck. Sometimes I think my truck is getting tired of this early morning routine, but my old truck fired up and we headed out on the road. It was a short drive before I exited the main road and got onto a series of dusty gravel roads. Many miles later, with a cloud of dirt bellowing behind me, I pulled up to the desired location.
Of course, it was still dark, so I needed to gather up all my camera gear by feeling around in the dark taking care not to drop anything. I wasn’t sure which of my large lenses I should take with me. I thought about it for a minute weighing the pros and cons of each lens. I finally settled on the shorter of the two long lenses. I mounted the lens and camera on the tripod, grabbed a few extra batteries and made sure I had memory cards.
First, I slung my chair blind on my back and strapped on my short lens over my shoulder. Next, I hoisted my big camera and tripod over my right shoulder. This is more of a balancing act than anything. It’s so heavy and all the weight lands only on my right shoulder. Altogether, the blind and camera gear weighed well over 40 pounds.
I figured I had everything I needed so I headed out walking in the dark. The overnight temperatures were below freezing and so there was a layer of frost on the grass. It was a very long walk out to the location I needed to be before the sun came up. Looking to my right I could see a glow on the eastern horizon. The sun was on its way. I needed to get going.
About 20 minutes later, I was winded and breathing heavily from the long trek. I could see the area I needed to be, so I set up my chair blind and aligned my tripod and camera facing the right direction. I sat down and pulled the blind material over my head, and just-like-that, I was covered up and hidden except for the front of my lens sticking out.
Now it was time to make sure I have everything I might need within easy reach while it was still dark. Too much moving around will scare the birds, so preparation is important to a successful shoot. I knew shortly the sun would come up and the birds would be arriving. I was out in the middle of an extremely large windswept prairie area and the Greater Prairie Chicken’s would soon be arriving on their traditional booming ground.