lynx

This was near muncho lake, in the evening, so the light was not terribly good. I was in the lead and zoomed past. a small amount of motion caught my eye so I signaled to those behind that I had seen something. I was hesitant to turn around because something as prized as a lynx would not stick around. many have been to alaska, or lived in alaska for some time and never seen one. This was our third major game sighting, after caribou, and moose.

When we got back, the lynx was still there, eying us. I was sure it would be gone by the time I got the camera out, which is a major ordeal when you pack a camera as big as ours on the motorcycle, but it stuck around. I would estimate 3-5 minutes. it even curled up when I crossed the road to get closer to get some close ups. I large pickup passed and was very confused why we were crouched looking at the ditch. if you didn't know it was there, you couldn't see it. some pictures taken from only 30-40 foot away, with a 300mm zoom on the canon rebel. we haven't quite figured out the settings, but we put it on manual and bumped the ISO up to 800 and that seemed to help but also acounts for the grainyness of the pics. there was just enough light to get the autofocus to work, which was good as i'm not to terribly good at manual. the lense did not have the polarizer on it. if anyone wants a 3meg jpeg. email me.