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A day out hiking up from the Col de la Cayolle (2327 m.) to the Col de la Petite Cayolle (2639 m.) on the GR56B. There are still significant populations of alpine mammals in this area although they are shy of humans and are difficult to spot against the rocks. We stopped and watched with long lenses the wildlife above the tree line, the ground recently cleared of the winter snow and ice. A pack of Bouquetin moving around and a number of Marmottes, both adults basking in the sun and their young learning to fight.
Marmottes eat grass but are fiercely territorial and hierarchical, to the extent that the male of one family will kill the young of another. Marmottes dig deep burrows in which they hibernate. Bouquetin are alpine goats, a variety of Ibex and are much larger than a Chamois, they stay far from humans and are difficult to spot against the rocks.
GR56B
Looking down to the Col de la Cayolle (2324 m.)
Milky Way and stars seen from Barcelonnette (1130 m.)
- We got much closer to the Bouquetin above the Col du Grand St. Bernard in 2016 Bucatan - Bouquetin
Photography note:
Interesting those photos, they were at the top of a hike so weight of the camera was important. I used the Lumix TZ90 rather than the 300mm telephoto on the Nikon DSLR. It was so bright the problem was seeing in the viewfinder, back screen was useless. Lumix was giving 1/1000 at f8 and ASA80.
The Lumix was at max telephoto 129 mm. which is equivalent to 720mm in full-frame terms. So to get the same magnification, a full-frame from my 300mm would need to be cropped more than 50%.
So although my photos aren’t the sharpest, some of the blur is camera shake and some is haze. But I don’t think I’d have done much better with the mirrorless DX format camera. A tripod would have been better value for money and for weight. Getting closer to the animals isn’t an option as a casual hiker, you have to camp out for that.
Lessons for next time.