A cold place to rest

This group first came into view at a range of about a half mile. Their eyesight is incredible, and I thought about that when I began to try to stalk them to within camera range, but I wasn’t quite sure about the sharpness of their hearing. The terrain made it fairly easy to keep out of sight until the range had been cut to about a hundred yards at which point I could tell that their ears are also pretty darn good. As I crept quietly through a veritable jungle of wild rose bushes the thorns tugged softly at my jacket, which has a velvety-like surface designed to be quiet in the brush and I could tell that they could hear the soft sounds from the thorns, enough to alert them but not alarm them. I was pleased that I was able to stalk within range for these photos without alarming the birds and even more pleased that I was able to then make an exit leaving them completely undisturbed.