I had the chance to travel to Elk County PA this weekend to photograph the Elk there. An amazing story of man and conservation has brought the species back to the area.
I was lucky enough to get some great shots of them. There are 2 herds of Elk in PA, the domestic herd and the wild herd. The domestic herd have tags and radio collars on them, but the wild herd does not. Here is some history about the PA Elk

Elk were exterminated in southeastern Pennsylvania and rare west of the Allegheny River and in the Blue Ridge and Cumberland mountains by the opening of the nineteenth century. By the late 1840s, they were gone in the southwestern Pennsylvania and from the Pocono Plateau. By the 1850s, what remained of Pennsylvania's once mighty elk population was limited to sections of north central Pennsylvania, predominantly in Cameron, Elk and McKean counties.

In 1913, Pennsylvania's first shipment of Yellowstone elk arrived by train. The 50 elk cost about $30 each. Half of the Wyoming wapiti shipment went to Clinton County, the other half to Clearfield County. An additional 22 elk were bought from a Monroe County preserve that year. Twelve were released on state lands in Monroe County and the remainder on a Centre County preserve.

I had a chance to visit the local watering hole early yesterday morning. I spent a few hours there working this fellow. When I first got there he was sitting in a near by tree preening himself. As it turned out he was preening himself for about 40 minutes. I waited and waited and finally he decided to take flight and look for some food. I was ready! Since the water level in the pond is very low it worked to my advantage since he had to come closer to me to hunt for food. He was not only hunting for minnows but he was also grabbing dragon flies right out of the air.