The Big Woods
Bugling elk, drumming grouse, and black bears in the endless mountain forests. Penn's Woods is a photographer's paradise in every season.
Coming Trimester 3
Pennsylvania's special category arrives in trimester three — the Benezette elk rut, in all its bugling glory.
Elk
Black Bear
Every species counts toward the leaderboard. Watch-only species are protected — long lens, full distance, zero disturbance.
Classic captureOdocoileus virginianus
The east coast's most iconic big game animal. Most active at dawn and dusk, browsing on leaves, acorns, grasses, and crops. Watch field edges and travel corridors between bedding cover and food.
Where: Pinewoods, oak hammocks, farm edges, hardwood bottoms, and swamp margins across all four states.
Fun fact of the day: A whitetail can leap 8 feet high and clear 30 feet in a single bound — keep that shutter speed up.
Classic captureMeleagris gallopavo
Roosts in trees at night and feeds in openings on insects, acorns, and seeds. Famously sharp eyesight — camouflage and patience are your best lenses.
Where: Pine and hardwood mixes, creek bottoms, farms, and open woods. Osceola subspecies in central/south Florida; Eastern subspecies northward.
Fun fact of the day: Turkeys can see nearly 270 degrees around themselves and detect movement three times better than humans.
Classic captureSciurus carolinensis
The everyday acrobat of the eastern woods, feeding on acorns, nuts, and seeds, busiest in the mornings. A perfect species to practice your capture skills.
Where: Hardwood hammocks, oak woods, river bottoms, and city edges in every state.
Fun fact of the day: Gray squirrels bury thousands of acorns each fall and forget many — accidentally planting entire forests.
Classic captureSylvilagus floridanus
Hides tight in cover and feeds in the evening and early morning on grasses and weeds. When flushed it runs in short zig-zags — anticipate the pause for your shot.
Where: Brush piles, field edges, palmetto, old farms, briars, and grassy cover.
Fun fact of the day: A cottontail can hit 18 mph and almost always circles back to where it started.
Classic captureZenaida macroura
Fast flyers that feed on seeds, often near grain fields. Their whistling wings and mournful cooing are the soundtrack of southern mornings.
Where: Dove fields, farms, powerlines, and open ground in every state.
Fun fact of the day: Mourning doves can fly at 55 mph and drink without lifting their heads — rare among birds.
Classic captureScolopax minor
A ground bird with a long bill that probes soft soil for worms, famous for its springtime sky-dance display at dusk.
Where: Moist woods, thickets, alder runs, young forest, and creek bottoms.
Fun fact of the day: Woodcocks bob and rock as they walk — a dance move the internet has set to every song imaginable.
Classic captureCorvus brachyrhynchos
Smart, social, and endlessly entertaining. Crows feed on insects, carrion, and crops, and their group behavior makes for storytelling photos.
Where: Farms, pinewoods, suburbs, fields, and river corridors everywhere.
Fun fact of the day: Crows recognize individual human faces and hold grudges for years — smile for their camera too.
Classic captureProcyon lotor
The masked bandit of the east. Nocturnal, eating fruit, crayfish, eggs, and insects. Dusk near a creek is your best window for a wild capture.
Where: Creeks, swamps, farms, forests, and neighborhoods.
Fun fact of the day: Raccoons 'wash' their food not for cleanliness but because water heightens the sensitivity of their paws.
Classic captureCanis latrans
The ultimate adaptable predator, hunting rodents and rabbits and scavenging everything else. A clean coyote portrait takes serious fieldcraft.
Where: Farms, woods, suburbs, river valleys, and open country in every state.
Fun fact of the day: Coyotes and badgers sometimes hunt as a team — the badger digs, the coyote chases.
Trophy captureLynx rufus
Solitary and stealthy, hunting rabbits, rodents, and birds mostly at night, dawn, and dusk. Most people never see one — a wild bobcat photo is elite.
Where: Swamps, pine flatwoods, hammocks, rocky forests, and brush country.
Fun fact of the day: A bobcat can leap 10 feet to ambush prey, and its stubby 'bobbed' tail gives it its name.
Trophy capture — keep distanceUrsus americanus
Solitary and food-driven, with a sense of smell seven times sharper than a bloodhound's. Use a long lens and never approach or feed a bear.
Where: Large forests and swamps: Ocala NF, Big Cypress, north Georgia mountains, PA big woods, Adirondacks and Catskills.
Fun fact of the day: Black bears can run 35 mph — faster than an Olympic sprinter — and climb trees like it's nothing.
Classic captureBonasa umbellus
Pennsylvania's state bird. Explodes from cover in a heart-stopping flush and drums on logs in spring — a thundering wingbeat you feel more than hear.
Where: Young forest, mountain laurel, and aspen stands in north Georgia, Pennsylvania, and New York.
Fun fact of the day: A drumming grouse beats its wings up to 50 times in 10 seconds, creating a sound like a starting engine.
Classic capturePhasianus colchicus
The males are outrageously photogenic — iridescent copper, emerald head, scarlet face. Often found in managed fields; listen for the harsh crowing call.
Where: Grasslands, farm fields, and managed game lands in Pennsylvania and New York.
Fun fact of the day: Pheasants would rather sprint than fly — they can run 10 mph through cover before flushing.
Classic captureLepus americanus
Changes coat from brown to pure white for winter. Finding one mid-molt — half brown, half white — is a rare seasonal capture.
Where: Young conifer forests and mountain thickets in northern Pennsylvania and the Adirondacks.
Fun fact of the day: Their huge hind feet act like snowshoes, letting them sprint across powder that swallows predators.
Classic captureMarmota monax
The famous burrowing weather-forecaster of Punxsutawney. Stands sentinel at its burrow entrance — approach low and slow for the classic upright pose.
Where: Pastures, field edges, and roadside burrows.
Fun fact of the day: A woodchuck moves about 700 pounds of dirt digging a single burrow system.
Trophy captureVulpes vulpes
Photogenic, quick, and alert — hunting mice, rabbits, birds, and insects. A fox mousing in snow, mid-pounce, is one of wildlife photography's holy grails.
Where: Farms, field edges, suburbs, and brushy areas.
Fun fact of the day: Red foxes may use Earth's magnetic field to aim their signature high-arc pounce on hidden prey.
Trophy capturePekania pennanti
A large, dark forest weasel that flows over logs like liquid shadow. One of the few predators that regularly hunts porcupines.
Where: Dense northern forests of Pennsylvania and New York.
Fun fact of the day: Despite the name, fishers almost never eat fish — early fur traders named them after a European polecat.
Classic captureCastor canadensis
Nature's engineer. Dusk at a beaver pond almost guarantees action — tail slaps, lodge repairs, and V-shaped wakes in golden water.
Where: Ponds, slow creeks, and wooded wetlands.
Fun fact of the day: Beaver dams can be seen from space — the largest known stretches over half a mile.
Classic captureBranta canadensis
Big, bold, and everywhere — but a low-light flight shot of a flock in V-formation still stops the scroll. Spring goslings are bonus material.
Where: Lakes, reservoirs, farms, golf-course ponds, and river valleys.
Fun fact of the day: Geese fly in a V because each bird rides the updraft of the one ahead, saving up to 30% energy.
Protected — watch onlyHaliaeetus leucocephalus
Federally protected. Never approach a nest — use a long lens from public viewpoints. A fish-grab sequence is the ultimate east coast capture.
Where: Rivers, lakes, and reservoirs — a comeback story across all four states.
Fun fact of the day: An eagle's grip is about ten times stronger than a human handshake.
Trophy captureCervus canadensis
Pennsylvania's restored elk herd numbers over 1,400 animals. September's rut brings bugling bulls into misty meadows — the east coast's greatest wildlife show.
Where: Reclaimed meadows and mountain forests around Benezette, Pennsylvania's elk country.
Fun fact of the day: A bull elk's bugle can carry for miles, a sound that vanished from Pennsylvania for 100 years before reintroduction.