SNOW / ROSS’S GEESE AT HAGERMAN NWR, TEXAS

Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, Texas

We skipped the first snowstorm here in Iowa and spent instead a few more days in northern Texas. Our campsite was in Eisenhower State Park at Lake Texoma but the real destination of this trip was just half an hour away, the Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. It was two days of intensive bird watching and photography. The highlight at this time of the season is a large number of Snow and Ross’s Geese that come down from the arctic regions and spent the winter in the wetlands of Hagerman refuge.

Snow and Ross’s Geese, Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, Texas

The Friends of Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge have an excellent website and they perform a weekly bird census, that is mainly done for research but helps to prepare for such a trip as ours and gives you an idea what to look for. https://friendsofhagerman.com/

I like to share a few photos from Tuesday last week and the bird census for that day shows an estimate of 6000 geese that were present, Beside that, over 80 species of birds were counted by the volunteers. We have of course not seen all of them but still enough to make it two memorable days.

Snow Geese, Blue morph with a white in the background

Maybe something had spooked the whole flock of geese and suddenly they were all up in the air

The photography can be overwhelming at times. What tells the story better, the flock of geese as a whole or the shot of some individuals? It is not always easy to separate the birds from each other in the viewfinder and getting an impression about the large number of birds seems to be important as well.

The geese feed on fresh wheat in the refuge, planted by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

AFTER THE RAIN

Historical stockyard in Fort Worth, Texas

This photo may leave the question, what is really the subject here? Is it the remains of the old stockyard in the foreground, the impressive clouds in the background, or even the rainbow that appeared while the rain front moved out of the area? For me it is the overall mood of the weather, combined with the warm light from the low sitting sun on the wood of the livestock pens. None of each mentioned element in the frame would stand out on its own, it’s the light and colors that bring it all together for a memorable image.

GREETING AND WARNING

Black-tailed Prairie Dog performing a "jump-yip"

Prairie dogs are highly social animals and within a family group many ways of greeting or alarming each other are performed. We visited the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge a couple days ago and found two prairie dog towns in the grassland among several other habitats, like a lake and marshy areas. We love prairie dogs and despite a pretty harsh light situation around their burrows we couldn’t resist to point the lens at these funny and entertaining ground squirrels.

Black-tailed Prairie Dogs greeting each other, Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge near Azle, Texas

NATURE CLICKS #616 - NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD

Northern Mockingbird, Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge near Azle, Texas

Happy Thanksgiving or Happy Turkey Day, as some prefer to say! Instead of showing a picture of a Wild Turkey I can present you a photo of a Northern Mockingbird. It was shot yesterday in the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge near Azle, Texas. The mockingbird is the state bird for several states, including Texas. It was a lifer for me and this bird has been for a long time on my ”most wanted list”.

WATCHING EACH OTHER

White-tailed Deer, Mississippi River, dam #9, near Harpers Ferry

A hike on top of dam #9 at the Mississippi River, which is north of Harpers Ferry, didn’t lead to any good bird photography today. Well, that doesn’t really matter, the weather was just gorgeous and being outside under a blue sky in November is priceless. Walking back to the car at the Iowa access to the dam (the lock is at the other end on the Wisconsin side) I saw a deer crossing the dam. I didn’t expect to see it again when I came closer, but here it was, standing in the grass below the dam. The beautiful looking doe lifted its head and became aware of me, but still gave me a little time to put the monopod on the ground, frame the shot, and make a few clicks. The background shows the deer’s habitat quite well but it’s also busy. I tried to minimize the impact of the busy background without loosing the story and cropped the final photo a bit on three sides.

Nikon Z6 III, Nikon NIKKOR Z 600 f/6.3 VR S, Nikon Z TC-1.4x, Benro MSDPL46C SupaDupa Monopod, Monopod Gimbal Head    @ 840mm, 1/320s, f/9, ISO 1600, image cropped

NUTHATCH COUSINS

White-breasted Nuthatch, Nov 22, 2025

Since about three weeks I see a Red-breasted Nuthatch visiting our bird feeders occasionally. I even got a couple documentary shots but nothing worth to showcase yet. They prefer the coniferous forests in Canada, northern Minnesota, or Wisconsin as their breeding territory and may migrate south for the winter. We don’t see them every year and the last one I photographed before was in 2022.

Their cousins, the White-breasted Nuthatch, is here in our woods year around. They had a successful breeding season in 2025 and we saw a number of juveniles during the summer. This bird comes to the feeders quite often. Both nuthatch species are not very shy most of the time. I watched them picking up sunflower seeds at a feeder while I was cleaning the bird bath only a few feet away. Not many birds are so brave.

I hope the Red-breasted Nuthatch stays here during the winter and I can get a chance again to make a shot of this great looking winter guest. The picture below is from October 30, 2020 and was published here in the blog before in a slightly different version.

Red-breasted Nuthatch, Oct 30, 2020

LATE FALL, GREAT LIGHT

American Goldfinch

I’m a big advocate for not neglecting the most common birds around the neighborhood for our wildlife photography. Yes, we may see them a lot more often than for example the Carolina Wren, who I wrote about here a few days ago, but the stories of these birds can be told quite often in a very elegant way with our photos. Since they are present all year around, we can be very choosy about the light we want to get their pictures in. We don’t have to make the click when the light just sucks because our permanent residents will be back every day.

Male House Finch

The time after the peak of fall and just before winter arrives is always good for creating some photos of the birds that call our woods home. During the late afternoon or in the early evening, just before the sun disappears behind the other side of the valley, the light is warm, but still crisp, and since almost all leaves are on the ground we don’t have to deal with dappled light and the leaves don’t cast a green tint onto our subjects. I don’t even think about employing a speed light for color improvements. The natural light is just gorgeous.

Black-capped Chickadee

I hope this little post encourages you to get your camera out and look around, even if most of the less common birds are gone and probably about to arrive at their migration destinations somewhere south of the Midwest in the US, or in Central or South America.

American Robin

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2025 #7 - AURORA BOREALIS

Aurora borealis over Wisconsin, near Balltown, Upper Mississippi Valley, Iowa, @11:25PM

According to many posts in social media, It wasn’t the big show of the aurora borealis like as the day before, but at least we were able to get out Wednesday night and see the Northern Lights. The view goes across the Mississippi Valley over to Wisconsin. Although the area isn’t densely populated but every farm up to the horizon had their lights on and due to low humidity we had a really clear view into the sky and across the country.

I had the white balance in camera set to 3200 Kelvin. With the lens wide open (f/4) I found that exposure times between 3-6 seconds worked well. The light on the grass in the foreground was welcome and came from a car that drove by. I think it gives the photo a little more depth, even if it is just a hint of light. The most difficult part is obtaining a sharp focus in the dark. Autofocus is of course not working and with manual focus I did a number of test shots until I found the sweet spot with the stars at the infinity point.

Noise reduction for such an image is a must but I do not any noise reduction in camera. It was done in Topaz Photo AI and even some additional tweaks in Adobe Lightroom.

This photo session was a great learning experience for me and I can’t wait until I hear the next rumors about the possibility of seeing the Northern Lights from our area.

Nikon Z6 III, Nikon Nikkor 16-35 mm f/4, Nikon FTZ adapter, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, RRS BH-55 ball head,    @ 16mm, 3s, f/4, ISO 10000,

NATURE CLICKS #615 - CAROLINA WREN

Carolina Wren, Little Maquoketa Valley, Eastern Iowa

At this time of the year the birds are pretty quiet, they are not singing, but still communicate with chirps and chatter. We are very fortunate to have a pair of Carolina Wrens around here and the male performs sometimes his beautiful song. This can happen early in the morning, right next to the bedroom window, and it is nice to start the day like that. The Carolina Wrens are often in the underbrush or on the ground and it is not easy to get them in front of the lens. Sometimes I can hear them chattering together but hardly see them out in the open. Today I was lucky and the male showed some interest for one of our suet feeders that are provided for the woodpeckers and nuthatches. I was able to make a few clicks and I’m happy to share a picture with you.

Nikon Z6 III, Nikon NIKKOR Z 600 f/6.3 VR S, Nikon Z TC-1.4x, Benro MSDPL46C SupaDupa Monopod, Monopod Gimbal Head    @ 840mm, 1/1000s, f/9, ISO 3200, image cropped

BEAVER MOON

Moonrise over the Mississippi River, Mud Lake, Iowa

Today the full moon was at its closest point to the earth this year in its orbit, making it look up to 14% larger and also brighter than a typical full moon. In November it’s called the Beaver Supermoon.

The interesting part for the photographer was the fact that moonrise and sunset were pretty close together. At the location where I made this photo moonrise was at 4:38PM and sunset was at 4:50PM. It takes about 12-13 minutes before the moon appears over the bluffs on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River, with other words it was almost identical with sunset time. Why was that important to me? It leaves some light on the landscape, at least a little glow. I exposed for the moon in order to keep the details alive and not to blow out the highlights. The woods on the other side of the river appear at first darker, but there is enough dynamic range in the RAW file to bring back the light in the trees as the human eye sees it. In this situation there is no need to make a composite out of two shots, one for the moon and another one for the rest, it all is the result of one click.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, RRS BH-55 ball head,    @ 200mm, 1/20s, f/8, ISO100

AUTUMN LIGHT IN B&W, MORE IMPACT

Autumn light at the Popple River, Forest County, Wisconsin

I shot at this location for the first time in January 2014 and since I have done it several times over the years. It is in the middle of nowhere, deep in the woods of northern Wisconsin, where a small bridge crosses the Popple River. I have paddled it this summer for the first time and wrote about here in the blog, and it was an incredible experience. In 2014 the ice on the river was covered with a real thick layer of snow and any time I have been there a different photo was made from the bridge.

Last weekend the sun shined some warm late afternoon light into the bend of the river, but with most leaves already gone, and a bald and boring blue sky, the color version of the picture didn’t really speak to me. With the reflections of illuminated trees on the water I knew a black and white version would be a possibility and that’s what in my opinion made for a fall photo with more impact at the end.

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S,   @ 70 mm, 1/400 s, f/8, ISO 400, image slightly cropped

EARLY MORNING MOMENT

A short view through the window this morning made me run for the camera. The settings for this shot are simple, f/22 for the sunburst and 7000 Kelvin for the white balance. There wasn’t enough time to set the tripod up for a long exposure of 0.4 seconds and so I just put the camera body on the railing of the balcony. A little breeze made the leaves moving slightly but I don’t think it hurts the mood of this moment during the early morning.

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S,   @ 37 mm, 0.4 s, f/22, ISO 640

EARLY MORNING PORTRAIT

White-tailed Deer, Little Maquoketa Valley, eastern Iowa

I have not seen any buck of a White-tailed Deer here in our woods this fall season so far, but does and fawns that were born earlier in spring love the safety of our neighborhood and stay in the area all year long.

During the early morning a single doe walked carefully through the woods behind the house today. Nothing unusual, but with the rising sun in the background I felt there was a chance to make a click.

Nikon Z6 III, Nikon NIKKOR Z 600 f/6.3 VR S, Nikon Z TC-1.4x,    @ 840mm, 1/125s, f/9, ISO 3200, image slightly cropped

BIRDING IN THE NORTHWOODS OF WISCONSIN

Bastile Lake, Forest County, Wisconsin

I spent an extended weekend at a friend’s cabin up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Much of the area belongs to the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest or is private land and is the home of White-tailed Deer, Black Bears, wolves, and other critters. Although I saw a young bear in August this year, my aim was to find a small bird again, some Snow Buntings migrating south. However, luck was not on my side, a flock of these fast moving birds came in sight a couple times, but never close enough for a photo. The picture below was shot already in 2023.

Snow Buntings, near Newald, Wisconsin, October 28, 2023

A few American Tree Sparrows were more cooperative and posed nicely while foraging for seeds in the vegetation beside a gravel road.

American Tree Sparrow,

Nikon Z6 III, Nikon NIKKOR Z 600 f/6.3 VR S, Benro MSDPL46C SupaDupa Monopod, Monopod Gimbal Head

TWO WAYS

Fall colors in Backbone State Park, eastern Iowa

Although it was at the same location, in Iowa’s Backbone State Park, and the shots were made only a few minutes apart, each scene required a different way to tell a story. The road through the woods crosses Fenchel Creek several times, a tributary to the Maquoketa River and very popular for trout fishing. With the jam of leaves in the foreground and the beautiful colors of the maple in the back, I had to stop and capture the arrangements of nature.

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S,   @ 70 mm, 1/4s, f/16, ISO 200, Polarized filter, GITZO tripod GT2931 Basalt, KIRK BH-3 ball head,

Former trout hatchery, Backbone State Park

Ten minutes earlier I stopped at a former trout hatchery that was operated until 1987. It was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1920s. The most visible remains of the hatchery are the circular ponds and this geometrical pattern triggered my desire to present the photo in black and white. No, I didn’t kill much of the fall colors, green dominates the scene, not just by the grass around the ponds, but the pines in the background hide most of the maples in the back. Well, the sky was just gray and I know a better picture can be made. A good reason to go back to the state park sometime soon…

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S,   @ 27 mm, 1/8s, f/16, ISO 200, Polarized filter, GITZO tripod GT2931 Basalt, KIRK BH-3 ball head,