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

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

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

IN RUGGED TERRAIN

Upper part of the Pine Creek Unit in the Driftless Area National Wildlife Refuge.

It was a perfect fall day with sunshine and warm temperatures yesterday and as mentioned in my last blog post the leaves suddenly got the colors of autumn. I went out west to revisit a couple areas with unique features that make the Driftless Area standing out from most parts of the Midwest. First I hiked into the Pine Creek Unit of the Driftless Area National Wildlife Refuge near Colesburg, Iowa. I had scouted this location already in early June and wrote about it here in the blog. It was recommended as a good birding location and here is a link to my earlier post: https://exnerimages.net/blog/2025/6/1/scouted-a-new-location

White-crowned Sparrow

Most birds have migrated south already but I found a few White-crowned Sparrows feeding on berries and seeds in the brushes at the edge of the woods. Nothing says more about the season than having the bird perched next to some ripe berries in a bush almost bare of its leaves.

Rugged slope in the Pine Creek Valley

This time I wanted to get a little deeper into the area. The slope down to the pine creek valley is very rugged and there are no trails at all. Be forewarned, thick and thorny underbrush make it a challenge to hike with photo equipment! However, with the turning leaves and a little bit of sunshine you will see some beauty, hardly found in any other part of Iowa.

GONE SOUTH SINCE TWO WEEKS

You can tell where this bird got its name from

These two photos were made a month before I saw the last Ruby-throated Hummingbird during this year’s season at the feeders that hang at our porch or from a shepherd’s hook in the front yard. The final buzz from the wings of a migrating hummer was detected the last day in September this year. Nevertheless, we still left the feeders out until now. No reason to throw the sugar water that is used for hummingbird food away since many wasps used them still for feeding. Our pollinators are as important as the birds!

We only have this one species of hummingbirds here in Iowa and every nature lover who lives here will be happy to see them again at the end of April or during the first days of May next year.

I shot these images from a tripod and with just a hint of flash to reveal the bird’s colors during the late afternoon, and with limited natural light here in the woods.

Male juvenile hummingbird displays strength against the rivals near a feeding source

NATURE CLICKS #614 - YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS

Yellow-rumped Warbler, Frenchtown County Park, Guttenberg, Iowa

A bunch of Yellow-rumped Warblers spent the Sunday afternoon feeding from berries (Bittersweet?) and cleaning their feathers at the banks of the Mississippi River in Frenchtown Park near Guttenberg, Iowa. The one in the first photo must have taken a bath in the river. His feathers were wet and the bird cleaned and dried them in the sun.

I was out practicing with a new piece of equipment I got as a gift last month, a monopod with a small gimbal head. I want to use it mainly for small bird photography in locations that are difficult to access with a heavier tripod. I will report about it in a later post sometime.

The small ramp at Frenchtown County Park is hardly used for boat access anymore. I have seen Yellow-rumped Warblers there before but was surprised how many were present this time.

SENSE OF FALL

Savannah Sparrow, Green Island, eastern Iowa

A big house project came to an end on Friday and I finally found the time to go out with the camera again and shoot some pictures. The photo above was made about 40 minutes before sunset at the edge of a field that was already harvested. The warm rim light on the dried up flower pods intrigued me and all the elements, including some spider web threads, give the photo of this sparrow a sense of fall.

Male Red-winged Blackbird, Green Island Wetlands

Thousands of Red-winged Blackbirds congregate in the wetlands along the Mississippi River at the moment and feed or rest during their migration to warmer areas in the south. If the winter is mild, as we had it during the last couple years, some of them will even stay here or at least return very early. I have photos in my picture library that were made in February.

END OF SUMMER THOUGHTS

Monarch, Mud Lake, Mississippi Valley, Iowa

Summer comes to an end slowly but surely and beside falling leaves from the trees many other indicators can tell the story about a changing season. Temperatures are still quite a bit above average but the number of flowers and butterflies is getting lower every day. I talked to some other nature friends recently and most said they have seen more Monarch butterflies this year then during the last couple years. However, the number of Monarchs have been in decline during recent decades and every trend in reverse is a sign of hope that this species may survive. I take every opportunity to make a click with the camera when I see a Monarch, hoping that this will never end.

Monarch, Mines of Spain, Mississippi Valley, Iowa