SUDDEN SURPRISE

Cooper’s Hawk, Mines of Spain, Dubuque, Iowa

With all the snow on the ground that finally made for a ”real” winter here in eastern Iowa any place where birds are attracted to feeders would have been a good place for some wildlife photography today. I went to the E.B. Lyons Nature Center in the Mines of Spain, where the feeders are filled regularly by Ken, a photography friend and active birder. People of all ages can watch the birds from inside the nature center or like me, just stand outside between the trees and wait what happens.

While I watched a flock of Dark-eyed Juncos and American Tree Sparrows a much larger bird came suddenly from behind, flew right by me within a 3-4 feet distance, and finally landed in a nearby tree. This one was bigger than our Sharp-shinned Hawk and its rounded tail tells me it might be a Cooper’s Hawk. They are hard to tell apart from each other and I wasn’t able to see its chest pattern. Since all the little birds were long gone, the hawk didn’t waste any time and moved on after a few seconds.

Dark-eyed Junco

It didn’t take very long and all the woodpeckers, finches, nuthatches, chickadees, and sparrows came back to the bird feeder area at the nature center. The Dark-eyed Juncos feed mostly on the ground or seek shelter in the dense branches of nearby bushes. They scratch the loose snow or leaf litter with their feet and try to find something to eat, often little pieces of seeds other birds have dropped below the feeders.

1.  Nikon Z6II, Nikon NIKKOR Z 600 f/6.3 VR S,    @ 600mm, 1/1600s, f/8, ISO 800, image cropped,

2.  Nikon Z6II, Nikon NIKKOR Z 600 f/6.3 VR S,    @ 600mm, 1/3200s, f/8, ISO 800, image slightly cropped,

WINTER SPARROW VARIETY (4 CHOICES)

I have been an advocate for paying attention to the more common species of birds since wildlife photography became part of my life. It means, the ones we may see almost every day or the kind of bird that doesn’t draw the attention as much as a more exotic looking species. Sparrows are mostly overlooked. They are small and because many of them are not so rare makes us thinking, a sparrow is just another sparrow. You know what I mean. Last weekend the appearance of a couple species, that are here only seasonal, made me focus with the camera on this agile ground feeders. You can decide which one you like the best. I just love all of them!

American Tree Sparrow

American Tree Sparrow

They have their breeding grounds high up in northern Canada and Alaska but during winter time the American Tree Sparrow spends its time here, in particular in trees and shrubs along streams. Most of the time I see them along the Mississippi River but this photo was made just on our snow covered balcony.

White-throated Sparrow

Another sparrow that breeds up in Canada, northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. It seems there is always one that hangs out with the local bunch of house Sparrows during the cold months of the year.

Dark -eyed-Junco

Although it doesn’t have the word ‘sparrow’ in its name, they belong to this family. I recently reported about this species here in the blog. The Dark-eyed Junco is our best “winter indicator”. If they show up, you can be sure temperatures below freezing are not far away. In late winter, when the Dark-eyed Juncos suddenly disappear, we just know, the snow shovel can be put away for the season (exceptions are possible! 😉)

House Sparrow

We have a little flock here every winter. They like the cover beneath the mountain pines we planted next to the house years ago. This one is obviously a young male sparrow. However, he doesn’t look right! It’s obvious that his tail feathers are missing. We only can guess if our local Sharp-shinned Hawk got a hold of him, but the most common of all sparrows escaped…

NATURE CLICKS #539 - DARK-EYED JUNCO

Dark-eyed Junco, Little Maquoketa Valley, eastern Iowa

A couple inches of wet snow fell last night and with that white reflector on the ground I tried to capture some pictures of the birds who visited our bird feeders during the late afternoon. With an overcast in the sky the light faded away quickly after 4pm. First I considered to use a flash but the reflection of the snow was enough to throw some light from underneath. The car was parked in our driveway and I used it as a blind. We have lots of Northern Cardinals here at the moment and with their bright red they are always photogenic. Today they didn’t come close enough but it was fun to work with the Dark-eyed Juncos instead. This medium-sized sparrow is here only during winter time. They have a considerable geographic color variation but in our region the slate-colored is mostly seen. They forage primarily on the ground but perch sometimes briefly on low hanging branches when they move around.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S,   @ 600 mm, 1/250 s, f/6.3, ISO 1600

NATURE CLICKS #514 - DARK-EYED JUNCO

Slate-colored Dark-eyed Junco, Little Maquoketa River Valley, Eastern Iowa, February 2022

There is no better winter indicator beside fresh snow, than the appearance of the Dark-eyed Junco. When they show up here, mostly sometime in December, we know, snow and cold temperatures are on their way. At the other hand, as soon we do not have this sparrow around anymore, spring might be on its way. We have a few more warmer days in the forecast this week after the temperature went up slightly above the freezing point today, and at no surprise, the juncos just disappeared. Well, that doesn’t mean they won’t come back…

I think I mentioned before in another blog post, they are difficult to photograph in low light. If their eye doesn’t have a spotlight from the sun (or maybe a flash), it just blends in with the dark head and the photo looks kinda flat. No juncos today, but this image is from last weekend when frost still dictated the weather.

Nikon Z6II, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, FTZ adapter, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head,   @ 600 mm, 1/320 s, f/6.3, ISO 200

AFTER THE SNOW STORM

Dark-eyed Junco

We had about a foot of fresh snow last night. While the snow storm slowed down this morning I made a few clicks of the birds that try to survive the winter here in eastern Iowa. Dark-eyed Juncos are present by the dozen and are among my favorite birds to photograph. 

The challenge is always to separate the dark eye from the rest of the upper part of the bird. Getting a little bit of light on the eye ring is key and it helps if the eye has a hint of catch light, even if it is the reflection of the flash that was used to bring out some colors. The flash also helps to tell the story about “Winter-wonder-land”. The background has to be dark if you want to see the falling snow. A slower shutter speed makes for nice snow trails but this morning I wanted to capture more of the calm that follows a snow storm. Without totally “freezing” the snow flakes in the background the desired balance was attained at 1/640 s for this image.

FIGHTING THE CABIN FEVER

Dark-eyed Junco

I’m not the only one who complains on social media about having the ‘cabin fever’ at the moment. The gray weather and lack of sunshine wear me down, with other words, I haven’t used my camera much outdoors lately. The time with daylight is still short and there isn’t much light left after work if the sun is hidden behind a thick layer of clouds. Well, we expect some snow here in the next couple days and maybe that will be a game changer. I love shooting in the snow.

The good part is that I have time to re-organize my photo library, a project I want to get done before spring arrives, and that’s where I came across this picture of a Dark-eyed Junco in the beautiful light of a clear winter day.

Speaking of social media, I started to share some of my photos on Instagram. You can find me there  @exnerimages . This is another way to fight the ‘cabin fever’ and get inspiration from other photographers and all kinds of creative people.

FALL IS OVER

White-breasted Nuthatch, Little Maquoketa River Valley, Iowa

Oh, you see some white aside from the bird’s body and between the trees in the background of this photo? You got it! We had our first snow a couple days ago and it took until today to melt it. With the snow came a bunch of Dark-eyed Juncos from the north, who will spend the winter here, and their arrival is always the best indicator that autumn is almost over. It was a gray weekend again and the best I can come up with is this photo of a White-breasted Nuthatch in its typical position on a tree trunk.

SHOOTING IN LOTS OF SNOW

Winter doesn’t get much better here in eastern Iowa as we had it this weekend. Plenty of sunshine, lots of powder snow, and temperatures that were manageable. The camera was out on the tripod several times and it was fun to shoot with an abundance of light the large numbers of birds that choose our woods as their headquarter at this time of the season. So, who was here? Since a few days a single White-throated Sparrow uses the amenities we provide for the birds, water, food, and protection by bushes, trees, and shrubs. This is not an uncommon bird but usually we see them in early spring.

The Dark-eyed Juncos are here in large numbers all winter long. They prefer to feed on the ground but since competition is very high we see them sometimes picking at suet feeders as well. Because of their dark upper body it is not easy to photograph them under low light conditions. Today it was easy to make the click and many pictures made it onto the hard drive.

We always have some Mourning Doves around the house. At least one couple breeds during the summer here. This winter I have seen up to twelve doves sitting in the trees together and warming up in the sun. This one hit me by surprise and just landed in front of me while I aimed at another junco.

All images: Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head, Nikon SB 800 speed light, MAGMOD MagBeam flash extender

NATURE CLICKS #388 - DARK-EYED JUNCO

Can you tell I’m having fun again shooting birds? The snow on the ground is my favorite reflector and the flash arm with flash light can stay in the photo bag if the sun is out and its light is bounced back from the ground. The Dark-eyed Juncos are here in large numbers and take advantage of free food and water from the heated bird baths. They feed mostly on the ground and go never too far away from a hiding place, like our bushes and mountain pines. I saw a hawk flying in today and within a second you can’t see any of them anymore. They even use the old dried leaves between the shrubs to hide. The juncos don’t make it always easy for the photographer because their dark eyes blend often right in with the feathers, and if there is no catch light on the eye it looks kinda lifeless. I don’t think that only a bird with a catch light in its eye makes a good photo, but in case of the Dark-eyed Junco it makes all the difference.

NATURE CLICKS #322 - DARK-EYED JUNCO

Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4, @ 120 mm, 1/640s, f/5

Yeees, we got it all back! As you can easily see a huge area of clouds moved through here today and left us with a fresh cover of snow. With the snow came the Dark-eyed Juncos back, who had left us already during the last days with warmer temperatures. This medium-sized sparrow has twelve subspecies and can have many geographic color variations, but here we see mostly the “slate-colored”. The Dark-eyed Junco is my #1 “winter indicator”. In late fall or early winter they show up usually a few hours before we get the first snow. The juncos we see here in Iowa during the winter breed probably in Canada or northern Minnesota.

The photo was made through my office window, hence the slightly softer appearance of the bird. I have a small bird feeder next to the window and I use a deer antler for the birds to perch.

TEST SHOT (IN A SHAFT OF LIGHT)

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens, tripod, gimbal head, SB 800 speed light

It is very cold here right now in Iowa (-16˚ C / 3˚ F) and because of the wind it feels even a lot colder. I don’t have always time to dress for these temperatures when I see something in the front or backyard, so I shoot quite often through the glass of the balcony door or just open a window briefly, while using every spare minute to learn and practice with the new glass, the Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports lens. Most of these “test shots” will never be seen by the public eye. This is the big advantage of digital, it allows us to shoot and practice without breaking the bank.

So, what pictures of backyard wildlife photography are really worth to be published? I can’t answer that for everybody, but when light, gesture, color, or either combination of them let a photo stand out or help the story telling, I would consider it.

The cold temperatures drive lots of Dark-eyed Juncos down south and many of them love our feeders, or better, what can they find below them. Juncos usually feed more on the ground. The trees we have around here make it somehow unpredictable how the low sun at this time of the season will impact the light. However, when a shaft of light hit the snow just where the juncos roamed today, I had to make the click...

WINTER IS BACK!

Male Dark-eyed Junco

…and with it several dozen birds I thought had moved further north already. A fresh layer of snow, about 2 -3 inches, covered everything up last night and made our first Schneeglöckchen (snow bells) disappear again. :-(

During the last eleven winters I lived here in Iowa we learned that winter is not over as long we see the Dark-eyed Juncos. Here in Eastern Iowa we see the slate-colored form of this sparrow during the cold season. Their breeding grounds are up in Canada and usually they take off as soon the days get warmer. Well, today there were lots of them below our feeders and in the trees around, and that means nothing but winter is not over yet… ;-)