A FOGGY DAY

It has been much warmer the last few days and with still plenty of snow on the ground the fog was hanging between the trees this morning. The cedars in the background mark the edge of the rocky bluffs and the Little Maquoketa Valley below was not visible at all.

WOODPECKER SPECIES #7 SHOWED UP

Red-headed Woodpecker, Little Maquoketa Valley, Iowa

As mentioned yesterday we had a lot of bird activities going on this weekend and I shared already a few moments with you in my last blog posts. But the photo that put the biggest smile in my face is the one above. It has been four years ago that we saw the Red-headed Woodpecker here up on the bluffs above the valley. They can be found in other parts of the driftless area and in the Upper Mississippi Valley and I have seen them occasionally but here in our woods they only show up for a short time in May, and not even every year. My guess has been that all the other woodpecker species are too much competition and the Red-headed Woodpecker seems to prefer dead trees that are closer to a body of water, although the Little Maquoketa River is just down in the valley. Who knows, we just don’t see them nesting right here. Male and female look very similar and seeing only one bird doesn’t help to determine what gender is in front of the lens.

With the appearance of the red-headed we have seen finally all seven species of woodpeckers that spend some time here during the year since January.

TIME IS FLYING BY

Fall colors, gone for this season

I drove through our valley today and realized that hardly any colorful leaves are left on the trees. The oaks that keep their leaves possibly until spring are all dried up and brown is the dominating color. Leaves from other trees are on the ground, with very little exceptions. Reason enough to post today’s photo, shot already three weeks ago here on top of our rocky bluffs. Time is flying by…

TODAY’S SURPRISE

White-tailed Deer, Little Maquoketa Valley, Eastern Iowa

Joan and I, we both have seen this young buck recently. We probably know this particular White-tailed Deer since it was a little fawn and watched it visiting our front yard together with its mother and another sibling before, especially during winter.

I went over to a neighbor property today, trying to identify a bird we heard screaming many times before. We had our guesses, but were never totally sure what it was. Today I saw it, and I’m able to confirm that it is a Red-tailed Hawk. The parents and its offspring scream across the valley. I call discoveries like that good news!

While walking back to the house I suddenly became aware of a movement along the edge of the woods. There he stood! The light overall was kinda harsh, but with a dense area of forest in the background, this didn’t play much of a role.

I have photographed does and and fawns of White-tailed here on top of the bluffs at the Little Maquoketa Valley, but having a buck like this in front of the lens is not an every day occurrence. Soon this buck will shed the velvet on its antlers and participate in the rut. I hope to see him again!

NATURE CLICKS #522 - BROWN SNAKE (STORERIA DEKAYI)

Brown Snake, Little Maquoketa River Valley, Heritage Trail

It was getting dark when we returned to the car from a little walk with our dog Cooper this evening. We had chosen a quiet section of the Heritage Trail for our hike, a little bit up in the valley, to keep the dog away from any firecracker noise that is part of the celebrations for Independence Day. Most dogs do not like this kind of noise…

Joan discovered this small Brown Snake on the trail. They are a nonvenomous species and prefer woodlands like we have them here in eastern Iowa. Years ago we had no problems finding this and other species in our woods but during the last few years we hardly see any. I wanted to document this not so common find and cranked up the ISO to 2500 and still shot only with a shutter speed of 1/30s. This is when vibration reduction in camera or lens becomes a useful feature. It helped that the snake went into a defensive pose while we took a few pictures. We kept the stress to a minimum and guided the critter off the trail with a stick. Luckily nobody came at the time of dusk anymore, but a bicycle accidentally driving over it wasn’t a good perspective for this beautiful Brown Snake…

DOWN IN THE VALLEY

Little Maquoketa River Valley, Iowa

A photo left over from last week. When I left the house and drove down quickly into our valley it still looked like we would have an interesting sunset to watch. It didn’t happen, the cloud in the background was faster and changed the scene. I wasn’t too sad, the sun sets 365 days every year somewhere in the world… The houses down there are not that pretty but can tell certainly a story about a little village that has seen better days.

I actually like the muted light on the landscape and tried to keep it for the final image. It was important the bright roofs of the buildings do not overpower the soft colors in the sky and I underexposed by -0.66 EV. In post process the shadows in the trees and also the field in the foreground were brought back slightly, and that’s how I envisioned the final photo when the shutter button was pressed.

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S,   @ 39 mm, 1/400s, f/8, ISO 400

WINTER IN THE VALLEY

Little Maquoketa River Valley, Eastern Iowa

Last Sunday we used the Heritage Trail for a hike into the Little Maquoketa River Valley, not far from home. A couple miles from our starting point the steep limestone rocks bordering the valley give way to a more open slope. The Sundown Mountain Resort, with lifts and snowmaking equipment, is only a quarter mile to the right of this image. During the summer cattle graze in this part of the valley and in the woods along the trail we can find good spots for bird watching.

Sun and wind had eroded the hillside quite a bit already and I should have visited the valley a week earlier when we still had more snow on the ground. I liked how a snow mobile trail crossed the slope on the other side of the river and how the long shadows of the trees fall on the hills. This is by no means a perfect landscape photo, but it gives me some ideas what can be done with more snow on the ground and in the trees. The forecast says we still have plenty of cold weather ahead this month but I’m not so sure about a good snowfall followed by a sunny evening with some clouds. I may have to wait until next winter saison…

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S,   @ 70 mm, 1/400 s, f/13, ISO 100

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2022 #1 - WINTER AT A CONFLUENCE

Little Maquoketa River, only a few yards away from meeting the Mississippi River. Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S,   @ 70 mm, 1/200 s, f/11, ISO 100

You bet, I will post my little photo stories from the mighty Mississippi River here in eastern Iowa, or from the Wisconsin or Illinois shore on the other side, again in 2022. Today’s photo was made during a really late “lunch walk” with our dog Cooper. At 2PM the sun is already getting low during this time of the year, creating shadows and reflections that would not be there any other time. John Deere Marsh, the wetland preserve behind the big Deere factory, north of Dubuque, Iowa, was mostly created by the powers of two rivers, the Mississippi and the much smaller one that has carved out the valley below our house, the Little Maquoketa River. The image was made just a few yards/meters away from the confluence of these two streams. We love to paddle the Little Maquoketa River upstream with our kayaks during the summer. Here, near the confluence in the Mississippi Valley, it is twice as wide as it is below in the valley of our residence, only a few miles west. The river is mostly calm and just a wonderful place to be at any time of the season. I know, “high noon” and the hours around it, are not a great time for landscape photography. Quite often I do the “noon walk” with Cooper without even taking the camera strap off my shoulder, but sometimes there is a click to make, as it was today…

NATURE CLICKS #493 - WHITE-THROATED SPARROW

White-throated Sparrow, Little Maquoketa River Valley, Iowa

During the last winter we had a pair of White-throated Sparrows around the house. They were most of the time among numerous House Sparrows that used our bushes for shelter and came below the bird feeders to find seed pieces that other birds or the squirrels had dropped down to the snowy ground. None of the pictures I took were ‘rocking the house’ because the sparrow’s feathers looked kinda dull during winter time. Spring is mating time, love is in the air, and suddenly many birds just look gorgeous. The White-throated Sparrow is definitely one of them. Their breeding grounds are actually further north in Canada and I wonder how long we may still see these beautiful sparrows around here.

SHAPES IN ICE #2

Middle Fork Little Maquoketa River, Bankston County Park, Iowa

Here in eastern Iowa we have a good number of small creeks and rivers. They all have one thing in common, their water ends up in the Mississippi River. Unless it has rained heavily and a lot of runoff from the fields comes down the valleys, their water can be crystal-clear. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) stocks some of the creeks with trout at times and people like to come for fishing. 

The Middle Fork Little Maquoketa River is such a stream. Last weekend a little bit of light got reflected by the rocks at the bottom and made for some color contrast to the thin ice at the river bank.

BACK-LIGHT

I’m not known as a “people photographer” but when these two young runners passed by I had to make the click. This was a month ago and I walked with our little dog at sunset on the Heritage Trail in the valley below. Due to the wildfires in Colorado, Montana, and California the sun had this hazy, almost dirty appearance and made for interesting back-light on the leaves and logging equipment in the background. While I was still debating with myself if this would be enough for a picture, the girls entered the scene. And suddenly I had a photo that made sense…

JUST LOOK FOR THEM

Little Maquoketa River Valley, Iowa

This photo was taken more than three weeks ago, down in our valley where the Little Maquoketa River meanders through the fields and meadows towards the Mississippi. I love the moody side of fall, with some leaves still present and fog hiding much of the clutter between the trees. The corn at the bottom of the picture was still waiting to be harvested, which by now is all done. On a gray day like this it is a much bigger challenge to tell a visual story about the season than with bold fall colors all over. It can happen I go home with still an empty memory card in the camera but sometimes the subtle things in the background make the image, we just have to look for them…

NATURE CLICKS #472 - NORTHERN LEOPARD FROG

Northern Leopard Frog, Mississippi River, John Deere Marsh, Iowa

I will still post a few more photos from our trip in August / September but today it’s time for a picture I shot this week. It became a habit to take our little dog Cooper for a walk to one of the nature places in the neighborhood during my lunch break. This week I was twice in the John Deere Marsh, a wetland and marsh area at the confluence of the Little Maquoketa River and the mighty Mississippi. The birds didn’t cooperate on Wednesday and as we returned back to the parking lot I only had made one click of some American Coots, who slowly migrate south at the moment and spend some time in this area.

The discovery of a Northern Leopard Frog, nicely sitting on a weathered log that obviously was left from a flood of the Mississippi River some time ago, made up for the lack of birds. The blurred reeds in the background give a sense of location and the weathered, partly black and partly bleached driftwood makes some contrast to the warm colors of the Leopard Frog. Went back to the car with a smile on my face…

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, @ 600 mm, 1/500 s, f/6.3, ISO 320

NATURE CLICKS #461 - HACKBERRY EMPEROR

If we would have to crown a butterfly of the year by now, it would be the Hackberry Emperor. I can’t speak for the rest of the county or state, but here, in and above the Little Maquoketa River Valley, we see them presently by the hundreds if not more. We have quite a few hackberry trees in our woods here, their only larval food plant, and we see quite a few every year around. But this year is different and their numbers are much higher. 

They like the sunny spots on our front porch in the evening and making the photo with the SIGMA 150, f/2.8 Macro lens is not a difficult task.