NATURE CLICKS #583 - COMMON YELLOWTHROAT

Male Common Yellowthroat, Whitewater Canyon Wildlife Area, Dubuque County, Iowa

Yes, I made a picture of a Common Yellowthroat exactly a week ago but felt I still had some unfinished business. I wanted to get closer to this small but magnificent warbler and  really wanted a shot without any men-made items, like the wire cage around a young tree, in the frame. Well, I went back today to the Whitewater Canyon Wildlife Area to try my luck again.

The light situation was very similar than a week ago, with a slight overcast, perfect for photographing grassland birds. The difference was, it was much, much warmer than last week and the sweat poured out of every pore in the body. There were quite a few Yellowthroats making their calls in the prairie grass. The male’s wichety-wichety-wichety song, which they sing frequently during summer, is easy to recognize. It just takes some patience to get them out of their cover and in front of the lens. The Common Yellowthroats spend their winter in some of the southern states and in the tropics.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head

BIRDS AND WILDFLOWERS - A SHORT PRAIRIE EXCURSION

McCarthy Wildlife Area, Dubuque County, Iowa

We concluded the first weekend in July with a little excursion to a couple prairie and grassland areas here in Dubuque County. The first one, McCarthy Wildlife Area, located near Bernard IA, is a former cultivated row crop field and was planted with native grasses and flowers in 2023. Although quite new it had already developed a gorgeous habitat with lots of prairie flowers and we saw or heard Eastern Meadowlarks, Eastern Kingbirds, Dickcissels, of course a number of Red-winged Blackbirds, and others. A rain cloud moved eastwards south of the area and made for a nice background while I tried to capture the essence of this nature area.

Dickcissel, Whitewater Canyon Wildlife Area, Dubuque County, Iowa

Not far away is Whitewater Canyon Wildlife area, which we have visited many times before. This time we hiked only on the upper part between prairie and grassland and didn’t walk down into the woods and the canyon. It didn’t take very long to get a male Dickcissel, one of the beautiful grassland birds, in front of the lens. We came at the right time to enjoy big patches of Wild Bergamot in full bloom and at the end of the walk a Common Yellowthroat posed nicely on the metal cage that protects a young oak tree that had been planted near the parking area.

Wild Bergamot, Whitewater Canyon Wildlife Area, Dubuque County, Iowa

Common Yellowthroat, Whitewater Canyon Wildlife Area, Dubuque County, Iowa

RESULTS WITH LONG EXPOSURE

Whitewater Creek in Whitewater Canyon Wildlife Area, eastern Iowa

There is a chance that this could be my last winter photo of this season that includes snow. What it’s left on the ground melts rapidly away right now and warmer temperatures are in the forecast for the next days. After we left the cave with ice formations ,you perhaps saw in my last blog post, we went down to Whitewater Creek at the bottom of the  canyon. When I saw the pristine field of snow along the creek, with no animal or human tracks on it, I felt the urge to make a photo.

The crystal-clear water flows slowly but still had a few ripples on the surface. Long exposure and the BREAKTHROUGH X4 10-stop neutral density filter eliminated any glare on the surface, made even the bottom of the creek visible, and still retained the reflections from the other side of the creek. It was magical and I love the outcome with any of my Breakthrough filters. By the way, to calculate the exposure time for a photo with the 10-stop or 6-stop ND filters, I use an app on my phone, called ND Timer. It’s free and does the trick just fine. After a test shot without filter you dial the normal exposure time (for this picture it was 1/80s) into the app, choose the grade of your filter (10-stops), and the app displays the required exposure time. I use it usually as a starting point and make corrections up or down to find the best results for the image I have in mind, especially with fast flowing water.

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S, Breakthrough X4 ND filter (10-stop) GITZO tripod GT2931 Basalt, KIRK BH-3 ball head  @ 37mm, 15s, f/20, ISO 100

ICE UNDERGROUND

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S, GITZO tripod GT2931 Basalt, KIRK BH-3 ball head  @ 24mm, 6s, f/18, ISO 100

Here in the region of the Driftless Area we can enjoy deeply carved river valleys and a karst geology with spring-fed waterfalls, underground drainage systems, sinkholes, and a number of caves. Inspired by a recent post on Facebook from the Dubuque County Conservation about a cave with ice in it, Joan, dog Cooper, and I went on a hike into Whitewater Canyon Wildlife Area today. We were there actually already last week but hiked on a different trail. Today it didn’t take us very long to find the cave we were looking for, located in the Lost Canyon. It was still quite cold last week and we found these beautiful ice formations that look like stalagmites, built from the ground by dripping water. It will be much warmer this week and it may not take long before they are gone.

I had seen photos from that cave before and tried to prepare well for this little adventure. Good boots are a must for climbing up the slippery slope to the entrance at the canyon wall and for some grip on the icy floor. I made sure my speed light had fresh batteries before it went into the backpack and took also the small Gitzo GT2931 tripod on the hike.

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S, GITZO tripod GT2931 Basalt, KIRK BH-3 ball head  @ 24mm, 2.5s, f/14, ISO 100

It was not really necessary to go deep into the cave. Both photos were made near the entrance. It is easy to break off one of the ice formations accidentally, but we were carefully and managed to leave the place as we found it. With the camera on tripod, about half a meter above the ground, I started shooting by using the flash light, which was connected by cable with the camera and allowed me to direct the light as wanted. Didn’t really like what I saw on the camera screen and continued to photograph with longer exposure and without the flash. We were at the cave in the very early afternoon. Some snow was still on the ground in the canyon and bright sunlight bounced nicely through the entrance and into the cave with the ice. The photos made with the use of flash from different angles were not really bad, but at the end natural light was the winner for this blog post.

EVERY SPRING…

Bloodroot, Whitewater Canyon Wildlife Area, Dubuque County, Iowa

Easter weekend and the last couple days have been warm, or at least mild, and nature responds to that. Wildflowers started blooming in large numbers. We went on a hike through ‘Lost Canyon’ and ‘Valley of 13 Caves’ in the Whitewater Canyon Wildlife Area here in Dubuque County on Easter Sunday. Well, we could make similar pictures in the woods behind our house here in the Little Maquoketa River Valley, but it was nice to get out and explore something away from home. Yeaah, I say that every year, I’m not a flower photographer, but at the end it’s hard to resist to look for the light and make a click whenever nature’s beauty unfolds in front of the eye…

Hepatica, Whitewater Canyon Wildlife Area, Dubuque County, Iowa

CANYON HIKE

Whitewater Canyon Wildlife Management Area, Eastern Iowa

Our little Christmas hike this year led us to the bottom of Whitewater Canyon here in Dubuque County. Almost all snow had melted away before the holiday but pretty cold temperatures were responsible for some built up of ice at Whitewater Creek. I like how the curves lead the eye into the background, the only spot that still had some sunlight, while the warm reflections on the ice and water bring you right back.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4, @130 mm, 1/125 s, f/10, ISO200

YOU CAN’T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT

Prairie near Whitewater Canyon, Iowa -------    

I think photographers know better than a lot of other people how to take the song of the Rolling Stones, “You can’t always get what you want!”. Sunday afternoon I hiked down to the bottom of Whitewater Canyon, one of only three true canyons in Iowa, and highly interesting for people interested in geology, wildlife watching, and nature in general. (for location and more detailed description please feel free to use this link: http://www.mycountyparks.com/County/Dubuque/Park/Whitewater-Canyon-Wildlife-Area.aspx ) It is surrounded by prairie land, rolling hills, and fields. 

So why don’t I show pictures from the canyon? As said, you can’t always get what you want! The truth is, the light really sucked. A big field of gray clouds started covering the sky while me and our dog Cooper were on our way down to the canyon. With the dull light of an overcast, well photography in a canyon can suck too! Back on the way to the parking lot and up on the prairie I saw the edge of the clouds moving east and towards me. And here is the point I’m trying to make. The next opportunity for a decent photo is just around the corner.

I sat down on a big boulder that marks the border of the parking lot, let our dog Cooper do what he wanted to do, and watched the development of the weather for about 45 minutes. As soon the edge of the gray clouds passed the sun, the camera was out of the bag and the shutter was clicking. All the blossoms of the wildflowers in the prairie are gone, but the prairie grass in the fore- and middle ground adds texture to the image, and the “crying” clouds are just lovely in my books. Well, no canyon pictures today, but next time I may get what I want… 😊