MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2024 #5 - TUNDRA SWAN MIGRATION, AND OTHERS

Tundra Swans, Mississippi River, Brownsville, Minnesota

One highlight for bird watchers in November is always the annual tundra swan migration on the Upper Mississippi Valley. Thousands of Tundra Swans make a stop near Brownsville, Minnesota just about 10 miles north of the Iowa border, on their way from the arctic to Chesapeake Bay at the Atlantic Ocean. They rest here before they finish the last 3000 miles to their destination.

I didn’t hold a camera in my hand for a week and was eager to take the two-hour trip up north today. I was a little stunned when only a few hundred swans were present, but the friendly Naturalist who was on site told me that we haven’t seen the peak yet. With other words, most Tundra Swans are still somewhere further north. She had a display table with lots of information about the swan migration, about the food they are looking for, like the starchy bulbs of arrowhead plants, and she answered the questions of many visitors.

Beside the Tundra Swans many other birds rest and feed in pool #8 of the Mississippi River and today’s little gallery can only show a few of them.

Gadwalls

Gadwalls were present in large numbers, probably several thousand, but I saw many other ducks, like American Wigeons, Northern Pintails, Mallards, Northern Shovelers, Ring-necked Ducks, Scaups, and Wood Ducks.

American White Pelicans

A large squadron of American White Pelicans socialized together on one of the islands nearby. They were joined by this group that landed in the water shortly after they made a flyby at the Brownsville overlook.

Trumpeter Swans

Trumpeter Swans can be found among the Tundra Swans. They are slightly larger and adults do not have the yellow spot at the base of their black bill. This family of Trumpeter Swans passed by at the Hwy26 overlook, a mile further south. Their calls are different and make it easy to distinguish between both species.

Northern Shovelers, New Albin, Iowa

This photo was made near New Albin, just at the Iowa-Minnesota border. Northern Shovelers are dabbling ducks and feed predominantly at the surface of the water. These five females had a feast and hardly stopped eating despite my presence. This was shot out of the car window, almost on eye level with the birds. The photos from the overlooks are made from a much higher vantage point and even cropping can’t prevent the not always desirable look of a ”bird from above”.

All photos: Nikon Z6II, Nikon NIKKOR Z 600 f/6.3 VR S, Nikon Z Teleconverter TC-1.4x,

NO SUMMER WITHOUT HUMMERS

Juvenile Ruby-throated Hummingbird

I can’t let the summer go by without making a few pictures of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. I guess the birds who have been in our woods during the breeding season have moved on already and it seems we see different hummers every day now on their way south to Central America. However, this juvenile defended one of the hummingbird feeders fiercely and didn’t let any other bird even come close all afternoon.

I experimented quite a bit today with different exposure times or exposure compensation for the background and used also the Westscott FJ80 II speed light. In the picture above the bird was backlit and I froze the hummer at 1/4000s and let the translucency of the wings tell the story. The sun didn’t hit the front element of the lens directly because I shot from underneath the roof of our porch. A hint of flash made sure the body of the bird got some light as well.

The photo below was shot three hours later, about mid afternoon, when the sunlight wasn’t as harsh anymore. With almost the same settings (f/8, ISO8000, -1EV) but a shutter speed of only 1/400s the result was totally different. Of course, with such a slow shutter the wings are not frozen, which I actually prefer in most of my photos of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head, Westscott FJ80 II speed light, Westscott Magnetic diffusion dome

KILLDEER IN MIGRATION

Killdeer, Mississippi Valley, Green Island, Iowa

A couple days ago I spent the evening in the Green Island Wetlands, hoping for some good light and maybe spotting some migrating shorebirds. I’m not very good at counting large numbers of birds but I estimated about 200 Killdeer on one of the mudflats that have been under water for quite some time during the flooding we had in July. Food was obviously there in abundance. The birds were too far away and the camera stayed in my lap while watching them.

Later, an hour before sunset, I moved to a big puddle on the westside where I had good luck with sandpipers earlier this season. First I had only three Killdeer feeding in the shallow water or in the mud, but at the end, shortly before sunset, I was able to choose from about two dozen birds which one to get in the viewfinder. The Killdeer is one of the earliest birds that arrive after the winter and they are building their nests in shallow ground depressions in gravelly areas, like parking lots or in fields. It’s hard to tell which bird is a juvenile, they all have nearly the same size. The Killdeer is a common bird here during the summer but I have never seen so many at the same time. I’m glad I didn’t miss them during their migration to the South this year.

LAST STRAGGLER?….I LET YOU KNOW!

Oh, I hope you don’t mind I interrupt my photo story about the Minnesota Northwoods for an actual story that took  place at home.

We watch the appearance of birds here in the woods on the bluffs of the Little Maquoketa River in eastern Iowa since almost 19 years now and any time when we think, we have seen it all, there is another surprise. You almost can set your clock for the migration schedule of the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, the tiniest bird we enjoy here. With little. exceptions they arrive here May 1st, sometimes a day or so earlier. In the fall we wave good by to them around the last day of September, never later than October 2nd. Well, we kept two hummingbird feeders hanging from the roof of our porch just for these stragglers this week. We had ”summer weather” until two days ago, with nice warm temperatures and to no surprise some migrating hummers found the feeders every day. Yesterday autumn has finally arrived, with temperatures at a high of 12 ºC (54 ºF), and I just thought, well, I guess I can take the feeders down to winter storage. Oh, I’m glad I didn’t!

Sitting on the porch after work last evening another migrating Ruby-throated Hummingbird visited briefly for a boost of its energy level. As indicated before, it’s the latest we have seen a hummingbird coming through here. I guess the feeders with sugar solution will stay over the weekend, just to be save…

Today’s photo is not from the ”last straggler” this week. It was shot mid July this year, but this male was quite a character and I thought you may enjoy my sharing of this photo with you. Hey, fall is here, who knows what comes next!

FALL WARBLERPALOOZA, AND MORE

Philadelphia Vireo, Mines of Spain Recreation Area, Dubuque, Iowa

I haven’t been able to get out much with the camera lately but today I made up for that. The Dubuque Audubon Society had invited its members and the public for a field trip to the Mines of Spain Recreation Area in Dubuque. The ”Fall Warblerpalooza” was led by Tony Moline, who is a very active birder with very good knowledge about our feathered friends. Hence the name of the event, we were hoping to find migrating warblers in the tree tops early in the morning. We saw a few but none came in the range for the camera. But a number of other birds made it worthwhile to get out with binoculars, tripod, and camera. It was a nice field trip and while listening to Tony and other birders I learned some new things and was able to make a few clicks as well. Here is a first set of photos, maybe I post a few more during this week.

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

For the first time I saw two female Scarlet Tanagers during fall migration. We can watch them almost every year in early May in our front yard after their return from South America but have never see them in the fall. They had a feast on the fruits of a wild grapevine.

A Common Nighthawk is not easy to spot when they rest during the day. They are long-distance migrants and fly in large flocks to reach their wintering grounds in South America.

OZARK MOUNTAINS (6) - MY FAVORITE PHOTO

Blackbirds in murmuration, Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge, Arkansas River Valley

Not far from Petit Jean State Park, where we camped during Thanksgiving weekend, is a wetland area along the Arkansas River. It reminded me a lot of the Green Island Wetlands I enjoy so much here in the Upper Mississippi Valley. Despite a couple gray days in a row we cruised Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge three times and although it wasn’t bird watching prime time, we enjoyed looking out for wildlife very much. The key story, unfortunately not captured in a picture, was the brief sighting of an Armadillo.

One of the most impressive views we had was the display of thousands of Red-winged Blackbirds in murmuration. In Europe this behavior is known only by starlings but here this flock of blackbirds and some grackles just performed incredible.

Why is this my favorite photo of the whole trip? If you look at the lower left quarter of the image closely, you may see the white spot on the tail of a Northern Harrier. The raptor took its turns and any time it came close to the huge flock of blackbirds they took off and went into murmuration to discourage the harrier during its hunt. When the blackbirds crossed in front of the colorful tree in the background, I knew I had an image that tells the story of fall colors, bird migration, and if nothing else, about the time of the season.

As more as I dive into photography it slowly becomes evident to me that the emotional side of an image, the story it carries to the viewer, is more important than the technical aspects of a photo. I understand that someone who works for a client or tries to sell their photos to a customer have maybe to follow other rules than the pure artist or hobbyist, but story telling seems to be still the key for a satisfying image.

OZARK MOUNTAINS (3) - THE WILDLIFE

To be honest, while traveling not very far south during our trip to Missouri and Arkansas I didn’t expect to watch a lot of wildlife during this late time of the year. Although we had forest in almost every direction all the way to the horizon in the Ozark Mountains at times, we saw very few White-tailed Deer. Luckily camping in a tent provides the great advantage to greet the first birds in the morning as soon they may appear, and say good night to the last ones (mostly the Cardinals) in the evening.

Golden-crowned Kinglet, a tiny bird I have seen only twice before. The branches of a Red Cedar are a perfect setting for making an image of this bird, but most importantly, that’s where the kinglet found little insects while gleaning quickly between branches.

The large Pileated Woodpecker seems to be more widespread in the Ozarks than here in eastern Iowa. We found a pair at every campsite. Making a picture is another story. They know how to drive a photographer crazy…

The Yellow-rumped Warbler is a bird that may not migrate as far south as many other warblers. To no surprise we found them still in southern Missouri during late November.

Female Northern Cardinal. Who needs an alarm clock if the first sound in the morning comes from the action of Northern Cardinals?

NATURE CLICKS #536 - NORTHERN FLICKER

Male yellow-shafted Northern Flicker

Sometimes I’m a little sad if our summer birds wave good bye and head south to their winter range in late summer or during fall. At the other hand it is delightful to see other species arriving from their breeding grounds further north, passing just through, or staying here during winter time. This morning I counted three Northern Flickers, two males and one female, that came to one of our bird baths for a drink and searched for food on the ground or on a tree trunk.

It is a bird that breeds in Iowa but here in our woods, on the bluffs above the Little Maquoketa Valley, we see them usually only during winter time. With other words, these flickers probably migrated south from Minnesota or even Canada.

To fill the frame with this beautiful woodpecker I used the 1.4x Sigma teleconverter to extend the focal length up to 850 mm. This leads to a maximum aperture of f/9 and with a slight overcast this morning required ISO settings between 1000 and 2500.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Sigma APO Teleconverter 1.4x EX DG, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head,   @ 850 mm, 1/200 s, f/9, ISO 1600

NATURE CLICKS #535 - EASTERN PHOEBE

Eastern Phoebe, Little Maquoketa River Valley, Eastern Iowa

A couple nights ago some frost came along, making for a chilly Saturday morning. It did not stop me to go out with the camera when I saw the movements of a flycatcher in the front yard. The bird turned out to be an Eastern Phoebe, a species I haven’t seen in a while. More often the phoebe is present here in spring and I believe I photographed it for the first time in the fall. There is a similar looking flycatcher around during the summer, the Eastern Wood-Pewee, but they migrate much further to South America, and the pewee left some time ago already. The Eastern Phoebe spends the winter in southeast North America and Central America.

I’m not the only one who calls this “killer light”, when a slightly muted sun in crisp fall air hits the scene. I had a great time sitting on the porch, sipping on a hot cup of coffee, and shooting away with the long lens and 1.4 teleconverter attached to the camera. The Eastern Phoebe is a lovely bird to watch. They pump their tail up and down while sitting on a perch (a pewee doesn’t do that). and look out for insects. As the air warmed up fast in the morning, the phoebe caught most of its prey just above the grass below. We may think, it’s cold, no insects, but the birds know where to find and how to feed on them.

ON THEIR WAY SOUTH

Northeast Iowa is a great place for a leaf peeping tour with fall in full swing right now. But a short stop north of Guttenberg at the the Mississippi River led to a few bird sightings as well today. Several Yellow-rumped Warblers enjoyed the sun and obviously found still insects at the edge of the water during their migration to the south.

LAST DAYS WITH THE HUMMINGBIRDS

Ready for a “dog fight’ with the competition. Even during migration the young hummingbirds still battle for the best feeding source.

Even if I don’t have time to watch the hummingbirds frequently during the day, I know that most of them have started their fall migration to Central America. The best indicator is the level of liquid in our hummingbird feeders. We have four feeders hanging from the porch or in the front yard and during peak times in August, when the new generation is buzzing around, we cook about 1.7 liters each day of the 1:4 sugar / water mixture. The demand has dropped considerably during the last couple weeks. The birds we see at the moment are most likely different ones every day. The last hummer is usually seen at the end of September or sometimes during first week in October. They need a lot of energy to make the long journey south. Many of them cross the gulf of Mexico in a single flight. That is amazing! For almost seven long months we will be without them. Next year, at the end of April we expect them back as always.

I photographed this young male earlier this month and I’m always wondering if the birds ever come back to the same place again. I guess I’ll never know…

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2021 #10 - MIGRATION OF THE TUNDRA SWANS

Migrating Tundra Swans, Mississippi River, near Brownsville Minnesota

Right now one of the most interesting stories about fall migration happens here in the Mississippi Valley. Thousands of Tundra Swans migrate from the arctic tundra to the Chesepeake Bay at the Atlantic Ocean. On their way south they stop along the Mississippi River, and one of the best places to watch them is at a couple overlooks near Brownsville, Minnesota, just a few miles north of the Iowa border. The river is already freezing over in some of the backwaters. That means the swans may take off any day with more ice forming soon.

I have been at the Brownsville overlooks several times over the years with the camera and any time I ask myself, how can I tell a better story of this annual occurrence with my photos? It’s easy to take a wide angle lens, point it across the river, which is almost three miles wide at this place, and have thousands of wide dots in the picture. I do that for my own documentary purposes but those images do not make a good wildlife photo. 

So I try a little bit of everything, a single swan, a pair, or a family of Tundra Swans. It seems getting closer to a roosting place would help, but most of them are quite a bit away from the shore. On my way home I looked at a certain bay and got lucky. The bay was already frozen over and became a roosting place for the swans. With the sun disappearing fast behind the bluffs on our side of the river and the shadow line creeping forward across the ice, it was the right time to make a photo that tells a story about fall migration of the Tundra Swans.

All images: Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Sigma APO Teleconverter 1.4x EX DG, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head (last photo without tripod)

LOOKING FOR THE LAST ONES

I was sitting on the porch this evening, knowing that it might be the last chance to say goodbye to a few Ruby-throated Hummingbirds that stop on their way south for a short drink at one of the remaining flowers in the yard, or at least at one of our nectar feeders. The migration wave ends here at the end of September, with an occasional sighting of a hummingbird in early October. Looking a little more critical at this photo you may recognize that this picture was taken at an earlier time of the year. There aren’t enough flowers in the yard anymore to make for such a colorful background. Well, it will be seven month from now until one of us will say, I saw the first hummingbird of the season!

NATURE CLICKS #508 - SOLITARY SANDPIPER

Solitary Sandpiper, Mississippi River, Mud Lake, Iowa

Today was one these humid days when you just don’t want to move at all but last Tuesday evening it was the perfect weather agin to take the kayak to the water. It has been six years ago when I had the last time a Solitary Sandpiper in front of the lens and I wonder if this bird is already on its way back to the south from the breeding grounds in the wooded northland regions of Canada. They are not truly solitary but this sandpiper doesn’t migrate in large flocks. (source: iBirdPro app)

Being just slightly above the water surface with camera and lens was the key for today’s photos. Shooting from a kayak makes you aware how useful the optical stabilization in the lens can be. There are a lot of things that can lead to an unsharp image, the bird moves, the boat moves, the photographer can’t hold the camera steady…, you get the idea.

Killdeer competing for the feeding spots

Here is a bonus picture for today. The Killdeer was competing with the Solitary Sandpiper for the best feeding spots along the muddy banks. They are a lot more common and usually one of the first shorebirds that arrive here in eastern Iowa in spring. They are considered shorebirds but the Killdeer often lives and nests far away from the water.

All photos: Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Sigma APO Teleconverter 1.4x EX DG

BEFORE THE WINTER COMES

A pair of Tundra Swans approaching and greeting other members of the flock. The yellow spot at the base of their bill makes identification relatively easy.

It is a two-hour drive for us along the mighty Mississippi to visit the Brownsville Overlook. This observation point, just ten miles north of the border to Minnesota, is a popular spot in November by bird watchers, photographers, and people who love to see the wonders of nature. Every year thousands of Tundra Swans rest in this area on their way from the arctic region to the mid-Atlantic coast. In addition local and migrating Trumpeter Swans, Sandhill Cranes, Bald Eagles, and ten thousands of ducks are also part of the mix that that can be watched.

A family of Trumpeter Swans. They are larger than Tundra Swans and their bill is completely black.