NATURE CLICKS #524 - BLACK TERN (FIRST SIGHTING!)

Black Terns, Mississippi River, Mud Lake, Iowa

If this was a species I have photographed before or a very common bird, I would not show you this backlit picture, which definitely lacks some sharpness. BUT, this was the very first time that I even saw a Black Tern. Another first sighting for me! Joan was already back at the boat ramp in the marina at Mud Lake Park with our dog Cooper and unfortunately missed it. When I paddled back upstream to the marina I saw these four terns flying overhead. Hard to make a click with fast flying birds while in a kayak on choppy water. To my surprise they suddenly landed on the roots of a big tree trunk that had drifted into the mud near the shore of the Mississippi River. This is the best of the four clicks I was able to make before the Black Terns took off to the sky again. I went back to the river for another trip with the kayak this evening but none of the terns was present. I guess I had a lucky day yesterday… More to come, please stay tuned.

NATURE CLICKS #455 - BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO (FIRST SIGHTING)

I hope you don’t ask me for a print of this photo 😉. It is at the edge between going to the trash and keeping for the records and I admit it is not very sharp. The reason I like to show it anyway is the fact that I never have seen a Black-billed Cuckoo before and didn’t even know that we were in its breeding range during the summer.

As often during my lunch break I took the dog for a little ride to a nearby location and today I checked a meadow to see if any Bobolinks were already present (found actually three males). At the edge of the prairie-like grasslands is a little grove of cottonwoods and that’s where the Black-billed Cuckoo was discovered. We are more familiar with the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, who is present in our woods during the summer season. Although this year we haven’t seen or heard one yet. Both species are not very common and it makes me happy to add another bird to my list of sightings.

NATURE CLICKS #451 - NORTHERN PARULA (FIRST SIGHTING)

There is always a great joy when the migrating birds arrive in spring but when there is a new species in the trees, that we have never seen here before, the excitement becomes even bigger.

Yesterday morning was such a moment. While standing on the porch with a cup of coffee and aiming the lens at Scarlet Tanagers and Grosbeaks I suddenly discovered a wood warbler. I knew immediately that I had not seen this one before. Making the photo has priority, even if it is only a “documentary shot”, the identification can follow later.

Here is an interesting fact I quote from the The Cornell Lab website ALL ABOUT BIRDS: Northern Parulas have an odd break in their breeding range. They breed from Florida north to the boreal forest of Canada, but skip parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, and some states in the Northeast. The reason for their absence may have to do with habitat loss and increasing air pollution, which affects the growth of moss on trees that they depend on for nesting.

They feed often high up in the canopy, maybe another reason why we don’t see them more often. It was a nice way to start the day and I look forward to have many more moments like this one.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S @600 mm, 1/800s, f/6.3, ISO400, photo cropped

NATURE CLICKS #448 - WHITE-FACED IBIS (FIRST SIGHTING!)

White-faced Ibis, Green island Wetlands, Iowa

I really didn’t know what was waiting for me when I said in my earlier blog post this morning, that I would start for another weekend adventure. Hey, and what a thrill it was! For the first time ever I saw and photographed a congregation of 11 White-faced Ibis. This is not a common bird here, although several sightings have been reported lately in Iowa. However, during the last more than 9 years I photographed in the Green Island area, I haver never seen an Ibis. I worked more than 3 hours with these beautiful birds from the mobile blind, my trusted Subaru. There were only two things that flushed them, a couple walking their dog on the levee, and anytime a Bald Eagle would show up high in the sky. The Ibises would take off, fly a circle, come back again, and land nearby.

Have you ever tried to take a picture of a jackhammer and freeze the action in your photo? I haven’t, but this was how it felt with these White-faced Ibises. 90% of the time they were probing with their bill in the water or in the mud with an unbelievable frequency. And they had a lot of success! I saw quite a few invertebrates in their curved bills and some larger prey may have been frogs. I’m sure this is not the last picture of a White-faced Ibis I have shown here in the blog… Please stay tuned!

NATURE CLICKS #406 - DICKCISSEL (FIRST SIGHTING)

Dickcissel, near Dubuque, Iowa ------

The last two evenings have been great for bird watching and as a result I had four birds in front of my lens that are not very common anymore and two of them were first sightings for me. So let me start with today’s best encounter.

One big reason to be a member of the Dubuque Camera Club since last fall is the fact that networking with other like minded photographers benefits everybody involved. The small group of wildlife photographers stays in really close contact with each other and we all try to share locations and shooting opportunities when they occur. This time my big thank you goes to Ken, who gave me a hint last Monday about a location in Dubuque, Iowa where another bird I found today as well, but will report about later, is present. I’m sorry, I will not reveal breeding bird locations in public for utmost protection of these birds, but if you are a serious birder or wildlife photographer, please feel free to contact me through the contact form on my “ABOUT” link here in the blog, and I may share this information with you.

As already hinted, I was out for another bird but the first one that drew my attention was this male Dickcissel, singing like crazy from different perch locations. I used my car as a blind and was able to get relatively close. This was a first sighting for me and I’m more than happy about the encounter and photo opportunity. The Dickcissel prefers open habitats, hay fields, and weed patches. They feed on seeds, grass, and insects, while younger birds consume more insects. They spend the winter in southern Mexico or even further south.

NATURE CLICKS #390 - AMERICAN BLACK DUCK (FIRST SIGHTING)

During a short trip to the Mississippi this evening I saw a pair of ducks that got my utmost attention. The American Black Duck is a first for me. It is not a bird you can see here in eastern Iowa every day, not even during migration. It has been on my “most wanted” list since a long time. This was a solitary pair, seen just south of the Deere Marsh behind the John Deere factory in Dubuque. This duck is not black as the name suggests but appears so at a distance.

The photography is less than mediocre but for a first sighting I will make an exception 😉. The distance between the car, which I used as a blind, and the ducks was way too big. The railroad tracks and a lot of water between us left no chance to get closer to the subject. For any other species that is more common I wouldn’t even have unpacked the camera. I don’t think I have ever cropped a photo that much to make it work. The loss of detail is obvious but the joy about today’s encounter outweighs the lament about the photographic results…

NATURE CLICKS #332 - SORA (FIRST SIGHTING)

It was another gray day without the sun coming out. I didn’t have high expectations when I went south to the Green Island Wetlands today. It was somehow on my mind that shooting birds against a gray sky or with water surrounded that reflects this sky will just not lead to any results, but I did it anyway. Oh boy, was I wrong!

Thanks to another birder and photographer, Tony Moline, I was able to have a first sighting of a Sora, a small rail. It isn’t really uncommon in North America but I have never seen one until today here in Eastern Iowa. The hint about their presence at Green Island came from two other birders from Illinois, but Tony made me aware where to look for this tiny shore bird. Thank you Tony!

The second picture was the last photo on my memory card today. I didn’t stop to work with this bird until the rain came down hard. I guess I got carried away… There were other observation in the wetlands earlier today and I may post about it in the next few days. So please stay tuned…

NATURE CLICKS #320 - NORTHERN SHRIKE

Ok, today’s post isn’t so much about a good picture but about a first sighting for me. While working this week in Dallas, TX the temperatures have raised way above freezing here in eastern Iowa and today I went back to one of my favorite wildlife areas, the Green Island Wetlands, next to the Mississippi River and south of Bellevue, Iowa. I have not seen a Northern Shrike before and it didn’t matter that the bird was too far away for a good photo. I was just happy to see it for the first time. The Northern Shrike is supposed to be here only during the winter. Their breeding grounds reach from northern Alaska across the northern parts of Canada.

NATURE CLICKS #310 - SHARP-TAILED GROUSE

I always call it a great day if we have a first sighting of a bird or critter. This may not always be the best photographical moment but at least I try to make a documentary shot and hope to work my way up to a better image sometime later. We were told that getting close to some Sharp-tailed Grouse would be not an easy task and we would be very lucky to see them at all. I think it payed back to get up really early in Custer State Park and during this early trip along Wildlife Loop Road, we saw close to a dozen already the first morning. It was good that I fired away immediately, handhold and just supported by leaning myself against the car, because we did not see them at any other time again. Having part of the road in the frame is not very flattering but making “a” shot is always the priority if I see a new species. The Sharp-tailed Grouse gave us about 40 seconds until they took off. This is the best I could get, but hey, it made it already a great day early in the morning… 😊.

NATURE CLICKS #298 - TENNESSEE WARBLER

We had another wonderful late summer - early fall day, with warm temperatures and some leaves falling to the ground. I’m very busy at the moment and tied to my desk most of the day, but my office window allows to check bird traffic at the south edge of our woods. When I heard the tsit-tsit call of a warbler my alarm bells went on immediately. Sure enough, I saw at least four different warbler species foraging in the trees today. One was a first sighting for me, a Golden-winged Warbler. Unfortunately the only photo I have is not sharp enough to be presented here in the blog.

All images: Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, SB 800 speed light

I’m always very careful while trying to identify warblers. Today I made about two dozen clicks of several Tennessee Warblers, in different locations, and from different angles. Not all are perfect images but still good enough for bird identification. After consulting our guide books and the iBird Pro 7.2 app, I’m pretty sure these were Tennessee Warblers. Especially in fall they can be sometimes mistaken for the Orange-crowned Warbler. The spring migration of the warblers was a bummer for me this year, we didn’t see any here on the bluffs above the little Maquoketa River Valley. It looks like we are making up for it now…😉

NATURE CLICKS #288 - FOSTER'S TERN

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

Our dog Cooper and I took a kayak trip on the Mississippi River this evening again and it felt once more like entering “wildlife paradise”. What else can you call it, if you spot during a one and a half hour tour four Bald Eagles, three Great Blue Herons, numerous gulls, pelicans, geese, ducks, blackbirds, muskrats, and turtles? This is all amazing and wonderful in the warm light of the evening sun, even if we have seen all these species many times before. 

To make a great trip perfect I discovered five Foster’s Terns sitting on logs stranded in the mud of a river bank. I have never seen Foster’s Terns here in Eastern Iowa before (only in the Bolsa Chica Wetlands in California). They were not far from a group of Ring-billed Gulls. While the gulls took off when we got closer, the terns just stayed, even when we drifted by within six feet distance. At that time the D300s was still in a waterproof bag behind my seat but the dauntless behavior of the terns made me paddling around them into a position where the light was in my favor. I took my old camera on the water and its DX sensor made for a 630 mm equivalent, with a focal length of 420 mm set at the Sigma 50-500.

I wrote before how difficult it can be to shoot with the long lens handhold from a kayak, especially if it is windy as it was this evening. I shot several bursts in continuous shooting mode and almost 200 clicks later I still wasn’t sure if I nailed it. Well, the keeper rate wasn’t too bad and finally I had quite a few images to choose from.

The photos were made on the Mississippi, just outside of the Mud Lake area, north of Dubuque, Iowa. I have seen and photographed Caspian Terns in this area last year but this is the first time that I had a sighting of a Foster’s Tern. There is still a little doubt about my identification of the species. For instance the Common Tern looks very similar, but after checking several sources I believe these were Foster’s Terns. If you are a birder or nature friend who can confirm this or have a better suggestion, I would love to hear from you.

NATURE CLICKS #269 - GADWALL (FIRST SIGHTING)

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM           

I took a little detour on my way back from a business trip to Davenport, Iowa this evening and checked all the current “hot spots” in the Green Island Wetlands. I have by far not seen all the birds that come through the Mississippi Valley during migration and so it is not really a surprise, that even after living here now for more than ten years, I still have a first sighting of a new species once in a while.

Today I found a single male Gadwall foraging in the shallow waters of the wetlands. Well, it was not totally alone, it obviously enjoyed the company of several Northern Shovelers. At some point the Gadwall even made a courtship display for a female shoveler or it just tried to impress the males, I’m not sure…;-) The Gadwall is not an uncommon bird in North America, I just had not seen one yet before.

Photographically, this photo is not a master piece. The great looking duck was too far away with no chance for me to get closer, and so I decided to crop the picture a little bit.