IT’S NATIONAL BIRD DAY!

Trumpeter Swan, Firehole River, Yellowstone National Park

Today we celebrate National Bird Day, a good reason to dig a little bit in my archive and pull out a photo of a very enjoyable moment. The avid reader of this blog knows that I have photographed and documented the return of Trumpeter Swans here in eastern Iowa for many years. But my first sighting of a Trumpeter Swan was actually in Yellowstone National Park in 2005. I was still shooting with film at that time and little did I know about wildlife photography.

This photo is from a visit in 2018. We took off early from our campground outside of the park and drove along the Firehole River, just as the first rays of the sun hit the bottom of the valley. This solitary swan was in absolute “killer light” while feeding in the water.

It is not just moments like this when birds need our attention and protection of their habitats, because future generations should be able to share such enjoyable moments as well.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head

NATURE CLICKS #537 - NUTHATCH COMPARISON

Red-breasted Nuthatch

White-breasted Nuthatch

The Red-breasted Nuthatches are winter guests here in Iowa. We are lucky to see a couple around here since about a month. They are as acrobatic as their cousins, the White-breasted Nuthatches, during their efforts to find food on trees, or like in this photo at a feeder. The white-breasted breeds here and is present all year long. As you know, I do not make a lot of bird images at a bird feeder, but in this matter I wanted to show the difference in size between both species and the raster of a suet feeder is an excellent scale for this purpose. The Red-breasted Nuthatch prefers coniferous forests, which of course they find up north in their breeding range. The larger White-breasted Nuthatch inhabits mixed deciduous and coniferous forests and prefers the presence of oak trees (source: iBird PRO app). They built their nests in dead wood, often higher up in a tree. Well, we have plenty of dead wood around here and so far we have seen every year a successful brood.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, f/4

PERFECT SUMMER HABITAT

Great Blue Heron, Bankston County Park, Dubuque County, Iowa

The current heat and humidity take a little bit the fun out of wildlife photography with a heavy long lens, but here is a photo from earlier this month. The Great Blue Heron knows where the fish are and if the photographer has a clue as well, a picture can be taken. The little stream at the bottom of the valley is a good place. This photo represents my idea of an environmental portrait quite well. With the vegetation along the creek at its peak for the season, it tells a good story about a perfect summer habitat for this Great Blue Heron here in the driftless area of northeast Iowa.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, @ 600 mm, 1/250 s, f/6.3, ISO400

NATURE CLICKS #474 - ROCK WREN (FIRST SIGHTING)

Rock Wren, Little Missouri National Grasslands, North Dakota, September 2020

It has been two months already since we enjoyed the sighting of a Rock Wren, which was the first time ever that we saw this tiny bird. We had the remote Wannagan Campground, located just west of the border to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, for ourselves and it allowed me to walk around with camera and tripod wherever I wanted to and without disturbing other campers. Actually I was after some Mountain Bluebirds (Click HERE for a picture I took earlier that day) but when an unknown bird call sounded from some nearby rocks, my attention shifted immediately.

The Rock Wren lives in the western part of the US and southwest Canada and the location we found it is pretty much at the eastern border of its range. I just read that male Rock Wrens can have a large repertoire of more than 100 song types. I think that’s remarkable! This bird is not known to drink water, but gets the liquid it needs from food. Their diet consists insects and spiders and they hunt for them between and around rocks. Winters are pretty cold up in North Dakota and the Rock Wren migrates to the warmer regions in the southwest of the US and to Mexico.

Photographically not all wishes became true. The topography of this location did not allow  to get closer with the tripod and so I applied a crop to both photos. The location itself was perfect. Having a Rock Wren on top of a rock, surrounded by some grass stems and sage brush, tells a great story about its habitat in the badlands of North Dakota.

NATURE CLICKS #449 - YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD

Green Island Wetlands, Mississippi Valley, Iowa

It has been six years that I saw and photographed a Yellow-headed Blackbird in the Green Island Wetlands. There was a habitat, a smaller pond with lots of cattail plants, that went through a lot of abuse from construction related measurements by the railroad company that operates the neighboring railroad track. As a result the Yellow-headed Blackbirds disappeared from that location, the only one I knew where this species lived in this area.

Today Joan and I went back to the wetlands in hope to see the White-faced Ibis again. But they had moved on and were not found anywhere. Instead we saw two male Yellow-headed Blackbirds in this thorny tree while driving slowly down the gravel road on the dike. This gives me hope that this species is not lost for this area. Their call is a little different from that of the Red-winged Blackbird, which can be found in abundance. I will keep my ears and eyes open during this summer and maybe I can locate a new breeding ground somewhere between the reeds…

NATURE CLICKS #429 - BOBOLINK

Breeding male Bobolink

A year ago I wrote about my first sighting of a Bobolink at a patch of grassland at the outskirts of Dubuque, Iowa. They are in decline due to the loss of their habitat, large fields with a mixture of grasses and broad-leaved plants. Yesterday I saw at least two males and a female at the same location like last year and it looked like they were feeding their brood in a nest somewhere on the ground between tall grass and wildflowers. Bobolinks have a long journey behind them after they arrive here. They travel about 20000 km (12500 miles) from South America.

Female Bobolink. Non-breeding males look almost the same.

We had a light overcast yesterday. Beside the fact that it takes a little bit of light away, I really liked it because it allowed me to point the lens to the southwest in the afternoon. If you have tried to take a picture of a black bird you know already it can be a challenge to balance the black feathers and a light environment. While shooting again from the car I was able to get really close this time. Wind was probably the biggest problem. The grass and plants swayed the whole time and the birds don’t sit still either. With other words, lack of sharpness was the main reason for throwing out some of my photos at the end of the day.

NATURE CLICKS #424 - RED-HEADED WOODPECKER

For two days we had the pleasure to watch this beautiful Red-headed Woodpecker in the woods around our house. He or she is probably migrating further north. This species is actually a native in our area but we see them in our woods only for a few days in May. We have plenty of woodpecker habitat, means dead trees, but five other woodpecker species (sometimes even six) raise their offspring in our valley and on the bluff tops and this is maybe too much competition.

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

OUT WEST #3

Bighorn Sheep, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Most people who come to Badlands National Park may never see much wildlife because they stay on the Badlands Loop Road that leads through the park between the Northeast Entrance and the town of Wall and leave the car only at one of the numerous overlooks. It helps to know a little bit about the biology of the critters and birds to find locations where the chances to see and photograph them increases exponentially. However, Bighorn Sheep can be seen sometimes along the road and if that happens a traffic jam is often part of the game. Some of the Bighorns wear radio collars so the different groups can be tracked by the park staff for research or wildlife management purposes.

I have mentioned often in the past that I’m not an eyeball photographer. Most of the time I prefer the environmental photo of the animal that tells a story about the habitat the critter lives in. Quite often I zoom out and decrease the focal length of the lens below 600 mm in order to get the shot I have in mind. The Bighorn Sheep can move fast, sometimes they come too close (no, you don’t want to be there for your own safety if a big old ram comes right at you) and a moment later you wish a lens with even longer range is attached to the camera…

LOOKING FOR A SHADY PLACE

Young Northern Water Snake, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa ---------

We have seen a steep decline in the number of snakes during recent years, not just here in our woods above the Little Maquoketa River Valley. I have no explanation for that and when I talked to an officer from the DNR a few weeks ago he didn’t know either. We have great habitat for snakes, with wood and rock piles for hiding, and over the years we have recorded five different species here. Unfortunately since about 3 - 4 years we hardly see any. However, at least near the Mississippi River I see occasionally a Northern Water Snake.

This image was made last Friday in the Green Island Wetlands on one of the dykes that I call “snake alley”, just because I have seen snakes there more often than at any other places in the wetlands. This was a very young snake, probably not even two foot long. After a couple clicks from the car I got out and wanted to get low on the ground with the camera. The snake saw obviously its chance to get some shade and squeezed itself behind the left front tire before I was even out of the car. So, what now? I started the engine and moved carefully forward in order not to harm the critter. Well, that worked, when I got out of the car again the young Northern Water Snake was already in the water next to the dyke…

THE DOG, A SORA, AND HARSH LIGHT

Sora, Green Island Wetlands, Mississippi River, Iowa

Yesterday Joan and I went on a “Sunday cruise” along the Mississippi by car and ended up checking all the known locations in the Green Island Wetlands that have led to some wildlife photography in the past. At the end of a short hike on one of the levees our little dog Cooper started barking and ran down to the water. First we thought a muskrat had triggered his instincts, since he usually ignores all the birds, but then we saw a Sora foraging on top of the driftwood and between the old reeds. We called him back immediately. It was the same spot in the wetlands where I had photographed this species last year after another photographer had made me aware of it. A little later we saw finally a second bird.

A look at the range map in my bird guides reveals that the Sora is widely distributed and is the most common rail in North America. The Green Island Wetlands are about at the southern border of their summer range.

It wasn’t an easy process to make this photo. I was shooting against the sun and all the reflections on the water made it a challenge to deal with exposure. The Sora moves fast while searching for food between the floating vegetation and quite often old stalks were in the way for a clean shot. The background is not very nice but it is it’s natural habitat. Last year I watched the Sora while it was raining and thought that was not easy. Well, I take the rain any time over the harsh light from last Sunday…

BALD EAGLE’S STORY, GOOD REASON FORE EVEN MORE AWARENESS

Living here in eastern Iowa and having Bald Eagles present all year long may dull our sense of appreciation for this majestic bird. But as real friends of nature we will probably never get tired of their presence. Not everybody is aware that this bird was almost at the brink of extinction not that long ago, but the time is luckily over when we had to make any possible shot to prove that the Bald Eagle is still among us. Instead we now can relax and focus on its sheer beauty and the stories our images may tell. Creating awareness about our natural history and heritage is what my photography is about. Seeing large numbers of eagles soaring above our heads doesn’t mean we have reached a safe heaven. There are many other critters and birds that need our attention, and your photos, yes, yours, may help to create awareness about the struggle for survival of a particular species that is confronted with shrinking habitat and / or global climate change.

NATURE CLICKS #278 - GRAY CATBIRD

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, tripod, gimbal head, SB 800 speed light

This is not my first blog post about the Gray Catbird but I still have not made many photos of this species. It prefers low and dense vegetation and if there wouldn’t be its distinctive meeow-call we probably would hardly recognize its presence. Staying always on paved roads or trails is limiting the range of wildlife that we can get in front of the lens. Knowing a little bit about the biology and the preferred habitat of a bird or critter is already halfway of making the click. Sure, we get lucky sometimes in the middle of the road, but going into the woods or into thick brushes and underwoods may lead you to the picture you were waiting for since a long time.