CLOUDS ARE THE HELPER

Great Egret, Upper Mississippi Valley, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa

It can be a little tricky if a Great Egret poses between the lush green of the wetlands in full sunlight. To blow out the highlights and end up wit absolutely no detail in its plumage is very easy. The white feathers of this member in the heron family do not have a lot of texture, but it is nice if the little bit of structure we can see remains intact. If a cloud moves in front of the sun the contrast in the scene can be managed much better and both, the egret and the background, receive the exposure they deserve. Watching the sky, I waited for this moment.

From a fallen tree in the water the Great Egret looks out for prey or walks slowly between reeds, arrow heads, and water lilies. At this time of the year all surrounded by duckweed. In the Green Island Wetlands their diet consists probably mainly aquatic insects, fish, or frogs.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Sigma APO Teleconverter 1.4x EX DG     @800 mm, 1/1250 s, f/9, ISO 800, aperture priority, dialed in -0.3 EV

NATURE CLICKS #403 - BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON

Green Island Wetlands, Iowa

Only once before I have seen a Black-crowned Night Heron in the Green Island Wetlands and that was already five years ago. As hunters they have great endurance and can stand still for a long time until a small animal passes by. I saw this heron this afternoon sitting on this branch at the edge of the water. Using my car as a blind the bird didn’t feel bothered by me much and even closed his eyes a few times. I came back 90 minutes later in hope for some softer light and the heron was still on the same branch. I would call this true patience…😉

NATURE CLICKS #353 - REDDISH EGRET

Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, Huntington Beach, California ---------

Almost every birder and photographer I met in the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve three weeks ago asked me, did you see a Reddish Egret? Yes, I did, I saw two of them! It wasn’t my first sighting of this bird and I have posted here in the blog about it exactly five years ago. I learned that a pair of Reddish Egrets had raised their offspring in the wetlands this year and people were just eager to see them.

I admit that this image was shot in “DX-mode” and in addition it is cropped. Unfortunately it is also not real sharp, with other words, a larger print is out of question. I had no chance to get closer during the short time I had the egret in front of my lens. There was too much water between me and the bird. If it was for a Great Egret, or even a Snowy Egret, I would not post this image here but this bird deserves an exception. Southern California is about as far north this egret goes on the west coast. The Reddish Egret is North America’s rarest heron and is usually confined as a breeder to the Gulf coast (source: National Geographic Complete Birds of North America).

NATURE CLICKS #347 - BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON

Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, Huntington Beach, California --------------

One of the best bird encounters I had in the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve last Sunday was the presence of some Black-crowned Night-Herons. I have seen and photographed them only once in the Green Island Wetlands here in the Mississippi River Valley. Some other photographers told me that they had seen lately even the Golden-crowned Night-Heron, who is there only occasionally during migration. My luck didn’t stretch out that far but I was very happy seeing the black-crowned. It was already close to mid day when these shots were made and I came back later in hope for softer light, but the herons were gone.

Sometimes we have to compromise, especially if the time to work with a particular species is limited. The background was really critical. The location of these dead trees, where the herons had perched, was near the border of the preserve, just in front of a residential area. Houses are never a great background for wildlife photography but in my second picture I couldn’t hide the fact. Usually I try to zoom with my feet and move around for a better background but more dead trees and other obstructions really limited my chances. Well, I’m still happy…

CHANGING TACTIC

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

This weekend Joan and I explored Lake Macbride, which is located between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. Heavy rain delayed our departure Friday night but we set up our campsite and launched the lake with our kayaks finally Saturday afternoon. This is an 812-acre lake and the park is with 2,180 acres Iowa’s largest state park.

We had some really good bird encounters in the forest and on the lake, for instance a Caspian Tern, Bald Eagle, Wild Turkeys, Pileated Woodpecker, Kingfisher, Green Heron, to name only a few. Of course, not everything leads to a photo and as I have written here before, the keeper rate by shooting from a kayak is ‘a little’ lower than by using a tripod on solid ground.

Approaching a Great Blue Heron with the boat is a tricky task. Most of the time they took off with a croaking call before we even got close enough to make a picture. This guy had escaped already twice. They just fly away and land at a different spot a few hundred yards down the shore. This shot was made after we changed our tactic. We paddled around the bird in a safe distance and approached it finally with the wind in the back. We drifted slowly towards the bird, without using any paddle strokes. The heron liked that obviously a lot better and allowed us to get into shooting range. I made the movements with the camera very slow and carefully. Fill flash was again essential to bring out the color of the feathers. This didn’t bother the bird a bit and I made quite a few clicks during this 12-minute approach.