MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2023 #11 - A TOUCH OF MELANCHOLY

Mississippi River, John Deere Marsh, Dubuque, Iowa

I guess I’m finishing my Mississippi River stories of 2023 at the same location where I started them this year, at the end of the dyke that protrudes far into the river, near the big John Deere factory north of Dubuque, Iowa. It’s the fog that tells today’s story. Cooler water comes slowly down from the north while the air temperature is way too warm for this time of the season. With almost no wind today there were no ripples on the water and the fog had a chance to stay in the valley. Some thin sheets of ice had piled up on a mud bank lately, but it was the only white spot around. The scene had a certain melancholy and proofed what I have said often before, the Mississippi River is never twice the same…

WON’T YOU DANCE WITH ME

Ring-billed Gulls, Mississippi River, Sabula, Iowa

The song ”Won’t You Dance With Me” with the great performance by the Detroit Cobras comes to mind when I look at the gesture of these two Ring-billed Gulls. A good reason to pull their 2001 record ”Live, Love, and Leaving”out of the sleeve and put it on the turntable (The song was actually first released in 1964 by Billy Lee and The Rivieras, aka Mitch Ryder And The Detroit Wheels). Back to photography, I love when good light meets with a great gesture in a photo. For those who may complain about the wing hiding the face of the second gull I just like to ask, have you ever danced to Rock Music…?? 😊

CATCHING AND DROPPING

Bald Eagle, Mississippi River, at the bridge between Sabula, IA and Savannah, IL

Nice weather again today made many people go out this weekend and look for Bald Eagles along the big river. The break-up of the ice on the Mississippi opens new opportunities for the eagles. They like to catch fish and more open water means more opportunities. There are some places along the river that the birds obviously prefer and visitors can watch a great show of performance sometimes. This adult eagle had picked up a fish from the ice that was dropped by another bird before.

This 2-3 years old juvenile had dropped a fish several times before finally claiming it. Dropping the catch often leads to a total loss because countless Ring-billed Gulls wait for their opportunity to steal a fish from the eagles.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S

ICE AND REFLECTIONS

Green Island Preserve, Mississippi Valley, Iowa

Today I was out for the fourth time this year in the Green Island Wetlands. Although it has been still cold during the nights, the warmer temperatures during the days have set the ice on the Mississippi in motion. There was a lot more open water than just a week ago and with it come the birds that move north to their breeding grounds. I saw several hundred Greater White-fronted Geese, Canada Geese, Trumpeter Swans, and lots of ducks coming through the Mississippi Valley after 4PM today.

The sun was hiding behind a thin layer of clouds and made for some interesting light. The puddles of water on the marshy fields started freezing again and reflected the light nicely. I had some shots of the birds already on the memory card and during a quiet moment changed the lens quickly and captured the landscape with ice and reflections. To keep the highlights intact the picture was underexposed by -2/3EV

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, f/4,  @ 82mm, 1/320s, f/11, ISO 100

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2023 #2 - DARK ICE

Mississippi River, John Deere Dike, Dubuque, Iowa

Here is another photo from the first day of this year. When we walked towards the end of the almost a kilometer (0.6 mi.) long dike at John Deere Marsh the scene was constantly changing. The main channel of the river lies right in front of you and the Wisconsin side is about 1.4 km (0.87 mi.) away. The fog above the ice was in motion and a few remaining snow drifts made for a crazy pattern on the dark ice.

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S,   @ 31mm, 1/100s, f/8, ISO 320

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2023 #1 - GREETING A NEW YEAR

Mississippi River, looking north from John Deere Dike, Dubuque, Iowa

Welcome in 2023! I think there is no better way to start into a new year than going for a walk with a camera in hand. With the grandkids in tow we made a short, but enjoyable hike to the end of John Deere Dike. This leads you about half a mile into the main channel of the mighty Mississippi River. Despite the warm weather we had after Christmas, the ice is still standing for the most part on the river and it had a dark color during this early evening hour. Large patches of fog had developed in the distance and the setting sun illuminated the clouds above.

This light and marker for the boat traffic has been my anchor point for many images before. I can tell you, the mood in these photos is never twice the same. Today it was quiet, calm, and kinda romantic. Not much effort was required in post process to emphasize what I saw in my mind for the final picture and for another, new Mississippi River story.

ICY ART CONTINUES

Life prevented me from getting out and shooting a lot of pictures this week but there is always something on the hard drive of the computer that deserves to be published. Earlier this month I tried to draw the attention to one of my winter projects, called ICY ART. Here is another image that I like to contribute.

ICY ART IN 2022

The long time readers of my blog may remember that I started a little gallery project on the website in January of last year, called ICY ART. I tried to contribute to this gallery during the last two months with some new photos, but just didn’t find the right subject worthwhile for being published. Today I discovered a promising ice pattern but the water beneath was actually quite murky. I gave it the ‘artsy-fartsy’ treatment with white balance and contrast enhancing measures and got a result that satisfied my artistic sensibilities. Here is a shortcut to the ICY ART gallery. I hope you enjoy. You all have a great weekend!

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2022 #2 - ACROSS THE ICE

Another trip today, heading south along the Mississippi River. No new snow recently, some warmer weather last week, and now real cold temperatures again made the ice everywhere looking different than a couple weeks ago. I watched a number of hawks again and had some of them even in the viewfinder. Distance was too big for my taste and instead coming up with a picture that is cropped to death, here are a couple landscape photos I shot this afternoon.

The direction of the sun reveals that I crossed the Mississippi down between Sabula, IA and Savannah, IL and pointed the lens towards the Iowa shore on the west side. With all the ice in the frame no negative exposure compensation was required to obtain this look with the silhouettes of reeds and the remains of water lilies.

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S,   @ 66 mm, 1/800 s, f/16, ISO 100

On the way back across the river to Iowa you drive through Sabula, Iowa’s only town on an island. I’m always intrigued by their old style water tower and today light, clouds, and reflection of the tower on the ice were perfect for making a photograph.

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S,   @ 70 mm, 1/100 s, f/16, ISO 100

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2021 #11 - FREEZING OVER

Mississippi River, Brownsville overlook, Minnesota, Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S,   @ 70 mm, 1/640 s, f/8, ISO 100

Finally some much colder nights hit the Driftless Area along the Mississippi River. I drove back from a customer visit up north on the Minnesota and Iowa side of the river today. The bays and backwaters with no or little current freeze over very quickly and I saw some people even ice fishing, which seemed a little risky. I stopped at the Brownsville overlook, Minnesota, the same spot where I watched and photographed thousands of migrating tundra Swans less than four weeks ago. If you missed these pictures you can click on the link HERE to still see them.

The swans have of course moved on to the Atlantic coast and the bay is frozen over. It was the sunlight coming through the clouds and reflected on the ice that made me stop. As you can see, we don’t have snow on the ground and it looks like for the first time in 18 years we will not have a white Christmas…

GULLS WITH CHARACTER

Ring-billed Gull, Mississippi River, Sabula. Iowa

The local nature enthusiasts and photography friends may probably say, oh, just a Ring-billed Gull, we have so many of them. It’s true, but I always give the more common species a chance to be presented here in my blog. There is a few ingredients for a photo like this. Last weekend the remaining ice in the little marina of Sabula, Iowa had this dark blue color that makes for that nice background and you only see it in the old ice of a season. A blue sky is mandatory and of course, the gulls have to cooperate. And if you have in addition a nice light from the side, the camera has to come out of the bag for sure.

It was actually pretty busy. The birds caught little fish and argued about them a lot. some of the birds are really characters. This one looks like the cat that had eaten the canary. It just had gobbled down a fish, looked up into the sky for the other competitors, and seemed to think, haha, you didn’t get it, I did! Can you tell I had fun making these photos?

LAST FOR THE SEASON: ICY ART

With winter coming slowly but surely to an end I thought to wrap up my little project for the season. I had fun to find patterns, shapes, reflections, and colors in ice, on rivers, lakes, on glass, or even just at the surface of a frozen bird bath. Not all pictures made it into the new collection but I thought a few were worth to be shown. If you like to see the whole gallery, just click on the photo and it will open the ICY ART collection for you. Have a marvelous weekend!

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2021 #3 - ICE? GONE!

Mississippi River, Marina entrance at Mud Lake, Iowa

Two days ago I reported about the break up of the ice on the mighty Mississippi. Today I went back, and wow, the main channel of the river had completely open water, all the way to the Wisconsin side. The rocky bluffs in the background are 2 kilometers away from Mud Lake Park, where this photo was made. There is still some ice in the quiet backwaters that don’t have much current, or like here, in the entrance to the little marina at Mud Lake. 

Our part of the river was already in the shade this evening when I started shooting, but with the setting sun in my back, there was still a photo that could be made. I tried to find an angle with some warm light in the big water puddle that contrasts nicely with the dark blue of the last ice. A few days ago people were still sitting on their buckets, trying to catch a fish through a hole in the ice. Very soon the first boats will leave the marina for their first trip of the season…

Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4,   @70 mm, 1/320 s, f/8, ISO100

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2021 #2 - A FAVORITE

115 years old swing railroad bridge across the Mississippi between Sabula, Iowa and Savannah, Illinois

You may have seen photos of this old railroad bridge here in my blog before. No wonder, any time I head south along the big river to Sabula, Iowa’s only town on an island, I have to stop and take a look at this nice piece of engineering. This single track swing bridge between Iowa and Illinois was opened in 1906. It hasn’t lost any of its charm to me and is still one of my favorite men-made subjects for a photo along the Mississippi River.

Last weekend the ice started melting around the bridge and made for a more interesting foreground than at other times before. I put my only manual focus lens, the Zeiss 35/f2 on the camera and set the picture control of the D750 to Monochrome mode. I always shoot in RAW and if I would change my mind later, a color image can still be extracted from the recorded data of the RAW file. But setting the picture control to ‘Monochrome’ allows to view the results immediately in black and white on the screen of the camera. 

Nikon D750, Zeiss Distagon T* 2/35 ZF, 1/160 s, f/11, ISO100

GEESE AND OTHERS ON THE MOVE

Greater White-fronted Geese, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa

Yesterday I took another trip to the Green Island Wetlands, and boy, what a change to the weekend before. The snow is melting really fast and a few spots had finally open water. With that said, food sources become available for all kinds of birds and they indeed move in immediately. I saw seven Greater Sandhill Cranes, a big flock of Red-winged Blackbirds occupied some trees, and twice the call of a Killdeer filled the air, although I didn’t see any. But the biggest sign of spring for me were several overflights of Greater White-fronted Gees

Canada Geese

Wherever the ice had disappeared and open water was available, pairs of Canada Geese had moved in and jockeyed for the best spots. Some may travel further north but the Green Island Wetlands are a popular breeding ground for Canada Geese.

What else, of course a number of Bald Eagles. I discovered another nest location, which is the fourth one I’m aware of in this area. Other raptors can be watched, like a Northern Harrier, Red-tailed Hawks, and for the first time I saw a Rough-legged Hawk at Green Island.

Getting close enough to a particular bird is always the biggest challenge for any photographer. If you finally have your bird in the viewfinder and you just can’t get it sharp, despite you do everything right, you probably deal with heat shimmer. The warm air above the remaining cold snow and ice creates this inferior mirage that prevents a sharp image. A problem that can’t be ignored, especially when working with a long lens. Sometimes it is better just to watch and enjoy the moment…