MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2025 #2 - THE ICE MAKES SOME NOISE (VIDEO)

While shooting the photos of the Trumpeter Swans I showed in my last blog post I suddenly heard a crunching noise behind me, coming from the main channel of the river. A really huge ice floe had broken loose and started moving, grinding, and crashing against the rocks at the Potosi boat landing. We had a cold snap the night before and much of the Mississippi had frozen over again.

I like the crunching noise and hit the video button on the camera to capture the powerful movement of the river. Turn your speakers on loud, click the video below, and feel free to watch the little show.

Mississippi River, Pool #11 above the lock & dam Dubuque, Iowa. Photographed from the Wisconsin side of the river

This photo was shot later a few miles further south, giving you an idea how the ice got jammed above the lock and dam in Dubuque, IA, which is located but hardly visible at the horizon line.

Photo info:

  1. Nikon Z6II, Z 600 / f6.3

  2. Video: Z6II, Z600 / f6.3

  3. Nikon Z6II, Nikon AF-S Nikkor 16-35mm f/4G ED VR, @ 19mm

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 2021 #1 - THE ICE BREAKS UP

Yes, in 2021 I will continue with my visual Mississippi River stories that can be told with a photograph. Today the ice was finally in motion and big floes drifted slowly down the stream. I’m always amazed how high it can pile up if anything is in its path. I have photographed this marker near the end of the dike at John Deere Marsh several times before, and I knew it would help to tell the story about the break up of the ice on the Mississippi River. The SIGMA 150-600 is not my typical lens for landscape photography but I love the effect you can get for a picture like this. 

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S,     @ 330 mm, 1/1000 s, f/8, ISO100

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2019 #16 - ICE FLOES

Lock & dam #11, Mississippi River, Dubuque, IA

Going to the same places over and over again and coming back with a photo that tells a story a little different than the last one can be a challenge. Even more true if the sky has nothing to offer, either being plain blue, hazy, or just gray.

A week ago I stopped briefly at the lock & dam #11 in Dubuque, Iowa. The commercial barge traffic is of course closed for the season. A photo with the closed miter gate in the foreground and the ice slowly drifting down the Mississippi would have told this story, but something was missing. When the man in his bright overall crossed the lock on top of the miter gate, I knew immediately I had a better shot. The person gives the eye something to hang onto and to return to after the rest of the image is explored.

Mississippi River, John Deere Marsh, Dubuque, IA

The second photo is from today. It was taken at the end of the dyke at John Deere Marsh, just about three mile upstream of lock & dam #11. The dyke reaches deep into the Mississippi River, all the way to the main channel, and during the barge traffic season you can watch the boats coming by very close. Compared to last week not much has changed. Ice still floats down the river, gets jammed at some places, and breaks loose again. The sky was again nothing but boring. Without any boats there is really not much that would give a photo across the water much scale, except for this marker. The story is the same in both pictures (river not frozen over yet, floes coming down the river, no snow on the ground…) and the marker on its little island is just my anchor point.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2019 #15 - ICE PILED UP

Mississippi River, Mud Lake

When I took our dog for a walk to the Mississippi River this morning I was almost tempted to leave the camera at home. It was just a gray and cold day. I hardly ever go without a camera to the river and I was glad I didn’t change my habit today. The photo was taken from almost the same spot as the one in my last post, which I called “Dynamic in the sky”. Well, there was no dynamic in the sky at all today, but the cold temperatures we had earlier this week, followed by some warmer weather, had broken up some ice upstream and a lot of drift ice was piled up. The river is about 2.2 km (1.375 mi.) wide at this point, but the Wisconsin side looks much closer due to the compression effect of the 200 mm lens. 

Another occurrence that had an impact is heat shimmer. The cold air above the ice is mixing with warmer air and makes it impossible to see the ice on the other side of the river really sharp. I shot this with f/8 and focussed on the piled up ice on the Iowa side of the river. A smaller aperture, like f/16 wouldn’t help a bit in this matter. 

Snow, ice, and a gray overcast don’t go very well together and in order to make this image work I left the white balance a little more on the colder side. 

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

BALD EAGLES… LIGHT, GESTURE, AND COLOR

Mississippi River, Ice Harbor, Dubuque, Iowa

Light, gesture, and color, it all came together this evening in the Ice Harbor near downtown Dubuque, Iowa. My special thanks goes to photography friend Kevin McTague, who send me a message this afternoon about the presence of Bald Eagles in the Ice Harbor behind the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium. I have shot there before when the ice broke during other years and knew ahead of time that this can lead to some good photography. Beside that it was the first real day of spring, with sunshine, a clear sky, and mild temperatures. The interesting part of this urban location is the fact that the brick stone building, which was as far as I know an old warehouse and is now part of the museum, reflects in the water of the marina and makes for some interesting color opportunities.

Most of the time the Bald Eagles just sat on the ice, looked around, and paid little attention to the Ring-billed Gulls, who were also hanging around. I was waiting for the gestures that were made when another eagle flew above or when the eagles communicated by calls and body language. By the way, it isn’t as static as it may look. The ice floes move around by wind and water current in the harbor and the light and reflections were different from one minute to the next. What a great way to start a weekend…!!

LEARNING IT THE HARD WAY

Sometimes magic happens when you are out there shooting. This evening at Ice Harbor in Dubuque the low sun hit the last patch of ice under an angle that made it appear in a dark blue. In addition the warm colors of the building across the marina reflected in the open water between the broken floes. To make it even nicer, one of the numerous gulls landed in the right spot…

Well, it could have been a good photo, if the photographer would have paid attention to the settings in camera…!! For some reason I accidentally changed the picture quality from RAW to a low resolution JPEG. You may not see a big difference here in the blog, because the final jpg’s here are small, but good enough for posting them on the web. What’s out of consideration is a large, high quality print. The bad news is that I shot the whole day with the wrong settings. I guess some lessons can be learned only the hard way…😉

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2016 #1

Common Muskrat, Mississippi River, Goose Island County Park, Wisconsin

Many things that happen in the outdoors here have to do with the Mississippi River, one way or the other, and I will continue writing my little stories from and about the big river in 2016. Today I had a meeting with a customer in La Crosse, Wisconsin and the drive up north, mostly just parallel to the Mississippi, is one of my favorite routes. It doesn’t matter if you drive on the Iowa / Minnesota side or east on the Wisconsin side of the river, the landscape is beautiful and there is always something interesting to see. I was not surprised to see many long stretches of open water already, although there are still parts of the river covered with ice. The winter was mild so far.

All images: Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens,

On my way back to the Dubuque area I stopped at Goose Island County Park, located just south of La Crosse, WI. This park with campsites, boat ramps, and other tourist amenities is probably busy in the summer but today I saw only a few fishermen and bird watchers.

I had the camera already in my lap when I discovered this Common Muskrat getting in and out of the water. Their dense, glossy winter fur is just gorgeous. This one used the ice floats as a feeding platform and was chewing on aquatic plants. The backwaters of the Mississippi, with its marshlands and water arms between countless little islands, are an ideal habitat for these large rodents.

I THINK I SAW AN OWLET...

Great Horned Owl with owlet

Very warm temperatures (26˚C / 79˚F) today made for a pleasant evening. Down at the Mississippi River big ice floes drifted by. I saw an eagle using an ice floe for a ride downstream. The entry channel of the little marina at Mud Lake had still an ice cover and a few ice fishermen were still sitting on their buckets and tried to catch some fish. It was quiet and peaceful…

But this is not why I post here today. As always, I checked the nest of the Great Horned Owl from a distance. Mother owl seemed to sit higher in the nest today. At least in some of the images I saw much more of the body than usually. It wasn’t before I viewed the photos on screen at home that I realized that I had probably captured the first pictures of an owlet! A little fuzzy ball appears in some of the photos and I believe this is the head of the little owl. I cropped the photo “to death” so I can share my discovery better with you. We knew it was about time and I’m happy that I caught a glimpse…