NATURE CLICKS #578 - AMERICAN REDSTART

As promised in yesterday’s blog post I show you another warbler that performed as crazy as the Yellow Warblers. Acting like a flycatcher, snatching insects mid air from, and being perched on the branches that overhang the river in Bankston County Park, the American Redstarts are just a delight to watch. As the Yellow Warblers, the redstarts nest here and raise their offspring. They spend the winter in southern Florida, southern California, and in Central America.

It sounds all technical but I have been really thrilled last weekend watching these two warbler species catching insects at the Middle Fork Little Maquoketa River in Bankston County Park, a place I can highly recommend to any wildlife photography friend in the Dubuque, Iowa area.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Sigma APO Teleconverter 1.4x EX DG, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head, @ 850 mm

NATURE CLICKS #577 - YELLOW WARBLER

It is one thing to shoot in a more controlled environment, like in the front yard of the house, and as I have done mostly last week. When the birds come to you it is not so difficult to adapt quickly and change your camera and speed light settings if necessary. With other words, it is somehow predictable. It is much more challenging to be out in nature and away from the home turf, as experienced yesterday again.

Since I have seen only one species of warblers in our woods last week I thought it is time to try something different. The valley in Bankston County Park is carved out by the clear water of the Middle Fork Little Maquoketa River. It is a great nature place here in eastern Iowa and it was a successful trip yesterday afternoon. I found a number of Yellow Warblers and another species (more about that in another blog post). They will most likely nest in the valley and raise their offspring. Right now it is all about eating and probably finding the right mate. The warblers perch often in the branches right above the water of the fast flowing creek and try to catch insects in flight, like flycatchers do it. Very soon all leaves will be out and pictures like I show you today are not possible anymore.

Many flycatcher species have one big advantage, they return quite often to the same perch after catching prey, making it easy for the photographer to get a shot. Not so the warblers, they land on a different branch, even in a different tree, most of the time. Following them with the camera was a challenge to say it mildly.

While at home I like to shoot with the speed light for better color rendering but this was not an option here. With the flash I shoot mostly in ”sniper mode”, a single shot each time the shutter release button is pressed. With the fast moving birds I worked without flash and used high speed frame advance rate with 10 frames per second.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Sigma APO Teleconverter 1.4x EX DG, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head, @850 mm

NATURE CLICKS #562 - COMMON NIGHTHAWK

Common Nighthawk, Badlands, South Dakota

Shortly after the encounter of an Upland Sandpiper (see my last blog post if you missed it) I found this Common Nighthawk sitting on another fence post along Conata Road, just outside of Badlands National Park. The wide open grasslands are an ideal habitat for this bird, who feeds on insects. I read that one bird eats upwards of 500 mosquitoes in a single day. Its enormous mouth surrounded by bristles is perfectly suited for aerial capture.

The nighthawk wasn’t bothered by my presence and gave me plenty of time to come back with a number of sharp photos. I have seen Common Nighthawks before, mostly in flight, but it was the first time I was able to add this bird to my photo library and to share a picture with you here in my blog.

NATURE CLICKS #469 - AMERICAN KESTREL

Female American Kestrel, Little Missouri National Grasslands, North Dakota

Here in eastern Iowa the American Kestrel can be found even during winter. Up in the northwest part of North Dakota the kestrel migrates south for the cold season. The picture was made just a few miles south of Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s North Unit. Whenever possible, most wildlife photographers try to keep the human made elements out of the frame. This is quite difficult with the American Kestrel because 90 percent of the time I find them perching on an electrical power line. This gives you no sense of location and who really loves these “wire shots”?

This female American Kestrel posed nicely on a bale of hey in a field beside the gravel road. Sure, this is a human made thing, but the difference to the “unknown wire” is that a bale of hey gives you a sense of location. Yes, grassland, fields, and prairie are preferred habitats for this bird. During summer time large insects, like grasshoppers, are their main diet, while during winter months small mammals, birds, and amphibians are on the menu.

THE SHORT MOMENT

Ruby-throated Hummingbird at a Tiger Lily

This immature male Ruby-throated Hummingbird is gleaning for tiny insects on the Tiger Lily in the garden. The lilies don’t last very long and a lot of things have to come together for such photo. Knowing that the time was perfect and the quality of the ambient light was right is one thing, but waiting for the moment for about an hour is the less predictable part. If you miss the two or three seconds the hummer spends at the flower, well, you may have to wait for another hour…

FEEDING THE SECOND BROOD

Male House Wren (German: Zaunkönig) waiting for his turn to feed the offspring with a good size spider

Our House Wrens are currently feeding their second brood. The little wrens grow rapidly and started making noise in the nest box. The parents are great, coming in with spiders, caterpillars, and insects every few minutes. The first brood this year was successfully raised already in June and behind the house, at another nest box, is a second wren couple busy feeding their offspring. The warm weather we had lately provides an abundance of supply for the little birds and we just enjoy watching them from our porch during “cocktail hour” in the evening.

1/40 s, f/6.3, ISO 200, @ 600 mm, -1/3 EV, flash -5.0 EV; with 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;

NATURE CLICKS #456 - AMERICAN REDSTART

American Redstart ♂️, Bankston County Park, Eastern iowa

After several hours shooting from the porch today, sipping on a coffee, watching some rain fall, and enjoying the birds I had already made up my mind what to post tonight here in the blog. The rain stopped in the late afternoon and we decided to drive back again to Bankston County Park and see what nature would hold for us after the rain.

No surprises today but we found the most common warbler in this area, the American Redstart, catching insects at the banks of the river. While this male redstart perched several times on small branches and waited for his chance, I had my chance to get finally the image I had in mind since a long time.

RESTORED PRAIRIE

Three photos from our hike through Proving Grounds Recreation Area near Dubuque yesterday evening. I don’t know how this all looked when it was still a testing ground for excavators, bulldozers, and other heavy duty machinery built by John Deere Works, but the open areas have been nicely restored as a prairie and the variety of wildflowers, grasses, and other plants is really great. John Deere Works donated this land to the Dubuque County Conservation Board in 2018.

It was a little windy, which was good for keeping the mosquitos down in the grass, but less helpful for closeup photography of insects or wildflowers. Nevertheless, a few sharp pictures emerged.

All images: Nikon D750, Sigma 150mm / f2.8 APO EX DG HSM

NATURE CLICKS #432 - HORNED LARK

Male Horned Lark

I haven’t seen and photographed a Horned Lark here in eastern Iowa since more than four years. Before 2015 I never had problems finding them, especially in early spring. The bird is listed as a common bird in steep decline, which underlines my own observations. To my surprise I found a male Horned Lark yesterday and today again on the observation hill at the Dubuque Regional Airport. I saw this bird several times with insects in its bill, and as the second photo shows, they take the bigger ones too. It nurtures my hope that there is a nest somewhere around.

Due to the fact that I was at the airport for making some clicks of the historical airplanes that practice for the big air venture in Oshkosh, WI next week, I didn’t have the tripod out. It helped to stabilize the lens on one of the posts that support the sunroof on the observation deck. The gravel of the parking lot is not really attractive but that’s where the Horned Lark foraged for insects. Although I shot very many pictures of the planes and only a few of the bird, these wildlife photos are important to me and made me very happy.

DEPENDING ON INSECTS

Eastern Wood-Pewee, Mississippi River, Mud Lake Marina, Iowa

I have been out of town for a few days but I guess I didn’t miss much in regards of wildlife photography. It was rainy and cold here. It warmed up today and this evening, after my return, I took our dog for a much needed exercise down to the Mississippi River. The water level is almost back to normal and Mud Lake Park is open again. Some dirt and debris is still evidence from the recent weeks of flooding.

The month of May was relatively cold overall and I had already concerns about the many flycatchers species, who spend the summer here and depend so much on flying insects. It was nice to see an Eastern Wood-Pewee, catching insects mid-air. Knowing the feeding and foraging habits of birds has helped me many times to find them. The pewee was very busy between the stranded logs the river had left along the shore he and returned quite often to the same perch after catching an insect. I used the car for cover and after getting the MAGMOD MagBeam flash extender out of the bag my results improved while the sun was hiding behind a cloud.

CLOSE TO THE GROUND

Yellow Warbler, Mines of Spain, Dubuque, iowa

In spite of the fact that we still have an abundance of migrating birds around our house at the moment (I promise, I will show more pictures soon!), I went to the Mines of Spain yesterday, the wooded state recreation area south of Dubuque, Iowa. I was hoping to see some neotropical warblers, vireos, and gnatcatchers coming up the Mississippi River Valley and was rewarded with several species that will breed in eastern Iowa during the summer. However, watching them doesn’t automatically mean to capture an image. Warblers are very fast moving birds most of the time, giving the photographer only fractions of a second to frame, focus, and making the click.

The Mines of Spain have two ponds, just separated from the Mississippi River by the railroad tracks. The bushes and shrubs that surround them are an excellent home range for birds that rely on insects. With other words, it is a prime habitat for warblers and other birds and a good place to stick the legs of the tripod into the mud.

It was interesting to see Yellow Warblers, American Redstarts, Common Yellowthroats, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, and Yellow-rumped Warblers gleaning for insects very close to the ground. The reason might be the relative low temperatures we have. Mosquitos, gnats, or little flies do still not perform much. We humans may like this, but the birds may struggle for survival if this would last. The good news is, the forecast for next week promises warmer weather…

NATURE CLICKS #414 - EASTERN WOOD-PEWEE

My prediction about the departure of the young House Wrens from the nest I made yesterday was correct. Early this morning, still at dawn, the mother called them repeatedly and at 7:30AM the gourd with the nest inside was empty. We wish them well and can’t wait until next spring when the first males arrive back from the south. Our nest boxes will be ready again for another nesting season.

While I took the pictures of the young wrens yesterday afternoon another summer guest showed up in our front yard. We can hear the distinctive song “pee-ah-wee” and the calls “pe-e-e-e-e-e” of the Eastern Wood-Pewee all summer long. This small flycatcher feeds on flying insects, like flies, bees, butterflies, wasps, or beetles. They start mostly from an exposed perch to capture their prey in midair but take occasionally insects from vegetation or the ground. Most of the time they sit too high on a perch for a good photo but yesterday the pewee used briefly one of our shepherd hooks that holds a bird feeder. Pretty soon this bird will also head south to the tropics, where it spends the time during our cold season.

CHARMING SWALLOWS

Barn Swallow

My photography friend Kevin invited me for a late morning shooting in his barn on the south side of Dubuque, Iowa today. The barn is actually the home of a couple horses but it also gives shelter to several Barn Swallows. While we watched one of them still sitting on the nest, others were feeding their offspring already. There was a lot going on and we had plenty of opportunities to experiment with our camera and flash settings in order to get some good shots. We both had a great time to work with the birds.

The barn has a few windows and the upper half of the doors were open, allowing some day light to enter the room. The challenge was to incorporate the ambient light while our speed lights were used to freeze the action without making the flash too dominant. I wanted to preserve the warm feeling and colors that we found inside the building and pair it with the charming gestures these beautiful Barn Swallows have shown to us. The current warm weather provides plenty of insects and it never took very long until the adults returned with a bill full of food for their nestlings. What a fun morning! Thank you again Kevin for this great opportunity!

NATURE CLICKS #398 - YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER

In yesterday’s blog post I mentioned that I had another story for you. Yes, it was bird photography fun at its best Saturday afternoon and today I went again to the Deere Marsh, the wetlands behind the John Deere factory north of Dubuque. The Yellow-rumped Warblers migrate right now through the Mississippi Valley and they obviously like the supply of insects that came with the warm weather we have here since the last couple days and stay a little bit longer. The warblers use the trees and shrubs along the shore beside Riverside Road to perch and to catch their prey, almost in a flycatcher manner, There is also a lot of display going on. The males try to impress the females and the coloration of their feathers doesn’t get any better than this time of the year.

The Yellow-rumped Warbler is one of the most common Warblers in North America and because of their ability to digest wax-coated berries, like bayberries, they are capable of wintering farther north than any other warbler (source: iBirdPro App).

At this location having a good background is not a big problem. You either have water or the sky as your background and even if you, like me, don’t have the fastest lens in your arsenal, you can still render a background without clutter. The second image shows where the challenge lies. Getting a clean, unobstructed shot is not always easy. Lots of branches and wild growing vines can be in the way or just cast a shadow on the bird. I tried to make this a part of the story telling…

NATURE CLICKS #339 - EASTERN COMMA

Summer doesn’t get any better as it was today. I will never get used to the high humidity that we have here around the Mississippi Valley in parts of the summer. For my friends in Germany, I tell you, this can wear you out! Today it was warm, but by far not so humid as during the last couple weeks. Real summer joy!!!

My friend Maren Arndt, a very environmental conscious photographer who lives in the northern part of Germany, reports on her Facebook site about the fact that they see a lot less insects on the windshields of cars and trains in comparison to just a few years ago. Some light-minded people may think this is great, because it saves them from cleaning their windshield so often… As much as some insects can become obnoxious for us humans at times, but they still serve an important role in the food chain… The scary part of the story.

We watch the population of any critter, and of course butterflies, here in our neck of the woods very closely since twelve years. We don’t panic if in some years we don’t see the same numbers of a species as the year before, but whatever we monitor, I don’t see a better picture. Ok, I still try to stay positive!

According to my sources the Eastern Comma is a common butterfly in the eastern part of North America but the first and last time I took a picture was in 2013. Glad to have the Eastern Comma back in our yard, but overall it hasn’t been a real good year for butterflies yet.