WITH SUMMER PLUMAGE IN THE SNOW

Male American Goldfinch with spring molt almost completed

The photo today sums it all up how we started the day. A fresh layer of very wet snow clung to trees, flowers, and bushes while more than a dozen American Goldfinches visited our bird feeders. They are in process of changing from winter plumage to breeding plumage by a complete molt of their body feathers and most male goldfinches have their distinctive summer colors already. Yesterday evening when it started snowing I was already hoping for this photo opportunity in the morning. As you can probably tell, I was not unhappy. The snow melted away during the day and spring will continue…

LOOK AT THE SKY

American Goldfinch

More snow during the last days and at times the sun came even out and made for good light. The American Goldfinch is the bird that changes plumage twice a year. The bright yellow summer plumage of the males, with the black cap on their heads, is hard to beat, but I also enjoy their not so bright winter colors and tried hard to get an image that does justice to my claim. The snow below helps again to make the yellow feathers shine. These finches don’t give the photographer much time to think about the picture. Quite often they perch on a branch for only a couple seconds or even less. I love the pose of the bird, having a glimpse to the sky and looking for predators, before jumping down to the bird bath or flying over to a seed feeder.

NATURE CLICKS #540 - RED-TAILED HAWK

The red-tailed is probably the most common Hawk we see here in eastern Iowa. Their plumage can be highly variable. I saw this one several times today down in the Green Island Wetlands. Shortly after this shot was made the bird landed in another tree nearby and as I came closer I realized the hawk shared this tree with probably 200-300 Red-winged Blackbirds. They didn’t seem to be too concerned about its presence and the hawk knew he was too slow to get a healthy blackbird for dinner. The hope was probably to catch a bird that struggled or wasn’t able to move as quick as the rest of the flock. The temperatures were just slightly below freezing and to me it isn’t a surprise anymore to see Red-winged Blackbirds during winter time.

It’s not my best photo of a hawk. A gray overcast is always poison for a good bird image with the sky or water as a background. The gesture of the hawk came to my rescue. It was still enjoyable to be out in the wetlands today and better times for bird photography are just around the corner…

NATURE CLICKS #484 - JUVENILE BALD EAGLE

It was about time to make a trip along the Mississippi River again. Despite the warm weather we had last week, the river is still frozen almost everywhere and most fields and marshes are snow covered. Food sources are still limited for many birds and it took me a while to find an animal that triggered my desire to make a photograph. However, it was a sunny and relatively warm day and it was just nice to be out and about.

This juvenile Bald Eagle was perched in a tree next to the boat landing in Bellevue, Iowa. This is just below the lock and dam and was one of the few few spots on the river without ice cover. It takes the Bald Eagle about four to five years to acquire adult plumage, with their distinctive white head and tail feathers. This one looks like it is in its second year, with some white mottling on its breast and belly already present.

After a few ‘safety shots’ I zoomed with my feet , back and forth, left and right, and tried to find a spot where no branch cuts through the eagles head. Not paying attention to this kind of detail is a mistake I made way too many times in the past during bird photography. The eagle was very cooperative, turned its head around a few times, but stayed in the same position and gave me all the time I needed to make the photo you see today.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S,   1/400 s, f/8, ISO 100, @600 mm, shot in FX mode but cropped in post for DX dimensions.

NATURE CLICKS #468 - SCARLET TANAGER

Male in its non-breeding plumage during fall migration

Since five days we have an unusual visitor at the suet feeder next to my home office window. This male Scarlet Tanager waits patiently until no woodpecker or other bird is present and takes his turn for a meal. Usually early in May we see up to a dozen tanagers after they arrive from South America. I have posted photos and have written about these beautiful birds every spring but we have never seen one during fall migration. At this time of the year the males have already traded their red feathers for green-yellow. We know that some Scarlet Tanagers breed in our woods, but they spend most of the time high up in the canopy and are hardly seen near the ground during the summer. Now we wonder if this is a bird that was here for the last few months or if he is just on his journey through to the forests in South America.

The photo was made through the admittedly not very clean window next to my desk with the Nikkor 70-200, f/4 at 175 mm. As almost always I shot in Aperture priority mode and to compensate for the bright background the exposure compensation was set to +1.66. The “Dehaze-slider” in Lightroom took care for the haze and blur effect from the window glass.

NATURE CLICKS #354 - FORSTER’S TERN

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

It is hard to believe that it was already a month ago when I visited the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach, California. I hope you don’t mind if I show another image here in the blog, even if it is not “real fresh” anymore.

If you follow my blog regularly, you know that I never liked the fact that in most places in the wetlands you can’t really shoot near the water level. You are supposed to stay on the trail or levee and that is always higher located. Nevertheless, there is one spot where you can go a little lower (still not low enough) and look over a sand bank that is not submerged in water. At low tide hundreds of birds use it as a resting place or forage in the sand and between the stones. Dozens of Forster’s Terns are among them and they are now in their winter plumage. I have photographed them here at the Mississippi River during migration but never more than two at any time.

NATURE CLICKS #261 - AMERICAN GOLDFINCH IN WINTER PLUMAGE

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, tripod, gimbal head

The American Goldfinch male is the prettiest of all finches we have here, especially in the summer. Their winter plumage is a little dull, but if the sunlight is bounced around by the snow on the ground, as we had it earlier this month, the colors can be very intense. The goldfinches stay in Iowa all year long and we see them here in large numbers coming to the bird feeders. Now, with the snow all gone and temperatures on the rise we will see soon the change to their breeding plumage again. It is the only member of its family that has a second and complete molt of its body feathers in the spring. All other species have just one molt each year in the fall. (source: iBird PRO app)