SURPRISE IN THE MORNING

Sharp-shinned Hawk, Little Maquoketa Valley, eastern Iowa

When I get out of bed I first have always a look through the window at our bird feeders and bird baths. No birds were present this morning and that quite often means that a predator is nearby. It took a couple seconds until I realized that our Sharp-shinned Hawk, that we see here during winter time , was sitting right next to the bird feeders on a perch that I had built for our feathered friends. Some of the smaller birds were hiding in a mountain pine that grows right beside the house and some juncos and sparrows were probably under the porch. The hawk knew it and had obviously missed a surprise attack earlier. The raptor was just waiting for another chance to strike.

I grabbed the camera quickly, took off the lens hood, and tried to shoot through the glass of the window. Let me tell you, I was struggling with this situation. First I was too close to the bird and below the minimum focus distance of about 4 meters. So I stepped back about a foot and tried to shoot from a distance through the glass. Usually that doesn’t work well and focus is difficult to obtain. Second, I still had the 1.4 teleconverter attached to the lens and only had the upper part of the hawk without the tail in the frame. The Sharp-shinned Hawk still posed nicely and I quickly removed the TC.

I don’t know how I finally got that shot halfway sharp, while taking the picture under a 45 degree angle through the glass and about a foot away from the window. However, it was a great way to start my day this morning…!

Nikon Z6 III, Nikon NIKKOR Z 600 f/6.3 VR S

NATURE CLICKS #613 - RAPTOR WATCH 2025 - BROAD-WINGED HAWKS

Broad-winged Hawk, immature

Together with other members of the Dubuque Audubon Society I participated in the annual ”Raptor Watch” event in the Mines of Spain near Dubuque, Iowa today. I’m sorry for not posting anything lately, but other things in life required attention instead of wildlife photography last week.

Kettle of Broad-winged Hawks at the Mines of Spain, Dubuque, Iowa

It was great to be out again and have a camera strapped over my shoulder. In September large numbers of Broad-winged Hawks migrate to the northern part of South America and can bee seen in big flocks circling in kettles high up in the sky during migration. There are places in the Midwest where they have been seen by the thousands, but everybody on the small observation platform in the Mines of Spain was very happy to see several swirling kettles of 60-100 Broad-winged Hawks today.

My thanks goes to Tony Moline, a very knowledgable field guide as always, and all the other Audubon members that made this birding event a pleasant and great learning experience!

Broad-winged Hawk, adult bird

NATURE CLICKS #568 - RED-TAILED HAWK

Red-tailed Hawk, Mississippi Valley, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa

It was already the second time this year that I visited the Green Island Wetlands. In comparison to New Year’s Day last Monday, when almost nothing was frozen over, we saw a thin layer of ice on most of the lakes and canals today. As gray as the sky was again it didn’t make sense to point the lens at any birds in flight. However, there is a number of raptors that try to make a living between the fields and wetland areas and getting a shot with a background other than just plain gray sky was at least worth a try.

As always, some local Bald Eagles perched near open water and I saw a winter guest, a Rough-legged Hawk, in one of the dead trees. North America’s smallest falcon, the American Kestrel was present but this fierce little raptor didn’t let me come close enough for a photo. Flocks of American Tree Sparrows were feeding on seeds along the dykes in the wetlands and I wonder if the kestrel was preying on them or if he just looked for little rodents.

This Red-tailed Hawk was perched in one of the big cottonwood trees near the road and had some patience with my presence. The bird holds on to the branch with just one claw while the other one peeks out between the feathers from underneath its belly. I moved in a position with as little sky as possible in the picture but a bit of snow in the tree. Is it a perfect shot? No, but I came back with a photo from my trip and that’s all what mattered under the gray sky today.

RETROSPECTS 2023 - #6

Sharp-shinned Hawk, Little Maquoketa Valley, Iowa, February 2023

This is the raptor every other bird pays utmost attention to in our woods, the Sharp-shinned Hawk. When all the woodpeckers or nuthatches freeze motionless and the sparrows and finches disappear suddenly, we just know the ”sharpy” is somewhere around here. Sometimes we don’t see him or her but all the birds obviously do and immediately adapt their behavior. They are able to move very fast between the trees without hitting a branch and can strike with surprise. I have seen a Sharp-shinned Hawk taking a Northern Cardinal down mid air. What follows is usually not very pretty but nature’s rule requires that they all have to eat sometime for survival…

In early February this hawk spent more than half an hour in great light near our bird feeders and the only difficulty to overcome was to find a position with the camera that had an unobstructed view between the trees. It was just another great moment in 2023 and worth to mention again.

SHARPIE’S STRIKE

Sharp-shinned Hawk after making a kill

A short glimpse outside the window this late afternoon told me that a raptor was around because all the birds were gone. Well, wait a minute, except for one! It was our Sharp-shinned Hawk who got a hold of a woodpecker. There wasn’t much left of the bird and I’m still not 100% sure if the hawk caught a Downy or one of the larger Hairy Woodpeckers. The size of some feathers make me believe it was the latter.

I grabbed the camera quickly and opened the window silently. The picture is cropped to about DX size because I had to shoot through the legs of a bird bath installation in the front yard. The Sharp-shinned Hawk ate pretty fast but lifted its head from time to time.

The key for a sharp shot was predicting when the head is up and at a total standstill, called “peak of action”. The ability to shoot up to 14 frames per second with the Nikon Z6II helps to nail this moment even with just a short shutter burst.

Of course, we like all birds we are fortuned to see here above the Little Maquoketa Valley. It’s sad to see a woodpecker go, but we also know birds of prey, as the Sharp-shinned Hawk, play an important ecological role in maintaining the environmental health of their natural habitat. As apex predators they remove sick, old, and weak animals from prey population and keep prey species and mesopredator populations under control.

NATURE CLICKS #538 - SHARP-SHINNED HAWK

Sharp-shinned Hawk, Little Maquoketa River Valley, Iowa

Life isn’t always easy for the birds that come to our feeders and heated water bowls near the house. Yes, they have food and water but it also attracts predators, like this Sharp-shinned Hawk. When most of the birds suddenly hide in panic in nearby bushes and the woodpeckers freeze motionless on a tree trunk, it is a sure sign that a hawk is somewhere in the trees or is gliding through the woods.

Today the sound of a little bird hitting a window made me aware that something was going on outside. The hawk was perched just above some of the bird feeders. I believe it is a female “Sharpie”. The bird was fifteen minutes in that tree and gave me plenty of time to change the lens on my camera, open the window, and start shooting before she took off. Who knows, this might be my last “Nature clicks” blog post for 2022, but nature is always full of surprises and we have still seven days left this year…

A SUCCESSFUL HUNTER

Sharp-shinned Hawk

There was some turmoil in the air but let me start with the story before the drama unfolded this morning. Part of my morning routine is to check on bird feeders, water levels of the heated bird baths, and just watch the actions of our feathered friends from behind the balcony door. As seen other times before, there was a moment this morning when every bird either went away or just froze any movement. All the woodpeckers and nuthatches stopped moving and looked like sculptures and no sparrow, junco, finch, titmouse, or cardinal was really visible. This is a sure sign that our Sharp-shinned Hawk is in a nearby tree and on the hunt. I looked into the woods behind the house for ten minutes but couldn’t see the raptor. I just knew the hawk was there. Suddenly hell broke loose and some of the 25-30 Northern Cardinals that were hiding between tree branches panicked and among them was the hawk. He caught one of them mid-air and dropped immediately to the ground. And this was where both photos were made. You can’t see the poor cardinal under the snow but you get a picture of a successful hunter. The hawk spent a few minutes sitting over its prey before it took off and flew into a grove of eastern cedars and out of sight.

Sharp-shinned Hawks are pursuit hunters and catch their prey, mostly small birds, often by surprise, either mid-air or on the ground. They can navigate dense woods at high speeds and are agile and acrobatic fliers.

I was lucky to find an unobstructed view between the trees and the hawk gave me enough time to calm down and handhold camera and long lens while shooting from the balcony deck.

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.

FIVE RAPTORS

CYSCO, Harris’s Hawk, hatched in captivity in 1994, excelled as a falconry bird, and came to the Schlitz Audubon Center after retirement. ------------ 

It was fun at the 30th Annual Bald Eagle Watch in the Grand River Center of Dubuque yesterday. The event that celebrates the American Bald Eagle had a very good turnout with people of all ages. We had lots of good conversations with visitors at the information desk of the Dubuque Camera Club and the other participating organizations have been very busy as well. The highlight for many guests was without any doubt the live bird program, presented several times during the day by staff and volunteers of the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center, Milwaukee WI. The program was great education, not just for all the kids who got involved by Sara, who did a very good job of moderating it.

BARON VON SCREECH, Eastern Screech Owl, lost his right eye in a car accident.

It was allowed to take pictures, even with flash lights, but I decided to use just the ambient light for making some images of the raptors and the people who showed them to the audience. All photos were made handheld at f/4 between 1/20s and 1/40s. The ISO was cranked up to 1600. Shooting indoors is not my usual thing to do and dealing with white balance in very dim incandescent light had its challenges. The presenters moved around to give everybody a chance to have a close-up view of these beautiful raptors and the birds themselves move as well, with other words, not an easy task to get a sharp image.

CUTRIGHT, Peregrine Falcon, a retired falconry bird.

All seven birds of prey that were introduced to the audience (I only show five of them) are unable to make a living out in the wild for various reasons. Since I didn’t make notes (too busy fiddling with the camera 😉), the information about each bird under the photos is from the website of the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center. https://www.schlitzaudubon.org/education/raptor-program

TSKILI, Great Horned Owl, was stolen from her nest by a human who wanted her as a pet.

VALKYRIE, Bald Eagle, Was left by her parents earlier than normal. She did not have the hunting skills to survive in the wild. I like this photo because it shows the enormous size of an eagle, next to Sara, the main presenter of the program.

All images: Nikon D750, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, f/4G ED VR

RAPTORS AT BOLSA CHICA

Osprey, Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, Huntington Beach, California

During all my previous visits in the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve people were telling me about a pair of Ospreys that nest in the wetlands, but I never saw them. This time I got a little more lucky and spotted actually two birds several times. This one here was perched on a dead tree, not far from the water. The laguna provides plenty of food for all kind of birds and it is not only the Osprey that hunts for fish. I also saw a Northern Harrier soaring along the shore early in the morning. Unfortunately it hit me a little by surprise and I missed the shot. Well, next time…