WORKING WITH THE LADIES

Female Red-winged Blackbird, Mill Creek Ponds, Eastern Iowa

If we want to talk about one of the most common birds here in Iowa, at least during the season without snow, it has to be the Red-winged Blackbird. They are omnipresent wherever there is open space. The males arrive a lot earlier in spring from the south than the females and everybody here knows this black bird with its striking red bar bar on the wings that gave this bird obviously its name. You may not agree, but I’m always intrigued by the beauty of the female blackbirds, in particular during breeding season.

A couple days ago I stopped at the Mill Creek Ponds in a side valley of the Mississippi River. The long time followers of my blog may remember that I have photographed breeding Trumpeter Swans many times before at this location, but to my disappointment no swans seemed to be there this year. As always, the blackbirds have their habitat between the reeds of the wetlands and around the Mill Creek Ponds. Of course plenty of male birds are there and defend their territories aggressively.

I really focussed on the female birds this time and tried to incorporate the reeds along the pond in the background. I believe photographing a common bird should include a certain quality of light, otherwise I won’t publish it. 6PM is still way before sunset, but this valley receives the last warm sunlight for the day a lot earlier. While the first photo is all about the beautiful plumage of the blackbird lady, the second one is all about the gesture.

I try to make it a habit to shoot the long lens with the 1.4 SIGMA teleconverter attached. Having 850 mm focal length on a full frame sensor camera makes it very desirable for bird photography. Shooting a lot more with this tool lately, my keeper rate went up quite a bit. I can afford to be choosy about what image to use for a blog post…😉

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

1. photo:   @ 850 mm, 1/400 s, f/9, ISO 400

2. photo:   @ 850 mm, 1/640 s, f/9, ISO 400

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BACKGROUND (AGAIN)

Greater Sandhill Cranes, Mississippi Valley, Green Island Wetlands

Who can blame me? The transition between winter and spring is the most exciting time of the year for a lot of nature lovers and photographers. For the third weekend in a row I went back to one of my favorite wildlife spots in the area, the Green Island Preserve wetland area, about 40 miles south and part of the ecosystem of the Mississippi River. It was not as busy with ducks and geese as last weekend, but still a great place to enjoy wildlife, chase the light for a good image, or just inhale the sounds and moods of the season.

After trying hard on a pair of Sand Hill Cranes without an image even worth to mention, another pair of cranes gave me later finally quite a good display. The challenge in spring is always finding a good background. The cranes forage not so much in the water but in the marshes and probe with their long bills in the mud between reeds and grasses from last year. In addition the access to the Green Island marshes and lakes is almost everywhere from a slightly elevated position, on top of a dyke or the road. This makes the lens pointing towards the ground even if it is only a slight angle.

So, what’s different with today’s photo? The Sandhill Cranes were on top of a dyke. I was in the car on the road and a body of water between me and the birds. With other words we were on the same eye level. The area behind the cranes is lakes, marshland, more dykes, and flat overall. The trees in the back are about two miles away and border the Mississippi River. This is the kind of background I like to have. It gives a sense of location and even the grasses around the cranes become part of the story and leave no doubt about what time of the year the photo was taken. I wish the cranes would feed more often on top of the dykes…😉

ROMANCING AN UNROMANTIC LOCATION

Heritage Pond, Dubuque, Iowa

This shot with soft light and reflections on the water suggest a quiet, romantic location, just a few minutes before sunset, right? But nothing of the above was true. Behind the belt of reeds is a busy highway where people headed home from work or shopping. The noise level was not bad but definitely not quiet and the sunset was still 45 minutes away.

The steep bluffs of the Mississippi Valley make the sun disappear a little earlier, hence the blue reflections from the sky on the water. The light is nevertheless very warm and by watching the white balance settings in camera and underexpose by one f-stop we can romance the photo to the final result. Shooting from across the pond and keeping any distracting element from the highway out of the frame was possible by using the Nikon Nikkor 70-200, f/4 at 200 mm. No magic, just using what the camera has to offer…

FROSTY PATTERN

This photo is a week old and there was no way to make something similar during the last few days. It is very warm here in Iowa for this time of the year (61ºF / 16ºC) and there isn’t even frost early in the morning. 

The reeds down at the Mississippi lie flat from the snow we had in November and the hoarfrost and dappled light created the pattern I tried to capture.