Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Hard to believe that the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are here since two months already, although today I hardly saw any of them. We had very high temperatures and humidity today and it doesn’t look much better for tomorrow. But maybe this was the reason for their absence from our feeders?
The photo was made a week ago, and the drops on his bill are the result of a rain shower. Boy, I wished we would have one of those again… 😅
Young male Downy Woodpecker
We had a bit of rain the last couple days and the air finally cooled down, but I take this any time over the heat and humidity we had recently. However, no matter what kind of weather we have the birds and critters need to feed their offspring. I had some fun this evening standing on the porch behind the camera watching two young Downy Woodpeckers. Sometimes the parents still brought them a seed from the suet feeder but most of the time they tried to figure it out by themselves. They are only a little smaller than the parents but it is the clumsy behavior that reveals who has still to learn the lessons of life.
A little fill flash helped to get the exposure right and bring some colors out because the dark overcast this evening didn’t let much light come through here in the woods.
Dickcissel, Dubuque, Iowa
If people ask me about a good tip for wildlife photography, there is one that will be always on my list. Get back to the same spot over and over again! Sounds boring, right? But I think it really helps to know a location well, have an idea how the light may turn out, and most important , what critters might be present and how do they approach the site.
We went this evening to the flower meadows, I just call “Behind the Mall”, at the city limit of Dubuque, Iowa, and tried to see the birds again I had reported about recently, like Dickcissel, Bobolink, and Savannah Sparrow. We saw them all, but for the most part they were not within a good shooting range today. Watching them is still fun, and making the click is the cream on the ice. Today’s photo is already a few days old. The male Dickcissels guarded the nests that were obviously deeper down between grass and flowers and this is just the gesture you may see most of the time. Did I mention that their songs sound beautiful?
It’s the time of the year when many birds raise their next generation. Food is here in abundance and we are all happy if we have less mosquitos and flies around us while spending time in the great outdoors.
Down in Mud Lake Park at the Mississippi River a pair of Tree Swallows took possession of one of the nest boxes. At least three little swallows were in the box and stuck their heads out from time to time in expectation of the next food supply.
As always, I stay away from the nest and use the long lens with its maximum focal length of 600 mm to make the click. I act fast and walk away quickly from an active nest.
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!
Male Bobolink, near Dubuque, Iowa
I promised you yesterday another bird encounter and first sighting. The Bobolink has been on my “most wanted list” since a long time. They feed mostly on the ground and in low vegetation and their habitats include prairie and grasslands. Before I saw them I could hear them and it was not very often that a Bobolink was visible between the grass and wildflowers on this patch of grassland just at the edge of town.
Same bird as above but showing its white wing patches and rump
Yesterday evening I saw several males and two females but never got really close to the ladies. I wasn’t really thrilled with my photos from the male Bobolinks and so I went back again today to give it another try. The only chance to get close to a bird is by staying in the car and use it as a blind and invest some time and a lot of patience. There was no easy click to make this time. Many factors play a role for getting a sharp image. The grass is swaying in the wind and so does the bird. If you just see one doesn’t mean you have a clean view and moving the car in the right position was important. The roads in this area have no or very little traffic. They were built for future economical development, which I seriously hope will never happen. Larger areas with undisturbed prairie or grassland are a scarce commodity here in Iowa and if these remaining areas become a big parking lot with a store behind it, these habitats will be gone forever and so will the birds.
Dickcissel, near Dubuque, Iowa ------
The last two evenings have been great for bird watching and as a result I had four birds in front of my lens that are not very common anymore and two of them were first sightings for me. So let me start with today’s best encounter.
One big reason to be a member of the Dubuque Camera Club since last fall is the fact that networking with other like minded photographers benefits everybody involved. The small group of wildlife photographers stays in really close contact with each other and we all try to share locations and shooting opportunities when they occur. This time my big thank you goes to Ken, who gave me a hint last Monday about a location in Dubuque, Iowa where another bird I found today as well, but will report about later, is present. I’m sorry, I will not reveal breeding bird locations in public for utmost protection of these birds, but if you are a serious birder or wildlife photographer, please feel free to contact me through the contact form on my “ABOUT” link here in the blog, and I may share this information with you.
As already hinted, I was out for another bird but the first one that drew my attention was this male Dickcissel, singing like crazy from different perch locations. I used my car as a blind and was able to get relatively close. This was a first sighting for me and I’m more than happy about the encounter and photo opportunity. The Dickcissel prefers open habitats, hay fields, and weed patches. They feed on seeds, grass, and insects, while younger birds consume more insects. They spend the winter in southern Mexico or even further south.
Gartenrotschwanz at nest box, Templin, Germany ---------
During our recent travel to Germany I took just a small amount of photo gear with me. The bag contained the Nikon D750 and two lenses, the Nikkor 16-35 and 70-200. I used my feet to “zoom” if I had to fill the gap between 35 mm and 70 mm focal length. It served me well most of the time and I didn’t regret to leave a 24-120 mm lens at home. We moved around every day and traveling “light” was my aim.
As you can imagine I didn’t plan for any wildlife photography. When this opportunity of a breeding pair of “Gartenrotschwanz” in the backyard of our friends in Templin came up, I was a little short with 200 mm focal length since the nest box was high up in a giant pine tree. This is not an “every day” bird in Germany’s gardens anymore, I hadn’t seen one in ages, and the light was just great. With other words, I couldn’t let this chance go by and rather chose to crop the image in post. Both parents were feeding the offspring and this click was made when the male paused for a few seconds before he delivered the bug in its bill to the little chicks in the nest box.
Barred Owl ------------
Tonight the Barred Owl used our roof ridge as a perch for its hunting efforts. I could see the silhouette against the evening sky. It was quiet and peaceful and while I watched this magnificent bird, mother raccoon ransacked the suet feeder on the balcony at the other side of the house… Did I say it was peaceful…? 😏
The photo of the Barred Owl is from last week. This is how I found the bird Friday morning in a tree at the edge of our woods. I took the time to get the tripod out. With good support I had no problem to shoot at ISO200 and 1/80s.
I’m taking a break from posting here in the blog for a little while. I’ll be back soon. Enjoy the warm and sunny weather, always take the camera with you, and don’t miss the opportunity to make the best photo of your life!
Garter Snake -------
I have been possibly pointed in the right direction about my suspicion over the dramatic decline of snakes in our area by Pamela, who is also a member of the Dubuque Camera Club, today. Thank you Pamela! The cause could be snake fungal disease (SFD) and if you are interested to learn more about it, here is a useful link for you: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5095536/ . Oddly enough, Joan found a Garter Snake at the edge of our woods yesterday, the first we saw in a long time. The snake just rested in the grass and gave me plenty of time to get the camera.
So how do we get a good image of a snake lying in the grass? I don’t know! I tried a low angle but din’t like the outcome. There was always a blade of grass that covered part of the head. I finally went for a picture from above, using the coil of the reptile and the soft evening light as my means for the story telling.
In a close-up view of the photo I can see that the skin of the snake is kinda flaky, however, not really visible in this size-reduced image of my blog. I will send a larger file to the people that do research on this disease and will either learn that this Garter Snake is healthy or help to pinpoint the spread of this fungus. This is all very concerning, knowing about what impact the Chytrid Fungus, in particular Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis or “Bd”, has done to amphibians, wiping out more than one third of the world’s frog species. Just reading a lot about it today, the threat to these reptiles seems to be not less…
Nikon D750, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, f/4G ED VR
Yellow Warbler ------------
I have 3 photos of warblers for you today. All have the word “yellow” in the name but each is of course from a different species. As always, you can click on each photo for a larger image on your screen. It was a gray Sunday but the temperature started rising again. Early in the morning I saw a couple warblers here near the house and with warmer temperatures insects started flying again. I figured out it would be a good day looking for migrating or mating warblers around the Deere Marsh at the Mississippi River in Dubuque and at the end of the day I was not disappointed with my encounters.
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Taking pictures of birds against a gray sky or with water in the background that reflects the sky is usually a no-no, but rules are there to be broken sometimes…😉 To bring out the colors of these little neotropical birds requires to send a hint of flash in their direction. The light will be reflected and this takes care of the dull appearance under an overcast. I used the trusted MAGMOD MagBeam flash extender (click the link if you like to see it http://www.exnerimages.net/gear ).
Common Yellowthroat
Some of the pictures were made from the tripod and a flash arm was used. Others were made out of my car and in this case I mount the flash directly to the hot shoe of the camera. This is a little awkward at times because of the limited height of the car window but I haven’t found a better way yet. Don’t take me wrong, I still think a gray background does not lead to a real good photo but going out shooting beats the alternative, staying home… 😊
Female Scarlet Tanager -------
We had two very cold and wet days and I feel bad for the birds that just arrived here a week ago. The Scarlet Tanager spends the winter in the tropical forest of northwestern South America. During the last years we always had a pair or two here during the summer but it is a very secretive bird and we usually see it only in May or June. I don’t know if it is the cold weather only, but right now we see up to six male and three female tanagers in the “front and back yard studio”. They use our suet feeders or eat from the oranges we put out for the orioles very frequently and this gives me a lot opportunities to make a click while they are waiting for their turn in our trees and bushes. We can only imagine how hard it is for the birds after such a long journey to replenish their energy and the cold temperatures (yesterday it was 46ºF / 8ºC) are not helpful for sure.
Male Scarlet Tanager
The brilliant colors of both sexes make it very inviting to take their pictures. The dark overcast we had most of the time requires shooting with relatively long exposure and not every click leads to a sharp photo. Wind and the movement of the birds play a role as well. I shoot the SIGMA 150-600 wide open at f/6.3, 600 mm, and ISO set between 200 and 400 at the most. The exposure time was mostly between 1/60s and 1/200s but there were a few shots as far down as 1/25s.
The canopy of all the trees around is closing very quickly now, making it harder every day to get a clean shot of our Barred Owls. As you can see in my second picture below from two days ago, I finally had a chance to photograph the owlet. I’m not happy with the picture because I had to employ a speed light as my main light source but I saw its silhouette against the evening sky and the only way to make the click for this documentary shot was to use flash. It was so dark already that I’m surprised that I got away with a halfway sharp image.
A day earlier, last Monday morning, I witnessed some drama in our woods. I heard and saw both adult owls and they were celebrating a successful hunting effort. One of them had a bird in its talons and as far I’m concerned it may have been a young Blue Jay. While it flew out of sight to a different tree the other owl sat kinda proudly in best morning light in a tree across from my office. The picture above was made shortly after while a Blue Jay attacked the owl and tried to scare it away. I have seen this behavior before. The Blue Jays are pretty fearless and hit the owl with their wings, hoping that this predator goes away, but in this case it was obviously too late.
Young Barred Owl
Garter Snake, Mississippi River, Mud Lake Park, Iowa --------
I have a hard time keeping up with my visual story telling about things that happen in nature right now around here. It is an eventful time. So, let me talk about the Mississippi River again. The river was above flood stage during the last few days but reached its high today. Some of my usual shooting locations and places where we give also our dog Cooper his exercise were under water. Yesterday I was down at Mud Lake Park and the picture below tells you how this recreation area looked like.
Mississippi River, Mud Lake Park, Iowa
Ok, so what has that to do with the photo of a beautiful Garter Snake? During the last few years the number of snakes has dramatically decreased in this area. Years ago I could make a picture of a snake every day in our backyard and found them at many other places. This is not the case anymore. I have a hard time to find any snake at all and last year I saw only a single Garter Snake, which were usually abundant. I talked to many people, like rangers from the DNR or biologists. Everybody observes the same trend but nobody has really an answer what causes the decline. I still hope it is a temporary thing but my fear grows that pesticides or other aggressive treatments of mother nature play a role.
The high water level of the river and subsequent flooding have obviously effected the habitat of some critters and this Garter Snake was out in the open. A dangerous place since many predators, like herons, egrets, or owls may not hesitate to have them for dinner…
Groundhog (Marmota monax), also known as the woodchuck ---------
The groundhog, also known as the woodchuck, is a rodent and belongs in the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. They are common down in the valley of the Little Maquoketa River and we have seen them many times sitting next to the highway, near the river, or in the ravines that lead into the river. In all the years since we live here we have never seen one up on the bluffs, until today. The photo was made right from my office window and it looks like this guy was smiling at me while I pressed the shutter release button of the camera…
