PIC OF THE DAY

House Wrens

We watched the female House Wren carefully going in and out of  the hole at the nest box in our front yard for the last 2 weeks. She sat on a clutch of eggs. The male wren guarded the home and tried to lure every potential predator away by singing and drawing the attention to himself instead to the nest location. Today was the moment we were waiting for. While enjoying a cool drink on our porch this evening we saw both parents bringing food to the nest. Sure sign that there is some new life in the box. I don’t think it ever happened during all the years that I had both parents in front of the lens at the same time during this crucial period of time.

The female on the left arrived first with some food in her bill on the roof of the nest box. The male was also a successful hunter and handed his prey to her, just a second after this click was made. She managed to take both and deliver it to their offspring. We watch the House Wrens every year raising their offspring somewhere around the house, but believe me, it is still an excitement for us to be a witness.

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 #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.

ALL YEAR LONG

American Goldfinch, near Durango, Iowa

Goldfinches breed later than most birds in North America, mostly not before mid-summer. They are vegetarians with almost no exceptions and they rely on plants that provide seeds, like thistle, milkweed, and others. The American Goldfinches are the only finch that molts twice a year. The males get their pretty yellow feathers in late winter and it makes it very easy to identify them even over a long distance. We have them around here in eastern Iowa all year long, but it might not be the same birds that we see during the winter because they migrate.

A good way to attract them to the backyard is by providing a bird bath that is always filled and of course heated during winter time. We don’t see them actually bathing very often but they sure like to drink. Setting up a little perch helps to make a picture without the bird bath in the frame. The gesture of the finch, just ready to jump down to the water source, made me choose this photo for today’s blogpost. Nothing spectacular, but still pretty…

BUSY BLUEBIRD PARENTS

Male Eastern Bluebird, Dubuque, Iowa

A couple days a go I received a call from my photography friend Kevin, inviting me for a backyard shooting at his house in the evening. A pair of Eastern Bluebirds were feeding their offspring, three little chicks in a bird box. Kevin builds nest boxes, not just for his land, also for public places like Swiss Valley. He had set up a nice perch near the nest and all what we had to do was waiting for the parents with some food in their bills. Almost every time they came with insects, larva, or spiders the bluebirds used the perch to observe the surrounding before they safely approached the entrance to the box.

We sat comfortably in lawn chairs behind our tripods, had good conversation, and clicked away when the action took place. The low sun provided relativ soft light and it was not necessary to use any flash for color boost or to fill in the shadows.

Female Eastern Bluebird

Eastern Bluebirds are some of the prettiest birds we have here and they are very photogenic. The blue of the female’s wing feathers is a lot paler than the male’s but both parents put the same efforts in to find enough food for the chicks.

Food supply in abundance

This was the shot Kevin and I were hoping for, both adult bluebirds with food in their bills on the perch at the same time. It happened only once this evening but we used this opportunity. I usually shoot with the long lens wide open at f/6.3 but here I had it set to f/8. This provided of course still not enough depth of field for having both birds in sharp focus. The focus was on the male at the top but the photo summarizes the story of this evening.

It is always fun to shoot together with Kevin and I’m thankful again for sharing a great photo opportunity.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2019 #05 - AN EYE FOR THE LITTLE THINGS

Four-spotted Skimmer, Mississippi River, Mud Lake, Iowa

Here is another photo from our little paddle tour yesterday evening. Of course, if you see a picture of a dragonfly you may think immediately, oh we talk about macro photography today. Well, with 600 mm focal length attached to the camera this is not what it really is. Dragonflies are permanent companions during a paddle trip in the summer on the Mississippi. They are beautiful and I try to include them in my story telling if the setting is right, even if it is not a macro shot. Due to all the rain we had in spring and early summer the vegetation everywhere here in eastern Iowa is lush and green and yellow colors have a strong impact on many photos. The Four-spotted Skimmer can be found here along the river and it wasn’t the first time that I had this dragonfly in front of the lens. Handholding the D750 with the Sigma 150-600 attached is always a challenge, especially in a kayak. The low sitting sun led to a shutter speed of only 1/160s. Not really intended, but having the dragonfly sharp and the water soft and silky made this photo a keeper that I really like.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S   @600 mm, 1/160 s, f/8, ISO200

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2019 #04 - BACK ON THE WATER

Painted Turtle, Mississippi River, Mud Lake, Iowa

It is always an enjoyable way to finish the weekend with a paddle tour in the kayak on the Mississippi River. Joan and I took kayak-dog Cooper and the boats down to Mud Lake, the closest access to the big river from our home. Very little wind made the paddling easy and I thought it would help with bird photography, but we didn’t see any within the range of the 600 mm focal length of the Sigma 150-600. Other critters stepped in and let us get close for a photo. Painted Turtles are usually very skittish and slide into the water as soon you come within a 10-20 yards range, but this one didn’t mind our presence at all. I accidentally hit the log it was siting on with the bow of the kayak but this turtle was more than patient and stayed on the piece of driftwood.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S   @600 mm, 1/500 s, f/8, ISO200

BEE BALM, HUMMERS LOVE THEM!

Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird at a Bee Balm

Maybe I have a few days to make a photo like this, maybe not. With flowers you never can predict one hundred percent how long they last. A heavy thunderstorm can bring a quick end to their beauty. The Bee Balm is blooming right now in our front yard and it seems we have more flowers than ever before. Bee Balm is a favorite of the hummingbirds and making a good click while they hover around the flower or drink nectar from its blossom is always a great challenge but also a lot of fun. It takes some patience to be successful. This evening I had periods of time when no bird showed up for 10-15 minutes, instead they preferred one of the hummingbird feeders hanging from the roof of the porch. This is understandable because the resources of each flower are obviously limited. I tried a little trick I learned from other wildlife photographers and sprayed some hummingbird food into the blossom, but I don’t think that has increased the frequency of their visits to a particular blossom. It is the same mixture (4 parts water + 1 part sugar) that we use for our feeders.

This evening I experimented a lot with different settings for exposure and flash compensation and even with some higher ISO settings than I usually apply. Yes, it is a little easier to freeze the action of a hummingbird with a higher ISO setting (today up to 1250) and therefor much faster shutter speed, but I still like the rendering of details much better if the ISO value stays low (100-400).

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,  @ 600 mm, 1/400 s, f/6.3, ISO 1250,

NATURE CLICKS #431 - NORTHERN WATER SNAKE

Here is another image from last weekend. I know, snakes are not everybody’s favorite animal but I was very happy to see this Northern Water Snake crossing our way in the Green Island Wetlands. They are nonvenomous and eat fish, frogs, and salamanders. This was not the biggest one I have ever seen and its color was relativ light and so I assume this was a young adult. Unfortunately the snake population here in eastern Iowa has declined, maybe due to snake fungal disease (SFD). I have written about it here in the blog before.

The water snake was moving very fast and only stopped because we stepped in front of it. With hindsight I think I should have gotten still a little lower on the ground for this photo but overall I’m glad we saw this snake, which seems to become a rare occasion…

NATURE CLICKS #430 - AMERICAN MINK

American Mink with kit, Mississippi River, Green island Wetlands, Iowa

Today’s photo is not more than a documentary shot, the photo lacks some sharpness, but it was such a nice encounter that I like to show it anyway. Yesterday Joan and I went for a drive to some of the nature locations I visit frequently. One of them was the Green Island Wetlands, which is still flooded and only partly accessible. As we stopped briefly while on one of the dykes I saw suddenly an American Mink with two little kits disappearing in the tall grass and bushes that grow along the dyke. It happened at some distance in front of the car and so quickly that there wasn’t even time to get out of the car. We waited for a minute, hoping to see the minks again. Suddenly the mother came out of the dense vegetation without the two kits and ran back from where she came from the first time. After a little while she came back and with her was another little kit. I took some pictures but failed to get a sharp image. Well, I had another chance. She went back again and a little later a fourth young mink was guided to the place where obviously its siblings were waiting. I supported the lens on top of the car door but heat shimmer over the gravel road and the fast movement of the minks made it very difficult to obtain focus. The picture is heavily cropped, I’m not very proud of it, but the fun we had watching the mink with a litter of four was priceless…

NATURE CLICKS #429 - BOBOLINK

Breeding male Bobolink

A year ago I wrote about my first sighting of a Bobolink at a patch of grassland at the outskirts of Dubuque, Iowa. They are in decline due to the loss of their habitat, large fields with a mixture of grasses and broad-leaved plants. Yesterday I saw at least two males and a female at the same location like last year and it looked like they were feeding their brood in a nest somewhere on the ground between tall grass and wildflowers. Bobolinks have a long journey behind them after they arrive here. They travel about 20000 km (12500 miles) from South America.

Female Bobolink. Non-breeding males look almost the same.

We had a light overcast yesterday. Beside the fact that it takes a little bit of light away, I really liked it because it allowed me to point the lens to the southwest in the afternoon. If you have tried to take a picture of a black bird you know already it can be a challenge to balance the black feathers and a light environment. While shooting again from the car I was able to get really close this time. Wind was probably the biggest problem. The grass and plants swayed the whole time and the birds don’t sit still either. With other words, lack of sharpness was the main reason for throwing out some of my photos at the end of the day.

SLOW SHUTTER SPEED, STILL GOOD FOR THE STORY

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

There are many ways to make a picture of a hummingbird. Some people may like to present every single feather to the viewer and ‘nuke’ the birds with tons of flash light in order to freeze the action or obtain depth of focus. This is perfectly fine if counting every feather is important for the story, like maybe in a bird guide book. With still photography it remains a challenge to tell the story of an extremely fast moving bird and even lots of video footage I have seen doesn’t always meet the expectations. For me it is natural to have at least the wings blurred in order to tell the story of the extremely high frequencies of their wing beats. When the hummingbirds hover for parts of a second in front of a flower or a feeder their body seems to stand still and this is the moment I use for my photos. The metadata of yesterday’s shooting in our front yard show that the exposure was between 1/50 s and 1/320 s. The photo above was shot with a shutter speed of 1/125 s. Sure, the rate of keepers versus misses is not the same as shooting your coin or stamp collection, but hey, the fun is at least ten times bigger… 😉

SAME HOMES, DIFFERENT INHABITANTS

Cliff Swallows, Little Maquoketa River, Iowa

Last Sunday I went down into the Little Maquoketa Valley and checked on the activities of the Cliff Swallows that build their artful mud nest colonies under some of the bridges that cross the river. Several new nests were built and occupied and male and female swallows took turns between feeding and sitting in the nest. They defend their completed nests by sitting in the entrances, puffing up their head and neck feathers to look larger, and lunging at intruders. (source: allaboutbirds.org).

House Sparrow in a swallow nest

And they have all reasons to defend their nests. Many House Sparrows were present again and took possession of older nests or may have kicked out the swallows before they were able to complete the nest.

House Wren, “cleaning out” a nest

And here is a third candidate who liked to attract a female to these cave light mud nests. A male House Wren pulled out grass and feathers, probably from a sparrow’s nest. They usually prepare multiple sites and the female wren chooses the one for laying the eggs.

If you are a local photographer or birder in the Dubuque, Iowa area and like to know where to have a good view, feel free to contact me. Click on the “ABOUT” page and use the contact form. Be forewarned, bug spray and stabile shoes are mandatory for this location. Don’t go there in flip-flops, they will not serve you well!

ONLY AS GOOD AS…

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Here is a disclaimer. This is not an actual photo, not even from last year, or the year before. The shot was made in 2015 and kept a quiet existence on my hard drive until now. No, there is no lack of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds this year. We actually have a lot of hummers visiting our feeders all day long. Their metabolism is so high, they have to feed every fifteen minutes and they may do it even more frequently with the relative low temperatures we had during the last few days. The Weigela was blooming like every year, with lots of little blossoms, and was a perfect food source for the hummingbirds beside our feeders. But circumstances have not been in my favor, although I tried hard to get some new images. And here is the point I try to make. As photographers we are only as good as our last picture. It doesn’t make sense to publish a new image if its quality isn’t at least as good as the last one if the story we try to tell with the photo is the same.

NATURE CLICKS #428 - YELLOW WARBLER

Male Yellow Warbler, Green Island Wetlands, Eastern Iowa

I try to visit the Green Island Wetlands at least once a week and one thing hasn’t changed during the last few weeks, the extreme high water level. The main road is still partly under water and closed for all through traffic, making it a dead end. I used that to my advantage and drove slowly on the left hand side (yep, like the British do), the camera in my lap and eyes and ears wide open. Oh, there were many warblers singing in the trees but spotting them is not that easy. The leaves have full size now and even if you see a bird doesn’t mean you have a photo opportunity. This male Yellow Warbler sat in a dead tree and sang his heart out. I cropped the photo because getting closer was no option, the tree stood in the water.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S

NATURE CLICKS #427 - TRUMPETER SWAN

I still remember when I saw the first Trumpeter Swans 2010 here in eastern Iowa. A year later it was great excitement to report about the first cygnet that had just hatched in a nest at the Mill Creek Ponds near Bellevue, Iowa. Every year since I return to this location in a side valley of the Mississippi and have witnessed the restoration of a bird that was once common in Iowa, but was gone from the state by the late 1880’s.

Every time during the day is probably a good time to watch the largest waterfowl in North America. It is not uncommon anymore to see Trumpeter Swans in and around the upper Mississippi Valley. The late afternoon or early evening on a day with blue sky is definitely the best time at the Mill Creek Ponds if you like to make a photograph. The warm and low light of the sun brings some structure to the feathers without risking overexposure of the image.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head