BACK IN THE BADLANDS

American Bison, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

My first visit in Badlands National Park, South Dakota was in September 2005. We have revisited the Badlands several times since and always during fall season. Since almost sixteen years I thought it would be nice to go back there again during spring time. Well, it took me a while, but this year the long entertained thought became finally reality. I pitched the tent for three days in the Sage Creek area, at a primitive campground without water and electricity. We know this place very well. It is quiet, remote, with very little light pollution at night, and most importantly it is one of the best places in the Badlands for wildlife watching and photography.

Let me start a little series of blog posts with one of the most iconic animals of the prairie, the American Bison. When you see one of the massive bull bison standing on a ridge during sunset time, you can’t help and just point the camera at it and make the click. All problems of life that might rush through your mind become suddenly irrelevant in such great moments…

A CROW, BUT WHICH ONE?

Crow, Mississippi River, Potosi Landing, Wisconsin

Just because the crow had the tail of a fish in its bill and tried to eat it doesn’t mean I watched a Fish Crow last Sunday at the Mississippi near Potosi, Wisconsin. The more common American Crow and the Fish Crow are nearly identical. The books and apps say that the best way to identify them is by listening to their calls. To be honest, I didn’t pay attention to the call and so I may never find out if this is a Fish Crow or not. Both bird species are omnivores and eat almost everything.

I’m still happy about this shot. Even the ubiquitous American Crows don’t let you get close for a picture quite often and many settings along road sides don’t qualify for a good background. With other words, I don’t have very many reasonable photos of crows in the library…

NATURE CLICKS #493 - WHITE-THROATED SPARROW

White-throated Sparrow, Little Maquoketa River Valley, Iowa

During the last winter we had a pair of White-throated Sparrows around the house. They were most of the time among numerous House Sparrows that used our bushes for shelter and came below the bird feeders to find seed pieces that other birds or the squirrels had dropped down to the snowy ground. None of the pictures I took were ‘rocking the house’ because the sparrow’s feathers looked kinda dull during winter time. Spring is mating time, love is in the air, and suddenly many birds just look gorgeous. The White-throated Sparrow is definitely one of them. Their breeding grounds are actually further north in Canada and I wonder how long we may still see these beautiful sparrows around here.

NATURE CLICKS #492 - EASTERN PHOEBE (AND UPDATE ON OTHER MIGRATORY BIRDS)

Eastern Phoebe, Mississippi River, Finley’s Landing, Iowa

The Eastern Phoebe is usually the first of the flycatcher family that arrives here in spring. My records show that some years I have them photographed already in late March. Today I had a pair in front of the lens, the first ones I saw in 2021. The phoebe catches insects mid-air, flying out from atop low tree branches and other perches. They are easy to identify with their black bill, legs, and feet and when perched they wag their tail in characteristic motion.

The Eastern Phoebe wasn’t the only bird that showed up since yesterday. Last night I heard an Eastern Whip-poor-will down in the valley. This morning the first House Wren started singing and probably inspecting the bird boxes, and later the first Rose-breasted Grosbeak arrived from South America.

Despite a gray cloud cover I drove down to the Green Island Wetlands this evening and found four different sandpiper species. About two dozen Pectoral Sandpipers, 15 Lesser and probably 2 Greater Yellowlegs, and for the second time since 2018 a number of Dunlins. Not close enough for a frame filling photo, but sometimes we have to accept that relaxing and watching the birds is more joyful than trying to make a picture when there is not really a picture opportunity present…

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, @ 600 mm, 1/1000 s, f/6.3, ISO200

NATURE CLICKS #491 - BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD

Male Brown-headed Cowbird

The neotropical migrating birds are not even here yet but the cowbirds are already in position. The Brown-headed Cowbird is North America’s best known brood parasite. They do not built their own nests but instead lay the eggs in the nest of many other bird species. This is not always in favor of the host birds, because cowbirds hatch and develop faster and sometimes toss out other nestlings or eggs. This male cowbird posed nicely in the early morning sun today.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, @ 600 mm, 1/800 s, f/6.3, ISO200, cropped

NATURE CLICKS #490 - LESSER YELLOWLEG

Lesser Yellowleg, Green Island Natuer Preserve, Iowa

My digital photo library reveals that I try to shoot pictures of the Lesser or Greater Yellowlegs since ten years. What many of them have in common is a background consisting of old plant material from the season before, a water surface that reflects gray sky, or just muddy banks and shores. That is all part of the story while these birds use the Mississippi flyway for their migration to the breeding grounds up north in early spring, but it is nevertheless not the most satisfying outcome from a photographer’s standpoint. 

After spending more than six hours in the Green Island Wetlands yesterday, the stars finally lined up and a couple Lesser Yellowlegs finally hit the shore and started feeding. The perfect moment for a photo comes when they take a short break. This log in the water was a great spot for the bird to look out for food and for me it was the setting I was hoping for since a long time.

Sandpipers are not always easy to identify but the Yellowlegs, the ‘Lesser” as much as the ‘Greater’, have their trademark, the yellow legs. Having the legs in the picture is a good part of the storytelling. The dark log and the water in the background made them standing out. Can’t ask for much more…

NATURE CLICKS #489 - NORTH AMERICAN BEAVER

North American Beaver, Sageville Marsh, Iowa

Here is a photo of the animal I was after last night at Sageville Marsh, the American Beaver. The lodge is next to an observation deck beside the Heritage Trail that cuts through our valley and it is easy to see for everybody. But during the day there isn’t much going on, the beavers are mostly asleep. After sunset is the time to be there if you like to watch these large rodents. This one came out of the lodge about 7:15PM. The photo was made right at the lodge and there are a lot of branches and sticks that can obstruct the view. The tripod was left in the car because I wanted to be more agile and able to move around with the camera fast. I talked about a low light situation yesterday already but at this time of the year we have a chance to make a few clicks in the remaining daylight.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, @ 600 mm, 1/60 s, f/6.3, ISO640

AN EVENING AT THE POND

American White Pelican, Sageville Marsh, Iowa

It was about time to get out again and hold a camera in my hand after a busy week. The goal was to look after a mostly night active critter this evening at Sageville Marsh, a small wetland area not far from home. I will not reveal yet what it was, but a photo and blog post will be postponed until probably tomorrow. The reason is the great display of an American White Pelican on my arrival at the marsh around 7PM. The gesture and long reflection of the bird on the water triggered my desire to make this click across the pond. By the way, it was the first time ever that I saw a pelican at Sageville Marsh. With an overcast during that late time of the day it is probably not an exaggeration to call it low light. I shot this in full frame mode FX with the bird in the center. In post process I finally cropped the image to about DX dimensions and took the bird out of center. I do that to get the brightest part of the lens on the subject and have still a decent arrangement in the frame. This little trick has helped me before to handhold and maintain autofocus at shutter speeds of 1/60s or even slower with the long lens.

CLOUDS, EAGLES, AND COOTS

Green Island Preserve, Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4, B+W F-PRO Kaesemann High Transmission Circular Polarizer MRC filter

At arrival in the Green Island Wetlands today I was greeted with some nice puffy clouds. Usually I approach the area with the long lens already attached to the camera, ready to use, but this was a good reason to get the wide angle lens and polarizer out of the bag. Last year’s vegetation is rotting away and pretty soon new growth will dominate the lakes, ponds, and marsh land in the Mississippi Valley. 

Immature Bald Eagle

While driving deeper into the wetlands I found a large congregation of Bald Eagles, more than 30 birds that were perched on trees or logs in the water. Seeing a few is always guaranteed but I couldn’t figure out why so many at this time of the year? Some were messing with each other but most just sat still on their perch, like this immature eagle. It had to do something with food. They mostly feed on fish and the fish population certainly didn’t grow in the wetlands since last week. So, why so many at the same place?

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

And maybe here lies the answer. Large shoals of American Coots, thousands of “marsh hens” occupied the lakes within the wetlands. They kept very close together while moving in the shallow water and feeding on plant materials, aquatic invertebrates, or worms. I have seen Bald Eagles sitting in a tree and feeding on dead coots at other times before and maybe the large numbers attract more eagles than we see usually in Green Island along the Mississippi.

NATURE CLICKS #488 - RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER

Female Red-bellied Woodpecker, Little Maquoketa River Valley, Iowa

It is mating season and most obvious is it by the birds that call for a mate or try to impress the other gender. Woodpeckers are among them and as soon daylight creeps above the horizon they make their presence known by drumming against a well sounding tree trunk or branch and by ratting calls, mostly by the males. Well, they need to eat too and suet feeders are like a magnet that pulls them within the reach of a lens. Of course, a feeder is not the best place for a photo but during the time the woodpeckers approach it, there are plenty of opportunities to make a click.

NATURE CLICKS #487 - KILLDEER

Killdeer, Green Island Preserve, Iowa

It looks like they are always motionless but the Killdeer can actually run pretty fast as soon they spot something to eat, like an earthworm or insect. It is one of the first bird species that returns after the winter and before you see them, you just know they are there because of the loud cry they can emit, “kill-dee” or “kill-deeeah-dee-dee”.

I have reported about Killdeer many times here in my blog before and if you use the search window you can compare older notes about this large plover. Last Sunday I watched a pair  feeding on earthworms that came out of the ground after the rain.

DUCK DAY

Male Northern Shoveler, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa

Today we left the rain finally behind us but an overcast made me scratching my head and wondering if it is worth to make another trip to the wetlands. Gray sky and bird photography do not always go well together, especially if the sky is reflected on water. I did it anyway and thought a scouting trip for shorebirds, like sandpipers, wouldn’t hurt. To answer that question first, I saw only one Greater Yellowleg and a group of unidentified sandpipers, all of them too far away for a photo.

The number of ducks has increased and the first Canada Geese were sitting on nest sites. It was fun to watch immature Bald Eagles, honing their skills for catching fish, and pelicans circling with great elegance above. I counted 14 Sandhill Cranes and some showed their elaborate courtship displays to either form mating pairs, or between mates to maintain their pair bond. With other words, it was still a great day for bird watchers.

Pair of Blue-winged Teal

It is mating season and some of the ducks don’t fly away immediately as soon they become aware of us. Other things are on their mind and while they look most beautiful right now, it is the best time of the year to capture their picture. The challenge today was to keep the sky and water with sky reflections out of the frame whenever possible. In addition the green of new grass and reeds helps to hide mud and decaying clutter from last year’s growing season. 

THE PILEATED

Female Pileated Woodpecker, April 2020

It doesn’t happen very often but this week I didn’t press the shutter release button of the camera at all so far. Another project took most of my attention and time but hopefully this will change during the weekend. This photo of a female Pileated Woodpecker at the bottom of a dead oak tree was made about a year ago. This week I heard their calls every day and saw two Pileateds in the woods behind the house. It is the only woodpecker that has not visited our suet feeders in all the years we live here. This crow-size bird is actually present all year long but it is rare that I have one in front of the lens. April is still a good month because without the leaves we still have a clear view between the trees. I’ll keep trying…

TRYING ‘SUPER RESOLUTION’

Peregrine Falcon, Bellevue State Park

Before someone gets excited, this picture of a Peregrine Falcon was taken five years ago below the rockface at Bellevue State Park. I drive by there any time on my way to or from the Green Island Wetlands. There is a nest box mounted to the rocks that has been used by peregrines before. The last time I saw a bird was in 2019. Unfortunately I haven’t spotted a falcon this year yet. Maybe I haven’t spent enough time and left always too early…?

The reason I dug out this image from 2016 is the new ‘Super Resolution Feature’ in Adobe Camera RAW. It allows to enlarge a low resolution photo to a resolution four times its original size. It doubles the horizontal and vertical resolution. I tried that with a few older pictures already to see what is possible and I have to say I’m pretty impressed how the software boosts the apparent resolution, powered by machine learning, and enhances the details.

How can we use this technology to our advantage? If your current ‘state-of-the-art’ camera isn’t your first digital camera, you probably have older photos in your library that were shot with a 10, 6, or even 3 megapixel camera model. So the 3MP picture can become a 12MP version. This will allow much larger prints or you can crop the picture much more if you really need an enlargement of an important detail in the shot. Don’t take me wrong, I’m still an advocate for GET IT RIGHT IN CAMERA! However, we all have taken pictures that didn’t turn out perfectly sometimes, but contain valuable memories for us.

Back to the Peregrine Falcon. The bird was high up in a tree and there was no way to get even a foot closer. I had the lens at 600 mm focal length with the camera set to DX mode, which results in an angle of view that is equivalent to a 900 mm lens. The falcon was still only a small part in the photo. It was the first time I ever saw and photographed a Peregrine Falcon, a moment I wouldn’t forget. With the new ‘Super Resolution’ I was able to crop the photo and bring this memory back and share it with you.

If you like to read and learn more about this feature and how to use it in combination with Adobe Lightroom, here is the link to a great article that has a lot more details: https://lightroomkillertips.com/how-to-take-advantage-of-super-resolution-from-lightroom-classic/

NATURE CLICKS #486 - BLUE-WINGED TEAL

After five or six of gray and mostly rainy days this week the sun peaked out from behind the clouds. Joan, dog Cooper, and I took a ride in the car, heading south in the Mississippi Valley. A strong blowing wind had definitely an influence on the appearance of birds around the river and wetlands in the valley. Beside the usual suspects we saw a lot more ducks than during the last couple weeks. That doesn’t mean the photo opportunities have increased at the same rate. However, we came across two pairs of Blue-winged Teals. The leading male was already outside of the frame but the other three ducks stayed close together. Colder air temperatures than during the last weekends kept heat shimmer in bay and obtaining focus across the water wasn’t so difficult.