SHARPIE’S STRIKE

January 30, 2023

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.

ROUGH DAYS (BUT NOT FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHER)

January 29, 2023

The last few days have been pretty rough for most of the birds here in our woods. Snow and cold temperatures require a higher energy level and finding food is more difficult. As often reported before, we have quite a few bird feeders that attract the birds and help them to go through the winter. For us wildlife photographers the goal is not to make the photo while the bird is at a feeder, but we want to make the click when they use a perch and approach the feeder or a bird bath.

Alright, today I make an exception from the rule, because I like to show you how things are done for the woodpeckers. This male yellow-shafted Northern Flicker uses the horizontal branch of this dead cedar to perch on while feeding at a suet feeder. I figured out they do not like to hang on the cage or hold on to the tree trunk as much as other species do. The small Downy Woodpecker for instance holds on to the cage quite often. The larger Hairy or Red-bellied Woodpeckers seem to prefer the tree trunk and often feed from below, while supporting their body with the tail. Each bird species have their own way to approach the food source.

Since a few years every winter we have a number of American Robins here. They are not coming for our bird feeders but the juniper berries of the red cedars around here are their food source. However, they like to visit a bird bath for drinking and sometimes even take a bath. Before they fly in the robins perch in a tree nearby. While maybe four or five at a time gather around the water, others sit in the trees and watch for predators until it is their turn for a drink.

Blue Jays are more aggressive towards other birds. They make their presence known with noisy calls and they often scare other birds away from a feeder when they think it’s time to eat. The Blue Jays go for everything, sunflower seeds, crushed corn on the ground, or pick even at a suet feeder. Snow on the ground is the best time to photograph this intelligent bird with its blue, black, and white plumage.

We are lucky to have a large number of Northern Cardinals flocked together here during the winter. During their breeding time in the summer they move around in pairs. The male cardinals defend their breeding territory fiercely against other males. Cardinals almost always perch on a low branch or in a shrub before they approach a bird feeder. Placing a perch near the feeder can be key to make the click with the camera.

LOOK AT THE SKY

January 26, 2023

More snow during the last days and at times the sun came even out and made for good light. The American Goldfinch is the bird that changes plumage twice a year. The bright yellow summer plumage of the males, with the black cap on their heads, is hard to beat, but I also enjoy their not so bright winter colors and tried hard to get an image that does justice to my claim. The snow below helps again to make the yellow feathers shine. These finches don’t give the photographer much time to think about the picture. Quite often they perch on a branch for only a couple seconds or even less. I love the pose of the bird, having a glimpse to the sky and looking for predators, before jumping down to the bird bath or flying over to a seed feeder.

WINTER SPARROW VARIETY (4 CHOICES)

January 23, 2023

I have been an advocate for paying attention to the more common species of birds since wildlife photography became part of my life. It means, the ones we may see almost every day or the kind of bird that doesn’t draw the attention as much as a more exotic looking species. Sparrows are mostly overlooked. They are small and because many of them are not so rare makes us thinking, a sparrow is just another sparrow. You know what I mean. Last weekend the appearance of a couple species, that are here only seasonal, made me focus with the camera on this agile ground feeders. You can decide which one you like the best. I just love all of them!

American Tree Sparrow

They have their breeding grounds high up in northern Canada and Alaska but during winter time the American Tree Sparrow spends its time here, in particular in trees and shrubs along streams. Most of the time I see them along the Mississippi River but this photo was made just on our snow covered balcony.

Another sparrow that breeds up in Canada, northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. It seems there is always one that hangs out with the local bunch of house Sparrows during the cold months of the year.

Although it doesn’t have the word ‘sparrow’ in its name, they belong to this family. I recently reported about this species here in the blog. The Dark-eyed Junco is our best “winter indicator”. If they show up, you can be sure temperatures below freezing are not far away. In late winter, when the Dark-eyed Juncos suddenly disappear, we just know, the snow shovel can be put away for the season (exceptions are possible! 😉)

We have a little flock here every winter. They like the cover beneath the mountain pines we planted next to the house years ago. This one is obviously a young male sparrow. However, he doesn’t look right! It’s obvious that his tail feathers are missing. We only can guess if our local Sharp-shinned Hawk got a hold of him, but the most common of all sparrows escaped…

TWO BEAUTIES

January 22, 2023

The day started with some snow removal. Fresh snow means the birds will come to our feeders and bird baths in larger numbers. It was nice to see a couple Eastern Bluebirds among them this morning. They are not here for the sunflower seeds. The bluebirds depend on berries during winter and the juniper berries of the Eastern Cedar trees, that cover the rocky bluffs here at the Little Maquoketa Valley, are probably their primary food source. A reason why we see the Eastern Bluebirds only at the heated bird baths that we provide. Beside drinking they sit there sometimes for several minutes and obviously warm up a little bit when it is cold.

To open the glass door to the balcony and stick the lens out into the open for making a click is not always an option. Some birds may not come to the feeders, like the cardinals, but most importantly the warm air that mixes with the cold air outside will create a heat shimmer and make getting a sharp focus almost impossible.

I take the lens shade off the SIGMA 150-600 and keep the front element of the lens as close as possible to the glass of the door. This is of course no optical glass and some blur may occur. The Dehaze-slider in Adobe Lightroom becomes very helpful for solving this problem and removing the extra blur on the bird. Lightroom’s new masking functions allow to keep the blur on the background and make the bird even stand out a bit more. All what I can say is, shooting through the glass of a window or door has never been so easy…

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head,

NATURE CLICKS #540 - RED-TAILED HAWK

January 21, 2023

The red-tailed is probably the most common Hawk we see here in eastern Iowa. Their plumage can be highly variable. I saw this one several times today down in the Green Island Wetlands. Shortly after this shot was made the bird landed in another tree nearby and as I came closer I realized the hawk shared this tree with probably 200-300 Red-winged Blackbirds. They didn’t seem to be too concerned about its presence and the hawk knew he was too slow to get a healthy blackbird for dinner. The hope was probably to catch a bird that struggled or wasn’t able to move as quick as the rest of the flock. The temperatures were just slightly below freezing and to me it isn’t a surprise anymore to see Red-winged Blackbirds during winter time.

It’s not my best photo of a hawk. A gray overcast is always poison for a good bird image with the sky or water as a background. The gesture of the hawk came to my rescue. It was still enjoyable to be out in the wetlands today and better times for bird photography are just around the corner…

NATURE CLICKS #539 - DARK-EYED JUNCO

January 19, 2023

Dark-eyed Junco, Little Maquoketa Valley, eastern Iowa

A couple inches of wet snow fell last night and with that white reflector on the ground I tried to capture some pictures of the birds who visited our bird feeders during the late afternoon. With an overcast in the sky the light faded away quickly after 4pm. First I considered to use a flash but the reflection of the snow was enough to throw some light from underneath. The car was parked in our driveway and I used it as a blind. We have lots of Northern Cardinals here at the moment and with their bright red they are always photogenic. Today they didn’t come close enough but it was fun to work with the Dark-eyed Juncos instead. This medium-sized sparrow is here only during winter time. They have a considerable geographic color variation but in our region the slate-colored is mostly seen. They forage primarily on the ground but perch sometimes briefly on low hanging branches when they move around.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, @ 600 mm, 1/250 s, f/6.3, ISO 1600

BIRD PRESENTATION THIS WEEK

January 8, 2023

Migrating Snow Geese, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa

Today I would like to invite everybody from the Tri-State area around Dubuque, who like birds or bird photography, to join us for a presentation about our feathered friends. The Dubuque Audubon Society has asked the Dubuque Camera Club to be the presenter for their January program. I’m a member of both and I’m honored to be part of this presentation, among four other nature photographers. We will show some recent work, a few of our favorite images, and will share the story behind them. I think it will be an exciting event for everybody who like birds, like to take pictures of them, or just enjoy looking at bird photography.

Date / Time: Thursday, January 12, 2023 at 6.00PM

Location: E.B. Lyons Interpretive Center, 8991 Bellevue Heights Rd, Dubuque, IA 52003

Ok, so don’t let the “cabin fever” take possession of you while you sit on your sofa 😉. Come out on Thursday, join us for the presentation, and have some fun!

NATURE CLICKS #538 - SHARP-SHINNED HAWK

December 25, 2022

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…

CHRISTMAS WITH THE CARDINALS

December 23, 2022

My German photography friend Maren gave me the idea to blog a photo of the Northern Cardinal in the snow. It’s a nice subject for a Christmas blog post but lack of time prevented me from going out in the freezing cold and make a photo like this one today. Although we have at least a dozen cardinals here at our feeders, but the strong wind of this blizzard blew already most of the plentiful snow off the branches. With other words, this photo is from last year.

Wishing all friends, readers, and visitors of my website and blog a wonderful Christmas weekend! Stay warm, but go out and try the new toys and tools for photography you may find under the Christmas tree… 😊

OZARK MOUNTAINS (6) - MY FAVORITE PHOTO

December 14, 2022

Blackbirds in murmuration, Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge, Arkansas River Valley

Not far from Petit Jean State Park, where we camped during Thanksgiving weekend, is a wetland area along the Arkansas River. It reminded me a lot of the Green Island Wetlands I enjoy so much here in the Upper Mississippi Valley. Despite a couple gray days in a row we cruised Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge three times and although it wasn’t bird watching prime time, we enjoyed looking out for wildlife very much. The key story, unfortunately not captured in a picture, was the brief sighting of an Armadillo.

One of the most impressive views we had was the display of thousands of Red-winged Blackbirds in murmuration. In Europe this behavior is known only by starlings but here this flock of blackbirds and some grackles just performed incredible.

Why is this my favorite photo of the whole trip? If you look at the lower left quarter of the image closely, you may see the white spot on the tail of a Northern Harrier. The raptor took its turns and any time it came close to the huge flock of blackbirds they took off and went into murmuration to discourage the harrier during its hunt. When the blackbirds crossed in front of the colorful tree in the background, I knew I had an image that tells the story of fall colors, bird migration, and if nothing else, about the time of the season.

As more as I dive into photography it slowly becomes evident to me that the emotional side of an image, the story it carries to the viewer, is more important than the technical aspects of a photo. I understand that someone who works for a client or tries to sell their photos to a customer have maybe to follow other rules than the pure artist or hobbyist, but story telling seems to be still the key for a satisfying image.

OZARK MOUNTAINS (3) - THE WILDLIFE

December 11, 2022

To be honest, while traveling not very far south during our trip to Missouri and Arkansas I didn’t expect to watch a lot of wildlife during this late time of the year. Although we had forest in almost every direction all the way to the horizon in the Ozark Mountains at times, we saw very few White-tailed Deer. Luckily camping in a tent provides the great advantage to greet the first birds in the morning as soon they may appear, and say good night to the last ones (mostly the Cardinals) in the evening.

Golden-crowned Kinglet, a tiny bird I have seen only twice before. The branches of a Red Cedar are a perfect setting for making an image of this bird, but most importantly, that’s where the kinglet found little insects while gleaning quickly between branches.

The large Pileated Woodpecker seems to be more widespread in the Ozarks than here in eastern Iowa. We found a pair at every campsite. Making a picture is another story. They know how to drive a photographer crazy…

The Yellow-rumped Warbler is a bird that may not migrate as far south as many other warblers. To no surprise we found them still in southern Missouri during late November.

Female Northern Cardinal. Who needs an alarm clock if the first sound in the morning comes from the action of Northern Cardinals?

NATURE CLICKS #537 - NUTHATCH COMPARISON

November 14, 2022

The Red-breasted Nuthatches are winter guests here in Iowa. We are lucky to see a couple around here since about a month. They are as acrobatic as their cousins, the White-breasted Nuthatches, during their efforts to find food on trees, or like in this photo at a feeder. The white-breasted breeds here and is present all year long. As you know, I do not make a lot of bird images at a bird feeder, but in this matter I wanted to show the difference in size between both species and the raster of a suet feeder is an excellent scale for this purpose. The Red-breasted Nuthatch prefers coniferous forests, which of course they find up north in their breeding range. The larger White-breasted Nuthatch inhabits mixed deciduous and coniferous forests and prefers the presence of oak trees (source: iBird PRO app). They built their nests in dead wood, often higher up in a tree. Well, we have plenty of dead wood around here and so far we have seen every year a successful brood.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, f/4

DISCUSSING BLUEBIRDS

November 10, 2022

Tonight the Dubuque Audubon Society had a program about bluebirds. Jessica Carryer from the Joe Davis Conservation Foundation over in Illinois discussed everything from habitat, how to monitor a bluebird nest box, to all other aspects of conservation of this beautiful bird species with the audience. It was very interesting and gave me and other members of the Audubon Society new ideas for our own conservation efforts.

I thought this was a good reason to present you another photo from a shooting in July with my photography friend Kevin, who is also very active building and monitoring bluebird nest boxes.

This male Eastern Bluebird tried to lure the nestlings out of the box with a good size insect in its bill, but he little guys were not ready to leave that day. The location of Kevin’s bluebird box was perfect. The birds liked it obviously and it was very “photography friendly”, which allowed us to shoot with natural light from a safe distance, and without a bright sky or distracting background.

NATURE CLICKS #536 - NORTHERN FLICKER

October 30, 2022

Sometimes I’m a little sad if our summer birds wave good bye and head south to their winter range in late summer or during fall. At the other hand it is delightful to see other species arriving from their breeding grounds further north, passing just through, or staying here during winter time. This morning I counted three Northern Flickers, two males and one female, that came to one of our bird baths for a drink and searched for food on the ground or on a tree trunk.

It is a bird that breeds in Iowa but here in our woods, on the bluffs above the Little Maquoketa Valley, we see them usually only during winter time. With other words, these flickers probably migrated south from Minnesota or even Canada.

To fill the frame with this beautiful woodpecker I used the 1.4x Sigma teleconverter to extend the focal length up to 850 mm. This leads to a maximum aperture of f/9 and with a slight overcast this morning required ISO settings between 1000 and 2500.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Sigma APO Teleconverter 1.4x EX DG, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head, @ 850 mm, 1/200 s, f/9, ISO 1600