NATURE CLICKS #546 - EGYPTIAN GOOSE (FIRST SIGHTING)

Egyptian Goose, San Joaquin Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary, Irvine California

The Egyptian Goose is actually a native to Africa but according to one of the sources I consulted to learn more about this bird, it has been widely introduced to other parts of the world, like Europe and parts of the US.

Other people I met in the San Joaquin Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary during my two visits last weekend told me that they see them around this area quite often. Geese go almost always out of your way here in the Upper Mississippi Valley, they don’t let you come too close, but this guy didn’t even lift its head when people walked by within 1-2 feet distance.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, CALUMET CK8156 tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head,     @ 420mm, 1/3200 s, f/8, ISO 1000

THE EARLY MORNING BIRDS

Early morning at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, Huntington Beach, California

During all my visits to the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve at the Pacific Coast in Southern California over the years it always paid off to arrive early in the morning before sunrise. First, you find a place to park the car in the very small parking lot, but more important, nothing beats the warm morning light for making pictures of birds in the wetlands if the sun shows up. This wetland is a nature gem and is surrounded by the Pacific Highway on the ocean beach side and oil wells, local roads, and expensive residential homes on all the others. A weird and somehow noisy place that faces many environmental challenges but with an abundance of wildlife.

Northern Pintail

This photo of a male Northern Pintail was made exactly at the time of sunrise but a band of clouds prevented that the story could be told that way. No warm light on this beautiful duck. Still one of the best looking ducks with a tail that gave this bird its name.

Horned Grebes in their winter plumage

Twenty minutes after sunrise time the clouds gave way and these Horned Grebes in their winter plumage were busy diving for food under water. They are much more impressive in their breeding plumage during the summer, but hey, look at this eye standing out in the killer light of an early morning! I had to make the click.

Bufflehead

I have photographed the male Bufflehead many times before here in the Upper Mississippi Valley during migration time in March / April, but never in such warm light and often not as  close to the bird as I wanted and as it is possible in the Bolsa Chica Wetlands.

NATURE CLICKS #545 - BUSHTIT (FIRST SIGHTING)

Bushtit, San Joaquin Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary, Irvine, California

It all started last Friday afternoon after I was done with all my business duties in the area south of Los Angeles, CA. I headed straight to the San Joaquin Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary, a heaven for every bird and wildlife lover in the heart of Orange County. It encompasses 300 acres (121 ha) of coastal freshwater wetlands, half of it restored to a natural state, the other half is in no need of restoration (source: Irvine Ranch Water District website).

It took me only a few minutes to walk with the camera on tripod on the shoulder until I made a new ”first sighting”. The Bushtit is a tiny bird with a stubby bill and a long tail that prefers a brushy chaparral habitat. I found a little flock of about twenty birds, buzzing and moving around quickly between the flowers that grow along the trails between the ponds in the wetlands. They feed mostly on small insects and spiders. The females have pale eyes, while the males and juveniles have dark eyes.

There was no way that I would get a picture with the camera on tripod with the little Bushtits moving from one flower to the next very quickly. I tried not to move around erratically with the heavy long lens attached, so I focussed on an area and followed the birds as they moved along.

The Bushtit is only found in the western part of the US and Mexico. They are not uncommon but it was my first sighting of this tiny agile bird. Can’t asked for a better start into a birding weekend… More to come, please stay tuned….

COURTSHIP DISPLAY IN THE HERON ROOKERY

Great Blue Heron, Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, California

I guess you can tell that I have been away from Iowa for a few days by looking at this photo. It was about time because it has been a few years since my last visit in the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve and in the San Joaquin Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary, both located in Southern California.

Bolsa Chica has only a few palm trees but they were occupied by a colony of Great Blue Herons. Nest material is mostly gathered by the males and they flew in and out and came back with long branches that were added to the nests. The males did their ”neck stretching” display and performed long display calls. We also heard both, males and females, snap their bill tips together as part of breeding and territorial display. The courtship of the herons in a rookery is a great excitement to watch and photograph. More to come from last weekend, so please stay tuned…

WON’T YOU DANCE WITH ME

Ring-billed Gulls, Mississippi River, Sabula, Iowa

The song ”Won’t You Dance With Me” with the great performance by the Detroit Cobras comes to mind when I look at the gesture of these two Ring-billed Gulls. A good reason to pull their 2001 record ”Live, Love, and Leaving”out of the sleeve and put it on the turntable (The song was actually first released in 1964 by Billy Lee and The Rivieras, aka Mitch Ryder And The Detroit Wheels). Back to photography, I love when good light meets with a great gesture in a photo. For those who may complain about the wing hiding the face of the second gull I just like to ask, have you ever danced to Rock Music…?? 😊

NATURE CLICKS #544 - AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN

American White Pelicans, Mississippi River, lock & dam #14, LeClaire, Iowa

The American White Pelican needs open water to make a living. They feed on fish while swimming and snatch prey with their large bills. I made a trip today down south to lock & dam #14 near LeClaire, Iowa and there was plenty of open water. The ice cover of the river lasted only in quiet bays and backwaters with very little or no current. I was hoping to find Common Mergansers at the exit of the lock but had no luck. Instead a squadron of six pelicans cruised the water back and forth. They always work together as a group while trying to catch fish and it is such a pleasure to watch these majestic birds. Unlike their cousins, the Brown Pelicans, who live a long the Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf coast, White Pelicans do not plunge dive for food.

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

It is very easy to blow out the highlights in the pelican’s plumage when the sun is shining. I underexpose by at least 1 stop to prevent this. It’s always possible to brighten the water a little bit if you think this is necessary, but a blown out highlight is a lost cause.

CATCHING AND DROPPING

Bald Eagle, Mississippi River, at the bridge between Sabula, IA and Savannah, IL

Nice weather again today made many people go out this weekend and look for Bald Eagles along the big river. The break-up of the ice on the Mississippi opens new opportunities for the eagles. They like to catch fish and more open water means more opportunities. There are some places along the river that the birds obviously prefer and visitors can watch a great show of performance sometimes. This adult eagle had picked up a fish from the ice that was dropped by another bird before.

This 2-3 years old juvenile had dropped a fish several times before finally claiming it. Dropping the catch often leads to a total loss because countless Ring-billed Gulls wait for their opportunity to steal a fish from the eagles.

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

NATURE CLICKS #543 - RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER

It is the best time of the year to photograph woodpeckers. The lens is aimed at a male Red-bellied Woodpecker quite often, but it takes a certain quality of light to make their red head really stand out from the rest of the image. Feathers reflect light for different purposes, like for camouflage, or of course, for attracting a mate. If the ambient light is not perfect, a hint of flash, and I mean really just a hint, throws the red color of the woodpecker’s head back right between your eyes…

NATURE CLICKS #542 - DOWNY WOODPECKER

Male Downy Woodpecker

It was not very busy around our bird feeders during the last three days. Spring is not here yet but warmer temperatures made the snow from last week melting quickly and the energy demand of the birds has obviously slowed down. This may change tonight and tomorrow. Another winter storm warning has been issued. The bird we can always count on to show up is the Downy Woodpecker. Up to nine ‘Downys’ have been here at the same time while we had the last cold snap. It is a great bird to practice bird photography, even for beginners. The contrast around their eyes makes it easy to focus and get a sharp picture in comparison to many other species. While males and females stay separate in fall and early winter, they form pairs during late winter. Both sexes take turns drumming loudly on dead limbs in the trees and that sound has started already around here.

SEEKING ITS CHANCE

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Here are two more photos from last weekends’s shooting in the “front yard studio”. Our Sharp-shinned Hawk didn’t care about me standing on the porch at all and gave me 36 minutes to make new pictures while he was waiting for a chance to catch some prey. As already mentioned, the light was perfect that day. The biggest challenge was finding a spot with an unobstructed view. The bird moved several times between different trees at the edge of the woods. It finally tried to hunt down a woodpecker but had to leave hungry this time.

WINTER STORY

Red-winged Blackbirds, Green Island Wetlands, Mississippi Valley, Iowa

One of the stories I heard and read quite often after I moved from Europe to North America is that the return of the Red-winged Blackbird at the end of winter here in the Midwest, is a sure sign that spring is not far away. This was true for many years since I photograph wildlife in the Upper Mississippi Valley. Not so much anymore since about the last three years. I have seen Red-winged Blackbirds during all of my frequent visits in the Green Island Wetlands, even at really cold times. It seems the blackbirds stay much further north during the winter now.

Today I had quite a large flock in front of the lens. Hard to guess how many, but at least several hundred. The birds either rested in trees or went down to the ground all together, foraging between the reeds of the marshland or patches of corn fields that were left intentionally by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

I asked myself, how can this story be told with the camera? I wanted as many red wings in the frame as possible. It was also important to have some snow in the picture. The compressed view through the 600 mm lens hides the snow on the ground between the reeds, but the rocky slope of the Mississippi Valley, far in the back, delivers some white between all the birds and an open spot on the left hand side adds as well. There was enough light to shoot with exposure times between 1/1000s and 1/4000s and the best results came with the sun right from behind.

Rough-legged Hawk

The blackbirds were closely watched by a Rough-legged Hawk. During summer time on their breeding grounds in the arctic tundra they eat mostly small rodents, like lemmings and voles. The Red-winged Blackbirds didn’t hesitate to land in trees right next to the hawk. I wonder if the raptor just waited to get a hold of a slow straggler or if he hoped to catch mice that may come out of the snow covered ground for seeds or corn the birds had dropped…

NATURE CLICKS #541 - WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH

It was ideal weather today for spending some time in the “front yard studio”, with temperatures slightly above freezing. The sun was out and a very thin and hazy layer of clouds acted as a great light diffuser and in addition the snow on the ground worked as an additional light bouncer. I put the 1.4 Teleconverter on the lens and shot almost the whole time at 850 mm focal length. This allowed me to stay under the cover of our porch roof and the birds had less to worry about my presence.

One of the species I wanted to focus on was the White-breasted Nuthatch. The first image was made in the very early afternoon while the nuthatch posed briefly on this cedar stump. This adds some nice color contrast to the white, gray, and black of the bird and the crisp winter light.

Three hours later the setting sun added some warm light to the edge of our woods. It was a perfect setting for the typical “head down” of a White-breasted Nuthatch while moving down a tree trunk.

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, Nikon SB 800 speed light, MAGMOD MagBeam flash extender,

1. photo   @ 850 mm, 1/1250 s, f/9, ISO 640

2. photo   @ 850 mm, 1/640 s, f/9, ISO 1600

SHARPIE’S STRIKE

Sharp-shinned Hawk after making a kill

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)

Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker

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.

American Robin

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 Jay

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.

Male Northern Cardinal

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.