PATIENCE REWARDED

Great Blue Heron, a stealthy hunter for fish

Another great spot to look for neotropical migrants, like warblers, is Bankston County Park. The clear water of the stream that runs through the valley is source of life for many critters and birds. It is also a popular spot for trout fishing. This morning I gave it a try. You can hear the birds, sometimes you may see one, but today I got skunked. Not a single warbler came close enough for a picture. I think I was patient and spent almost an hour in the same spot, a place I had used successfully other years before. Just as I was ready to leave things took a different turn. This beautiful Great Blue Heron landed just in front of me and started the hunt for a fish. The bird waded towards me and obviously cornered a fish below the rock you see in both pictures.

Great Blue Heron after the catch, Bankston County Park, Eastern Iowa

The hunt lasted 26 minutes. I saw the heron strike and the fish was swallowed very quickly. Obviously just a small one. Unfortunately the kill happened behind the rock and out of sight for me. But the way the successful hunter walked away from the scene was priceless and the shutter of the camera was rattling. Patience got rewarded, for the Great Blue Heron and for the photographer…!! 😊

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

NATURE CLICKS #502 - COMMON YELLOWTHROAT

Common Yellowthroat, Mississippi Valley, Mines of Spain, Iowa

After being on a business trip last week it feels good spending some time behind the camera on this Memorial Day weekend. I didn’t have to search long for the first opportunity. The Mines of Spain, a recreation area south of Dubuque in the Mississippi Valley, with forest, patches of prairie, and ponds is usually a good place for bird watching. Right after I started my little hike I came across this Common Yellowthroat, a warbler that breeds here in Iowa. The males are easy to identify with their black mask and the bright yellow throat.

NATURE CLICKS #501 - WESTERN MEADOWLARK

Western Meadowlark, Sage Creek Valley, Badlands NP, South Dakota

There is a bird you may always see while visiting Badlands National Park, the Western Meadowlark. Making a successful click and telling the story of this beautiful bird is another story. I found them many times just beside the gravel road but quite often they camouflage very well in the grass and we can see them only after they take off. Today’s photo was made during a hiking trip along Sage Creek. As so often, I heard the meadowlark before the bird came into sight. A perfect blurred background was due to the bird’s location at the edge of the steep banks of Sage Creek. The Eastern Meadowlark, that we can find here in Eastern Iowa, looks very similar. The best way to distinguish between both species is looking at their malars. The Western Meadowlark’s malars have yellow in it while the eastern’s is mostly white. 

Preferring the environmental photo over the “eyeball shot” you can imagine I was very happy with this picture. Moments I consider the “great ones” in life…

NATURE CLICKS #500 - ROCKY MOUNTAIN BIGHORN SHEEP

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Badlands NP, South Dakota

I still have a few images from my recent trip to Badlands National Park I like to share with you. It wasn’t difficult to find the small herd of Bighorn Sheep this time. The ewes and immature sheep enjoyed the fresh grass at the edge of a parking lot at one of the overlooks. I heard that someone had seen a newborn lamb but I didn’t see any.

Three big rams were dozing peacefully together at a different location, near the rim of a canyon. The peak of the rut is in November, that’s when “dozing in the sun” is definitely over…

PHOTOGRAPHY OUTING WITH THE DCC

Clouds over barn and pond, near Blanding Landing, Illinois

Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35 mm f/4, Breakthrough GND filter 0.9,   @16 mm, 1/100 s, f/9, ISO100

Last week the Dubuque Camera Club had its first outing in a long time. Led by photography artist Henry Matthiessen III, owner of “Stoned Art Studio and Gallery” in Dubuque, Iowa, the group visited several locations in the Mississippi Valley, over in northwest Illinois. Fast moving clouds in the sky allowed for some good shooting around dusk. I have been at some of the locations before, but never at that time of the day. After seeing the results from some other photographers already on Facebook, I think it is very interesting how many different ways can be found to shoot basically the same subject, the landscapes and light that were present for all of us. Thank you again to Henry for introducing us to some new locations! Here is my take from that evening.

Barn in the woods,  near Blanding Landing, Illinois

Nikon D750, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, f/4,   @200 mm, 1/80 s, f/5.6, ISO100, slightly cropped

Tranquility,  near Blanding Landing, Illinois

Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35 mm f/4, Breakthrough GND filter 0.9,   @20 mm, 1/200 s, f/5.6, ISO100

Oak tree, Chestnut Mountain Resort, Illinois

Nikon D750, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, f/4,   @116 mm, 1/125 s, f/8, ISO100, cropped

Mississippi backwaters at dusk, Blanding Landing, Illinois

Nikon D750, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, f/4, Breakthrough GND filter 0.9,   @82 mm, 1/30 s, f/9, ISO100, slightly cropped

EVENINGS IN THE BADLANDS

Evening in Badlands National Park, South Dakota

I think I had mentioned before that the focus in the Badlands was on wildlife photography this time. Well, a few landscape pictures were created anyway. The dusty Sage Creek Rim Road has plenty of good spots to stop the car, change lenses, and capture the essence of this sometimes moon-like, but beautiful and wild landscape. The elements in the frame were placed with black & white in mind already. A 2-stop or 3-stop graduated neutral density filter helps to give the sky a bit more emphasis.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35 mm f/4, Breakthrough GND filter 0.9,   @16 mm, 1/200 s, f/10, ISO100

NATURE CLICKS #499 - HORNED LARK

Horned Lark, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

I wished this photo was made in Eastern Iowa. I have seen the beautiful Horned Lark a lot less during the last few years here in the Mississippi Valley. However, I had no problems finding them in Badlands National Park. They are mostly foraging on the ground in grassland, but I don’t mind a shot when the lark is perched on a barbed wire and the light is just right…

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Sigma APO Teleconverter 1.4x EX DG

NATURE CLICKS #498 - BLACK-TAILED PRAIRIE DOG

Black-tailed Prairie Dog, Sage Creek Valley, Badlands NP

There is no visit in the Badlands without reporting about one of the funniest critters on the planet, the Prairie Dogs. It seems like their populations has multiplied since we visited the park for the first time in 2005. Since a few years one of the prairie dog towns is right in Sage Creek Campground, the primitive but more remote campground of the two in the Badlands. The mounds are between the tents and their tunnel system can be right under your tent. The burrows help these little rodents to control their body temperature in winter and during summer. Members of a family group interact through oral contact or "kissing" and grooming one another. They do not perform these behaviors with prairie dogs from other family groups. [source: Wikipedia}

The key for a good picture is getting low to the ground. Shooting from the car is sometimes not low enough. Whenever possible I try to get at least one of the black-tipped tails in the picture, the feature that gave this species of ground squirrels its name.

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

NATURE CLICKS #497 - BURROWING OWL

Burrowing Owl, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

I was writing recently about the bison in Badlands National Park here in the blog but other species have been on my radar as well. The Burrowing Owl is always among them, and I can tell you, it’s not a bird you may find easily. It is a small, long legged owl that is active during the day, while most other owls are nocturnal. They nest in underground burrows, and in Badlands National Park it is most of the time a den in a prairie dog town. It took us more than ten years to find this owl in the wild and after our first encounter in 2018 I was very happy to find two new, but different locations during my visit a week ago. An abundant burrow isn’t easy to spot among all the active dens populated by thousands of prairie dogs but as soon I see a bird flying somewhere low to the ground, I have the binoculars up. The Burrowing Owl feeds on larger arthropods, but also on birds and small mammals, like mice, small rabbits, ground squirrels, and others.

NATURE CLICKS #496 - LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE

Loggerhead Shrike, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

The Loggerhead Shrike is a bird we normally wouldn’t see here in Northeast Iowa and the only time I had seen one before was in Wupatki National Monument in Arizona a few years ago. This sighting in the early morning along Sagecreek Road in the Badlands a week ago got me all excited. Distance was a little bit of a problem but I didn’t want to miss this opportunity and made a few clicks anyway. Hence that the image is heavily cropped this time.

The shrike feeds on vertebrates and invertebrates and they hunt from low perches or catch prey often on the ground. The bird is known for the fact that they maintain a food larder by impaling their prey on thorns and barbed wire, or tuck them between the fork of a branch.

Photos like the two above leave of course lots of room for improvement. It was one of the brief moments when a decision had to be made, either just watch the bird and keep the camera down or make the click. I decided for the latter and hope the crop tool in post process doesn’t need to be employed again next time a Loggerhead Shrike presents as the subject.

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

NATURE CLICKS #495 - SHARP-TAILED GROUSE

Sharp-tailed Grouse, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Light was at its best the first evening I spent in Badlands National Park last week. Only a few minutes before sunset five female Sharp-tailed Grouse crossed my way. This was the first time I saw them in Badlands NP and my heart was beating fast, having this bird in the viewfinder and “killer light” at hand for an image.

Butt shots are rude, a general rule in photography, but there is always the exception from the rule . A Sharp-tailed Grouse has a “sharp tail” and as in this matter it can become a part of the story being told. This grouse is just a gorgeous bird and I was very happy to photograph it for the second time ever.

NOT ALL GOALS WERE REACHED

American Bison, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

I thought I need to fill you in a little more about my goals for the photography trip in Badlands National Park, South Dakota last weekend. After visiting the Badlands several times before over the last fifteen years during the fall season, it has been a long desire to do the same during spring, at a time when vegetation renews and birds and critters have nothing else in mind than mating and display themselves in the best way they can.

American Bison mate in August and September and the calves are born after 285 days. The desire to visit the Badlands in spring was fueled by the idea to photograph newborn calves and their mothers. We always have seen the herd with females and their offspring in and around the Sage Creek Valley in the Badlands. Well, this time was different. While I have watched dozens of bison bulls, either solitary or in small groups, I wasn’t able to find the maternal herd. Not a single female or calve came in sight. Badlands National Park is not a small area and they probably found a remote valley where they give birth and nurture the newborn calves. I talked to another hiker and he gave me a hint where the herd might be, but this was too far away for a hike with the small amount of time I had on hand last weekend.

That’s the way it is with wildlife photography. Sometimes all stars line up perfectly and another time we get skunked and have to look for other photo opportunities. The Badlands have plenty of wildlife and there was a lot to do and who doesn’t like a close-up shot of a big bison bull? 😉

NATURE CLICKS #494 - UPLAND SANDPIPER (FIRST SIGHTING)

Upland Sandpiper, Sage Creek Valley, Badlands NP, South Dakota

I wasn’t even three hours in the National Park last week when the first surprise came along. An Upland Sandpiper crossed the road in front of me and landed in the grass below the hills that surround the Sage Creek Valley. I had never seen and photographed this bird before. Most of its relatives are usually found near water but this sandpiper has its home on grasslands. One of my field guides, iBird Pro, calls the Upland Sandpiper the “shorebird of the prairie” and I think this is an appropriate name. A wildlife photography trip can’t start any better!

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…