NATURE CLICKS #287 - EASTERN KINGBIRD

The Belted Kingfisher (see yesterday’s post) and the Eastern Kingbird use sometimes the same trees and bushes when they perch and look out for food. Although their diet is totally different. They both prefer branches or trees that hang over the water or are at least near to it. While the kingfisher mainly preys on small fish that swim near the surface of the water, the Eastern Kingbird is a large flycatcher and feeds on insects and fruits. Quite often they return to the same perch after pouncing for food on the ground or on the water surface.

Last night I witnessed the take over of a tree by a kingfisher. It was actually used as a perch by a kingbird but there was no doubt who had the longer bill and ruled the area. The Eastern Kingbird took off immediately…

This shot was taken at 6:22 pm last night and the sun was already getting low. However, because of its intense power at this time of the year I had a hard time to contain the highlights. I had dialed in -1 EV for exposure compensation already but still had to bring down the highlights in post process to make this image work. This is a simple task in Adobe Lightroom or Adobe Camera RAW but I usually don’t fiddle around with tones and colors in my wildlife photography. Well, sometimes there is an exception to this self-imposed rule. I really like the gesture of this Eastern Kingbird in the photo and that’s why I show it to you today… :-)

CLOSE, BUT STILL NOT CLOSE ENOUGH

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

A gorgeous summer day with low humidity and a nice breeze fueled my desire to go down to the Green Island Wetlands for some wildlife watching this evening. This is the closest I have ever been to a Belted Kingfisher. If you are an avid reader of my blog, you may remember that this bird is high up on my “most wanted list”. They are extremely skittish and it is really not easy to get close to them. A water canal between me and the bird limited a closer approach and I finally cropped the picture in post process. I’m not there yet with the kingfisher, and the bird will still remain on the “most wanted list”, but I’m not unhappy about today’s shot...

NATURE CLICKS #286 - GIANT SWALLOWTAIL

Nikon D750, Sigma 150mm / f2.8 APO EX DG HSM

It’s hot and humid, and believe me, I don’t need any other excuses for not going out shooting. Well, but I couldn’t let this opportunity pass by. I have not figured out yet what the larvas of the Giant Swallowtail feed on, because they prefer citrus plants and their relatives, but we must have something around here they like. The Giant Swallowtail has been a common visitor in our yard for many years.

The photo isn’t the perfect shot. I cropped it a little bit on the right hand side because I had the butterfly dead center. This isn’t a crop due to not being close enough to the subject but more for esthetic reasons. With other words, I still have the full amount of pixels available for my subject (so I can still print without any loss in detail) but the aspect ratio of the image has changed from 2:3 to 4:5.

NATURE CLICKS #285 - EASTERN TIGER SWALLOWTAIL

Nikon D750, Sigma 150mm / f2.8 APO EX DG HSM, SB 800 speed light

It seems that every year is slightly different from the one before if we look at the numbers of particular butterflies. In 2010, 2011, and 2014 I took many photos of the Tiger Swallowtail, while 2013 I didn’t get a single shot. The same is true for other species, one year we have them in abundance and other years we can hardly find them. This year is another good year for the Tiger Swallowtail. We have seen them quite often, and not just here on our bluffs above the Little Maquoketa River Valley.

It is not easy to make a sharp photo in the heat of the day. The butterflies are very active and change location constantly. The chances for a good shot are higher in the evening, when temperatures come down and the swallowtails spend more time on a particular flower for feeding. This beautiful female Eastern Swallowtail was very cooperative this evening and spent quite some time on our Purple Coneflowers. 

The combination of the NIKON D750 with the SIGMA 150 mm, f/2.8 macro lens is my preferred gear for this kind of photography. It is my first time that I shot a swallowtail butterfly in full frame (FX) and I enjoy the challenge to get physically closer to the subject. No picture will make it into the “keepers” if a crop would be necessary to make it halfway decent. Yes, we can talk about improving our photography all day long, but if we don’t do the most obvious, I think all talk is pointless…

NOISY GANG

I realized the chirping noise coming from one of the nest boxes in our front yard is a lot louder than usual as soon the first light of the day appears early in the morning. It’s the place where the House Wrens currently feed their second brood. Well, both nest chambers, first and second floor, have a nest and it looks like that two females and one male House Wren feed the offspring in both nests. As my photo proofs, the size of the meals gets quite big already and pretty soon it will be quiet around here again. 

We had wrens nesting every summer since Joan and I lived here. Providing opportunities to built a nest became mandatory for us and we have never been disappointed yet. It is a wonderful way to enrich your life! The House Wrens eat insects, lots of them, but there is not much we can do to support these efforts. Hanging nest boxes around our house has helped to make some birds coming back here after the winter every year. Each species that may use a bird house may have different requirements regarding the size of the box or how big the diameter of the hole has to be. Have a look what is in your backyard or on your balcony, study about the birds you see, and draw your conclusions. It’s easy, you can do that too!!

TURKEY RIVER (THE ONLY SHOT)

I’m sorry, it does not happen very often that I can’t choose from many pictures during a weekend filling event. Joan and I paddled the Turkey River here in Northeast Iowa, and of course, “kayak dog Cooper” was in the boat too. For the local visitors of my blog, we did the stretch between Elgin and Motor Mill, Iowa in three stages. Our last take out was at Motor Mill, between Elkader and Garber, and that is the location the photo was made. The Turkey River isn’t really difficult to paddle but I decided to leave the camera at shore this time. We stopped counting Bald Eagles sitting in the trees along the river after a while. They are here in Iowa in abundance and I think it is one of the best stories about bird restoration that is worth talking about. Many other birds, like Belted Kingfishers, Eastern Kingbirds, Cedar Waxwings, and several unidentified flycatchers drew our attention. We saw the biggest White-tailed Deer buck I have ever seen and many fawns told the story about a new generation of deer growing up this summer. With other words, wildlife in abundance.

Sure, this sounds like a lot of missed opportunities but in reality shooting out of a fast floating kayak, with hardly any way to stop, may most likely not lead to a good photo.

However, here is the shot I made after the kayaks were back on the roof of the car. Motor Mill is an old Wheat Mill, built in 1864, and in a very good state of preservation. It is listed on the National Register of Historical sites. 

FINDING A COMPOSITION

My fascination for great clouds, especially big thunderheads, is unbroken. A few days ago we had plenty of them. All what it took was going down to the big river and find a composition. There is some water between me and the reeds in the background but I kept it out of the frame. The eye has no choice but going straight to the cloud, and that is how it was meant...

SAILING AND SOARING IN THE EVENING BREEZE

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, at 85 mm

The Mississippi River is a great place for all kinds of recreation and during the summer many people use it for fishing, paddling, or just running their speed boats. Seeing a sail boat with all sails set is not an everyday occurrence and the puffy clouds on the Wisconsin side of the river made for a nice background.

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, at 420 mm

The guy handled his boat actually very well in the evening breeze. The photos were made just below lock and dam #11 in Dubuque, IA and the river is here only about 400 meters wide.

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, at 420 mm

The soaring pelican may explain why I had the long lens on the camera during the little walk with our dog Cooper along the river. Unfortunately this was the only one we had within shooting range. Including part of a cloud was key for this image.

FROM GREEN TO GRAY

Nikon D300s, Sigma 150mm / f2.8 APO EX DG HSM

The Gray Treefrogs are able to camouflage themselves from gray to green or vice versa, depending on the substrate they are sitting. This one was about to change quickly its color  after I found it under the tarp that covers our kayaks. Making the picture with the frog hanging on the orange or blue plastic boats, well, this is not what I really like. Putting the frog onto a tree stump gives it a much more natural setting. Being fast is key because these frogs are nocturnal and like to hide again. The photo doesn’t necessarily tell much about its size. I was pretty close with the Sigma 150 mm, f/2.8 macro lens and with a 1:1 magnification ratio you can easily fill the frame with this probably about 35-40 mm long critter.

NATURE CLICKS #284 - INDIGO BUNTING

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

I wrote a few days ago about that we haven’t seen the same numbers of certain birds, especially warblers, as last year. This is also true for the Indigo Bunting, a regular summer resident here in Iowa. They usually visit our bird feeders sometimes during the summer but this year I have seen the species only once so far in the front yard.

This photo was made last weekend in the Green Island Wetlands and before I was able to locate the bird I heard its singing efforts , which sounds really beautiful. 

Blue is my favorite color but Indigo Buntings are actually black. It is the diffraction of light through their feathers that make them look blue and this explains why males can appear in many different shades from turquoise to black (source: iBird Pro app).

YOUNG BULLHEADS (DEHAZED… ;-) !!)

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

One of my goals with this blog has always been to show you the variety and beauty of wildlife we can find here in the Mississippi Valley, but I don’t think I ever published any image of fish yet. Last weekend I saw this swarm of young bullhead catfish at one of the boat landings in the Green Island Wetlands. I have never seen this before and thought it was very interesting to watch and finally like to share it with you.

The original RAW file had a certain glare from the reflection of the sky on the water surface and I was wondering if I could overcome it in post production. I don’t have an 86 mm polarizer that would fit my long lens and that may have taken care for this problem.

A new feature in Adobe’s Lightroom CC came to my help and it worked like a charm. LR has now a Dehaze slider. I read about its usefulness for landscape photography, doing just what it says, dehazing a scene. I thought that glare on the water is almost like a haze and so I gave it a try. This is pretty much all what it took, plus a little warmer white balance and lowering the luminance of blue and purple slightly.

I hope this was not too much gibberish for you, but as you know, I write for photographers, nature lovers, and friends and people that just enjoy looking at some wildlife photos. Thank you for stopping here!

MAYFLY DOCUMENTARY

Joan and I paddled the Mississippi River today with our kayaks. We went over to the Wisconsin side and enjoyed a great afternoon in the backwaters, away from the main channel, where it is usually a little noisier on a Sunday like this.

Before we launched the boats at Mc Cartney Lake Access we checked out the public boat landing in Potosi, WI and this is where today’s pictures were taken. Remember my post from June 26th? Yes, these are the same Mayflies, just “a few” more as you can see. Some people call them fishflies but they all enjoyed the last short stage of their lives. The air had a fishy smell because of the millions already dead, covering the ground like a carpet. The Mayflies are harmless but they hang on to everything they can find. Well, nothing for the photo connoisseurs among you today, but it is an important nature event here in the Mississippi Valley that deserves to be documented.

THE JINX IS BROKEN… (MAYBE… ;-)

Oh well, it took me more than two months to nail down a picture of any kind of warbler. I’m scratching my head since a while , wondering why we did not see any warblers this year? If you take the time and look at my blog posts from last year in May you may find a big variety of warblers that stopped here, at least for a snack in the trees..

I’m glad to report that I saw a male Common Yellowthroat in the Green Island Wetlands today. Joan calls them “Zorro”, and there is no question about where she got the idea from. Doesn’t the male look like “The Zorro”? The Common Yellowthroat is one of the most beautiful birds we can find here and as you can imagine this shot made my day....

NATURE CLICKS #283 - CLIFF SWALLOW

When I started shooting with the Nikon D750 back in April I wrote here in the blog that I have to get physically closer to my subject in order to use the full potential of the full frame sensor. The Cliff Swallows built their nests out of mud below a concrete bridge that crosses the Little Maquoketa River down in our valley, just a few miles upstream. Getting closer to them requires some climbing over a rocky slope, fighting the way through tall weeds, and dealing with hordes of mosquitos. This is a challenge but these extra steps are necessary to fill the frame with the nest and its master architects, the Cliff Swallows.

All images: Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, tripod, gimbal head, SB 800 speed light

There are several dozen nests under this bridge and the colony of swallows is feeding their offspring at the moment. It takes some patience to make the click if you focus on one particular nest. Sometimes the parents don’t return for several minutes. Taking the challenge of moving in closer and adding a little patience led to some rewarding images and great shooting fun today...

LIGHT AND COLOR, BUT NOT WILDLIFE

Why is this post not filed in the category of wildlife photography? Good question, because most of my blog posts circling around wildlife. Why not, especially if my #1 “most wanted” bird, the Belted Kingfisher, is in the frame? The distance between me and the bird, and the water of the marina at Finley’s Landing between us, would have resulted at its best in a documentary shot. I make a lot of those, just to keep track about times and dates when I see particular birds during a year. This helps me later to draw conclusions about another photo opportunity, maybe in better light, at a later point in time.

This shot was taken not too far from sunset and it is the composition, the subtle light, and the colors that make me like this photo. I admit, I concentrated on the kingfisher but my subconscious level of attention took care for the rest. The almost identical angle of the slanted roof of this boat dock and the hill behind it, the wild flowers in the lower left corner, and the luminosity of the gravel road and the roof, reflecting the remaining day light, it all comes together in this photo. I think the picture would work somehow without the bird but the appearance of the graphical bold kingfisher puts the icing on the cake…