THREE GOOSE SPECIES

Green Island Wetlands, Greater White-fronted Geese, Snow Geese, Ross's Geese (far right)

A relatively warm Easter weekend lies behind us. I hope you had a great holiday, although the sun wasn’t out much here in eastern Iowa. On Saturday I introduced the Green Island Wetlands to part of the family. Well, the seven months old twins probably didn’t care too much about where we went…😉

My excitement went up when we saw a flock of Greater White-fronted Geese. My guess was about 400-500. They have still a long way to go before they reach their breeding grounds in northern Canada. With them were also about 50 Snow Geese, the largest number I have seen so far in the Green Island Wetlands. Looking closer at my pictures at home I found out that at least two blue-morph Ross’s Geese were among as well. This was a first sighting for me! If a more experienced birder than me has some other ideas about my identification efforts, I always appreciate your help and suggestions!

An overcast isn’t really helpful if you like to reveal the colors of birds in a photo but it definitely helped with this shot. This would have been a very high contrast scene if the sun was out, but with the overcast it allowed to show some detail in all of the different species, without tweaking much of the photo in post process.

ONLY IN SPRING

Wishing all friends and readers of my blog a wonderful Easter weekend! The crocus in our front yard had to withstand some cold nights in the last few days, but today it felt much like spring. Time for a photo before they are gone… 😊

NATURE CLICKS #323 - RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER

Male Red-bellied Woodpecker

The woodpeckers around here are very active at this time of the year, especially the male Yellow-shafted Northern Flickers try already to get the females attention. The Red-bellied-Woodpeckers have still a little time. Their breeding season starts in early May. Its common name is somewhat misleading, as the most prominent red part of its plumage is on the head.

DEPTH AND DRAMA

Clouds and other weather related things have always triggered my interest and so it may not be a total surprise that I make them increasingly the subject in my landscape photography. There were high winds last Wednesday and these clouds moved very fast and changed shape and colors constantly. The low sun that came out briefly gave the scene some depth and drama.

FARM ON THE HILL

Here is another photo from last week, taken at the farm in northwest Iowa. I love this neighbor farm on a hill to the west and have photographed it several times before. My brother and sister-in-law can see it from their house every day. They may look at this image and wonder, what is missing? Yeah, what is it? 😊

KNOWING WHAT THE SUBJECT IS

South of Remsen, Iowa

I could not let this cloud pass by without getting the camera out of the bag and make a few clicks. Family circumstances required our presence in northwest Iowa this week. The fields and farms around Remsen, Iowa are not exactly prime territory for landscape photography, but with weather like this the clouds become the subject and the rest is just about composition.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2016 #4 - HITS AND MISSES

Horned Grebe, Mississippi River, Mud Lake

As so often these days I checked on the nest of the Great Horned Owl this evening down by Mud Lake at the Mississippi River. Nothing has changed yet, mother owl still sits on the nest. She faced the low sun and this helped to make a halfway decent photo today.

I tried to make some pictures of half a dozen Common Mergansers, feeding at the exit of the marina, but they never came close enough for a shot.

Another encounter today were several American Tree Sparrows that were hanging around in the bushes along the banks. This was the first time this winter that I have seen any. Other years I saw them more frequently along the Mississippi.

Red-winged Blackbirds are now present everywhere in the Mud Lake area. They stay here during the summer in large numbers and we have enjoyed watching them from our kayaks feeding between the reeds many times.

The sun had already disappeared behind the ridge when I finally discovered what I believe is a Horned Grebe. The bird was diving in the canal of the marina. I had the camera on tripod and used the flash extender to get at least a little color for this photo. This was the first time that I saw the Horned Grebe in Iowa. Their breeding grounds are from the Dakotas to northern Canada and Alaska.

Great Horned Owl

LEARNING IT THE HARD WAY

Sometimes magic happens when you are out there shooting. This evening at Ice Harbor in Dubuque the low sun hit the last patch of ice under an angle that made it appear in a dark blue. In addition the warm colors of the building across the marina reflected in the open water between the broken floes. To make it even nicer, one of the numerous gulls landed in the right spot…

Well, it could have been a good photo, if the photographer would have paid attention to the settings in camera…!! For some reason I accidentally changed the picture quality from RAW to a low resolution JPEG. You may not see a big difference here in the blog, because the final jpg’s here are small, but good enough for posting them on the web. What’s out of consideration is a large, high quality print. The bad news is that I shot the whole day with the wrong settings. I guess some lessons can be learned only the hard way…😉

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2016 #3

Bald Eagle, Ice Harbor, Dubuque, Iowa

We had a nasty gray overcast for most of the day. Although good for some photography, it makes for very unflattering light if birds are your subject. The colors just don’t come out well and flash isn’t always an option.

There was a lot of activity on the Mississippi River. I saw the first barges passing through lock #11 in Dubuque today. I don’t think I have seen the river open for navigation that early in any year before since we live here.

Canvasbacks, Mississippi River, Mud Lake, Iowa

Hundreds of ducks, most of them Canvasbacks, were present in the Mud Lake area near mile marker 589.7 . They stayed pretty much in the main channel of the river, too far for any close up shots. But I think the image tells the story of their migration. I saw also about 30-40 Ring-necked Ducks, 6 Hooded Mergansers, and about a dozen Common Mergansers.

Bald Eagles could be seen almost everywhere along the river today. The shot I like the most was made on the south side of Ice Harbor, just across from the Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque, Iowa.

Common Mergansers, Mississippi River, dam #11, Wisconsin

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2016 #2

Bald Eagle, Mississippi River, Dubuque, Iowa

This photo was possible thanks to a hint from another birder (Thank you Sally, aka “PERCH 1”!). I had to go to Dubuque, Iowa for some errands today, and while driving by briefly at the 16th Street Basin I saw her taking pictures at one corner of the pond. A dead Bald Eagle lying in the water was the subject, and she just took some documentary shots. We can only speculate what caused its dead, from an electrical shock at on of the numerous power line poles that surround the pond or a collision with a car, many scenarios are possible at this busy place.

The old ice was all gone but due to the low temperatures last night the basin was frozen over with a new thin layer. Sally’s hint was to visit the marina behind the Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium, which isn’t far away. The marina had still a good layer of old ice but the obviously constantly running engine of the Coast Guard’s boat keeps some of the water open. And this is were at least seven Bald Eagles and numerous gulls had decided to hunt for fish today.

I hardly leave the house without my camera and today I was just glad to have it with me (and the long lens! 😊) when this eagle landed in a tree right beside me. Being prepared was all what it took for making this image…

NATURE CLICKS #322 - DARK-EYED JUNCO

Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4, @ 120 mm, 1/640s, f/5

Yeees, we got it all back! As you can easily see a huge area of clouds moved through here today and left us with a fresh cover of snow. With the snow came the Dark-eyed Juncos back, who had left us already during the last days with warmer temperatures. This medium-sized sparrow has twelve subspecies and can have many geographic color variations, but here we see mostly the “slate-colored”. The Dark-eyed Junco is my #1 “winter indicator”. In late fall or early winter they show up usually a few hours before we get the first snow. The juncos we see here in Iowa during the winter breed probably in Canada or northern Minnesota.

The photo was made through my office window, hence the slightly softer appearance of the bird. I have a small bird feeder next to the window and I use a deer antler for the birds to perch.

TURMOIL

This photo ignores the fact that there were about 25 Bald Eagles sitting on the ice or in the trees nearby. But I thought it was a more story telling picture than any shot I made yesterday of eagles at the 16th Street Basin in Dubuque, Iowa. As soon a gull pulled a fish out of the water and tried to save it from its hungry relatives or the eagles, a big turmoil broke loose and never ended until finally one of the gulls had enough time to swallow the fish or an eagle just stole it from all of them...

SIGNS OF SPRING

Sandhill Cranes, Mississippi River, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa

I enjoyed shooting today with my friend Dave Updegraff, who is also an avid photography enthusiast and blog writer. We haven’t done this for a while and it was nice to catch up on things and share thoughts and news. We met in the Green Island Wetlands but I started off my photo trip in Dubuque. It got really warm today and I was surprised that the ice on the 16th Street Basin still covered the pond. I saw more than a dozen Bald Eagles and it took only a few minutes to walk away with the photo below.

There wasn’t much going on in the Green Island Wetlands in the early afternoon and Dave and I drove further south to the “Island City” Sabula, the only town in Iowa that is located on an island In the Mississippi River. Lots of Bald Eagles here as well, mostly sitting on the remaining ice or fighting about fish.

Bald Eagle, 16th Street Basin, Dubuque, Iowa

On the way back we scouted a different road along some backwaters of the river and saw in the distance Common Mergansers, Northern Pintails, and a larger number of Tundra Swans. Spring migration is in full swing already! They were all too far away for a decent photo, but nevertheless, I enjoy the bird watching part as much as the photography.

Dave had to go back home but I wanted to give the Green Island Wetlands another try. And there I found what I was hoping for today, a pair of Sandhill Cranes, foraging in the mud and shallow waters of the marshland. Another sign of a changing season was a pair of Hooded Mergansers. Again, too far away for a good picture (although I make documentary shots for tracking first seasonal appearance over the years). Finally, while on my way out of the wetlands, a huge flock of Red-winged Blackbirds landed in a tree. And this my friends, is here in Iowa for many people a sure sign that spring is knocking on the door…

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2016 #1

Common Muskrat, Mississippi River, Goose Island County Park, Wisconsin

Many things that happen in the outdoors here have to do with the Mississippi River, one way or the other, and I will continue writing my little stories from and about the big river in 2016. Today I had a meeting with a customer in La Crosse, Wisconsin and the drive up north, mostly just parallel to the Mississippi, is one of my favorite routes. It doesn’t matter if you drive on the Iowa / Minnesota side or east on the Wisconsin side of the river, the landscape is beautiful and there is always something interesting to see. I was not surprised to see many long stretches of open water already, although there are still parts of the river covered with ice. The winter was mild so far.

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

On my way back to the Dubuque area I stopped at Goose Island County Park, located just south of La Crosse, WI. This park with campsites, boat ramps, and other tourist amenities is probably busy in the summer but today I saw only a few fishermen and bird watchers.

I had the camera already in my lap when I discovered this Common Muskrat getting in and out of the water. Their dense, glossy winter fur is just gorgeous. This one used the ice floats as a feeding platform and was chewing on aquatic plants. The backwaters of the Mississippi, with its marshlands and water arms between countless little islands, are an ideal habitat for these large rodents.