OPENED THE TENT CAMPING SEASON

Paint Creek, Yellow River State Forest, Eastern Iowa

Despite temperatures slightly above freezing at night, Joan and I couldn’t resist to go out and open the tent camping season this weekend. We did a lot of bird watching along the Mississippi River and spent Saturday night in the Little Paint campground at Yellow River State Forest in northeast Iowa. We live in the drift-less area of Iowa, land that has not been flattened by the glaciers. As a result we have deep valleys, streams, rocks, bluffs, and large areas covered by forest. Yep, Iowa is not just corn and soybeans!!

One of the reasons I like it here so much is the fact that the landscape reminds me of the Sächsische Schweiz (Saxon Switzerland), an area not far from my hometown in the southeast corner of Germany. The sandstone bluffs and rocks in this part of Germany are very similar to what we have here in eastern Iowa. The Sächsische Schweiz is also a National Park in the state of Saxony.

There are many reasons to safe money in the endless world of “modern” consumption if you try to make a living by going to work five days a week. However, when it comes to camping and outdoor equipment we only buy the best of the best. There is nothing worse than freezing or being uncomfortable during a time when you are supposed to have fun. First class sleeping bags, good insulating mattresses, and the best tent in the world (Swedish Bo Hilleberg NALLO3!!!…, ours is almost 19 years old, and has still not let any water in) are the ingredients for trouble free camping! Even with the best equipment, a nice campfire works wonders. As you can see, Joan makes sure we have enough firewood on site before the night starts. Will talk about wildlife later, … so please stay tuned! 😊

UPDATE ON THE OWLETS

600 mm, 1/100s, f/6.3, ISO 320, flash fill

I know I have some friends out there, and as far away as South Africa, who like to hear about how our little owlets are doing. The weather has been kinda “crappy” during the last few days but I try to drive down to the Mississippi River after work several times a week in order to see how the young Great Horned Owls develop. For those who do not always read my blog, this is the first time during the last four years that the Great Horned Owl is raising two young owls. Any other year before was only one owlet in the nest.

Today it seemed again that the juveniles are in good condition and there was a brief moment when I saw both of them at the same time. The mother perched in trees nearby most of the time. She was at the nest only once while I was there. Mother owl went always back to the same trees and branches during the last week because she probably can observe the nest very good from all of her preferred spots. She must trust me, because she turns quite often her back to me and rather looks over to the Mississippi and perhaps watches for some prey.

600 mm, 1/100s, f/6.3, ISO 320, flash fill

Rain and dark clouds during the last evenings made the photography very challenging. There wasn’t an ounce, and not even a gram of nice light! In these conditions I like to master flash fill for my images, with all its quirks, like overexposed branches, red eyes, or just dealing with the settings in camera and in the flash. The missing contrast on an owlet’s head or body in low light makes it difficult to obtain always focus for a sharp image and not every picture is a keeper. I know, this doesn’t sound like fun but I really enjoy the process of trial, error, and improvement, and it makes me happy if at the end of the day there is an image on the memory card that tells the story…

WOOD DUCK WITH COMPANY

Male Wood Duck, Green Island Wetlands

The butt sticking out of the water in the background didn’t belong to a female Wood Duck but rather to a Blue-winged Teal. The beautiful male Wood Duck was all by himself but enjoyed the company of a few teals. Ducks of one species are quite often seen together with other duck species or even geese or coots. They seem to benefit from each other especially by watching out for predators. The Green Island Wetlands beside the Mississippi have plenty of food for all of them. While many ducks, mergansers, and geese have moved on further north, more birds have arrived in large numbers, like thousands of American Coots. Some of them will use the lakes and marshes around Green Island to raise a new generation. It’s an exciting time to be out there at this time of the year… 😊

SIGMA 150-600MM SP, MORE THOUGHTS AFTER THREE MONTHS OF FIELD TESTING

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

Coming back from two weekend trips with filled memory cards in the camera and trying to make up the mind what photos to show is probably a good problem to have. This happens always in spring, when wildlife is migrating back north or getting ready to raise their offspring here in eastern Iowa. This pair of Trumpeter Swans rested together with some Canada Geese at a small puddle near the village of Green Island, Iowa. It was still there when I left the wetlands, hours later in the afternoon, and in much better light than during the late morning.

I promised you in December 2015 to write a little more about my experience with the Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens, after I had some more field testing done. So, here are a few thoughts. The lens does a wonderful job delivering sharp images even with wide open aperture (f/6.3 at 600 mm). This was not necessarily the case with the old Sigma 50-500, which had to be set to f/8 at 500 mm for best results. I shot the Trumpeter Swans with f/6.3 and f/8 and like the sharpness equally. This is very important to know because it allows to shoot faster shutter speeds in many situations. The background is much better blurred at f/6.3, which helps to make the subject of the picture stand out from its surroundings. The corn field behind the swans is actually a pretty busy background, but smoothing it as much as possible improves the quality of the image, at least in my books… If the critter is moving and I need to pan with the lens, I usually shoot with f/8. The small increase in depth of field may help to get a sharp shot at all and the background is usually blurred anyway. Sure, a lens with f/4 or f/2.8 may deliver a better background but for most amateur photographers, like me, this is cost prohibitive…😉

NATURE CLICKS #326 - PEREGRINE FALCON

Mississippi Valley, Bellevue State Park, Iowa

Another very windy day here in eastern Iowa again but staying home on a Sunday in spring is not really an option, isn’t it? My birder friend Sally gave me a hint a few days ago about the presence of Peregrine Falcons in Bellevue, Iowa. I knew about this location since a few years but had never spotted a falcon. Well, today was the day! At my arrival late morning I saw a pair of Peregrines near the nest box that is mounted to the rocks on the east side of the bluffs at Bellevue State Park. What beautiful birds!! After I had my gear in place, right beside the highway below, one of them was gone and I had no clue were it went (nest box?). The other falcon perched in a tree slightly below the box.

These Peregrin Falcons were another first sighting for me. I made quite a few shots but wasn’t really happy with the outcome due to the harsh light. I decided to come back later when the bluffs would not be in direct sunlight anymore and moved on to the Green Island Wetlands.

The photo I show you today was finally made during the late afternoon. Only one bird was sitting in a dead tree below the bluffs. Good enough for me and much easier to handle without the direct sun light…

NATURE CLICKS #325 - GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET

I could tell several stories with the photos I made today but I like to start with the the most exciting one. I was heading north today to dam #9 in the Mississippi River, located between Harpers Ferry and Lansing, IA. The area north of the dam is a bird refuge for most of the year and it came to no surprise to see hundreds of coots and ducks there. 

A walk on the levee towards the dam led to another first sighting for me. While focussing on another bird (may talk about it another day) I suddenly heard a high-pitched “tsee-tsee-tsee” call and discovered two tiny birds that I knew so far only from my bird books. The Golden-crowned Kinglet is easy to identify, but with the speed they move along the tree branches while looking for small insects, getting a sharp image was quite a challenge.

All images: Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens, tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head

SAME STORY, BETTER LIGHT...

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens, tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head

Same thing as yesterday, two little owlet heads peaked over the edge of the big nest from time to time. The adult Great Horned Owl was again sitting in different trees, not too far from the nest. But what a difference today photographically spoken. Yesterday, with the dark gray sky, was like biting into a lemon. The only way to make lemonade was using fill flash for having some colors. But even then the gray background just sucked…

The clouds were about to move out of our area and a shaft of low sun light and the subject (Mrs. Owl) against a partly blue sky make all the difference…

INDEED, TWO OWLETS!!

I guess I have to rewrite my story about the Great Horned Owl and her offspring from two days ago. Despite some rain and dark clouds in the sky I checked the nest again this evening and to my surprise I saw indeed TWO owlets in the nest this time. At my arrival the mother was present but I didn’t see any of the young owls. Later, while watching some American Robins in the grass, I saw the adult owl flying away from the nest. A few minutes later again suddenly two little heads peaked over the edge of the nest as you can see in the photo below. The mother returned, stayed for a few minutes, and flew off to another tree on the east side of Mud Lake Park. It is the first time during the last four years that we can finally see two owlets. This just made my day!

The photography was a real challenge today. With very little light available I had to bump up the ISO to 1000 and was still shooting slow shutter speeds between 1/60s and 1/125s. I usually try not to exceed ISO 400 in order to have as much detail as possible in my photos. Any noise reduction in post process means loss of detail (higher ISO = more noise). In addition the wind was shaking the trees and I’m just happy that a few shots turned out ok.

NATURE CLICKS #324 - GREAT HORNED OWL

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens, tripod, gimbal head

Yesterday evening I was greeted by a chirpy little owlet, sitting at the edge of the big nest, down at the Mississippi River at Mud Lake Park. I quickly set up my tripod and watched the bird through the SIGMA 150-600mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, zoomed out to its longest focal length. For a while I thought there was a second owlet in the nest, but after looking closer at my pictures on the screen of the NIKON D750 I found out that mother owl just “took a nap” deep down in the nest, while the juvenile enjoyed the sun. What a great moment when she finally went up and left no doubt about who is in charge. I’m so happy to see that we have for the fourth year in a row the pleasure of watching a Great Horned Owl raising her offspring.

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.