BREAKFAST AT THE MAPLE TREE

Brown Creeper, Little Maquoketa River Valley, Iowa

I have shown you the Brown Creeper before here in my blog but I still have room for improvement for my photos with this little tree climbing bird. This morning I watched him going up the big maple right in front of the house several times in a row. There must have been an abundance of good breakfast snacks for the creeper. Usually they spiral up on a tree trunk in search for little insects and then fly to the bottom of the next tree. Not so today. I watched the Brown Creeper five times going up our maple tree but it climbed always a different route. They move quite fast and it took me some time to nail down some sharp shots. It is always amazing how well they blend into their environment. The photo shows how the Brown Creeper uses its stiff tail for support while climbing. Can you tell that I love this little bird? I’m so glad we see them here in our woods.

CHIPMUNK-OUT-OF-THE-DEN-DAY

Eastern Chipmunk - first appearance this spring

Oh, you never have heard about a ‘Chipmunk-out-of-the den-day’? Ok, it is my invention… 😊 For me spring does not really start until we have seen the Eastern Chipmunk around the house. During the winter, the chipmunk may enter long periods of torpor, but does not truly hibernate. We see the chipmunk very seldom during the winter. Despite we had a mild one this last season we didn’t see this critter at all until today.

With no leaves out yet the light is crispy and clear, even here in the woods, when the sun comes out in April. Yes, we finally saw the sun today! The challenge is the high contrast, even during the last hour before sunset. You got to watch the highlights and make sure they are not blown out in your photo. It is a good time to learn and practice exposure compensation...

MOTHER OWL

Mother owl did not show me her precious offspring this evening. She just sat on the nest and kept her owlet covered. I still don’t know how many owlets are in the nest but I talked to a camper, who had watched the owl since a while, and he told me he has not seen more than one.

As you can easily see the light had no character today. Yes, we had another day with mostly a deep overcast. I hope I can show you some more photos of a young Great Horned Owl soon.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON, HERE AND THERE

Nikon D750, Carl Zeiss Distagon T*, 35mm / f2 ZF ------------     

Our streak of days without sunshine seems to continue. We really didn’t see the “big bulb” much lately. Well, that doesn’t mean we can’t go out and make any pictures. Yesterday I went downtown for a visit of the Dubuque Museum of Art, followed by a little photo walk in town. I had it almost for myself, there were hardly any people in the streets. This is so different to probably any city in my home country Germany. On a Sunday afternoon people over there like to go out for walks and maybe sit in a cafe or beer garden, no matter how hot, cold, wet, or dry it is.

Dubuque has a number of old brick stone buildings and I looked around for interesting perspectives. This facade had drawn my interest and I waited about ten minutes for someone walking by, but that didn’t happen due to the lack of people in the streets. I liked the graffiti art anyway and made the click. Can’t sit home because of a few rain drops…😉

SNOW GEESE, LONG WAY TO GO

Yesterday evening it was the first time that I got really close to a flock of Snow Geese in the Green Island Wetlands. I watched them for several minutes while they were feeding in a corn field before they took off and went to another spot. It is mind-boggling how far they still have to go for their breeding grounds in the Arctic regions of North America. Most of them were white morphs, but as you can see in my second photo there were also a couple blue morphs among them.

Getting ready for take-off

Some of the geese seem to have a stubbier bill, shorter neck, and rounder head and I wonder if this is just due to the perspective or if there are some Ross’s Gees among the Snow Geese? I’m always very thankful if a more experienced birder helps me out with identification questions.

WAY TO FINISH A WEEK

There are many good ways to finish a work week, watching a movie, listening to great music, or having a chat with the bar tender, you name it. For me not much can beat being in the great outdoors, listening to the sounds of nature, and watching the things unfold. After a long stretch of days without sunshine the seeming impossible happened just a few minutes before sunset today, the edge of an endless overcast passed finally the sun. This happened while I watched a flock of 30 Snow Geese and listened to the calls of over 100 Sandhill Cranes in the Green Island Wetlands. After sunset the light for shooting into the field, where hundreds of Mallards and Wood Ducks came to rest, was not sufficient anymore. Pointing the long lens to the west and waiting for birds moving in front of the clouds was the option I took advantage of. As I said, many good ways to finish a work week… 😊

GEAR TALK: MAGMOD MAGBEAM WILDLIFE KIT

MAGMOD MagBeam Fresnel flash extender -------

Well, I haven’t done any gear talk in a long time and after over ten weeks of testing I’m ready to write a little blog post about a new piece that made it into my photo bag. The MAGMOD MagBeam Wildlife Kit is a fresnel flash extender that has replaced the good old ‘Better Beamer’. Technically it works the same way, a fresnel lens collimates the light from the speedlight and extends the capabilities of the flash light by 2-3 extra stops. This is a big deal for my wildlife photography and I use the MagBeam usually with the long lens, the Sigma 150-600. There are two reasons to use the flash extender. First it allows to increase the depth of field, especially under low light conditions, but more important for me is to improve the quality of light for bird photography. Flash fill makes a big difference for the colors.

Now retired: Better Beamer flash extender

So why did I give up the old Better Beamer for the new MagBeam? Mounting the Better Beamer to the SB 800 speedlight has been always an awkward procedure, especially if someone is in a hurry. The flimsy plastic parts are held together with velcro and if you don’t secure the Better Beamer with gaffers tape, there is always a chance that the whole unit falls off while moving around. The MagBeam has a rubber part that fits tightly over the speedlight, called the MagGrip. It has a couple strong permanent magnets embedded that hold the actual flash modifier with the fresnel lens. When you need the MagBeam in the field, you just snap the modifier onto the MagGrip and start shooting. This is a big plus in my books and one of the main reasons why I like the MAGMOD MagBeam a lot. The modifier is made out of rubber and is collapsable for smaller packing.

Mourning Dove, photo made with MAGMOD MagBeam flash extender

In direct comparison of both flash extenders I would say the MagBeam delivers a slightly softer light, and this is a good thing. This may have to do with its oval shape, but I’m not sure. The only downside I can see so far is the little heavier weight of the new tool over the old Better Beamer. This is not a problem for me. The faster mounting time and softer flash fill outweigh the extra weight and the MAGMOD MagBeam will definitely stay in my photo bag.

ONE OWLET REVEALED

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

I had exciting thirty minutes at Mud Lake Park this evening. First I saw my first of the season Eastern Phoebe and Great Egret. There were also more than 80 Snow Geese heading north and a Brown Creeper worked its way up at one of the big trees. But the star this evening was the Great Horned Owl, revealing finally one owlet in her nest. Great Horned Owls are blind at birth and this little bugger didn’t have its eyes open yet. The female owl sat very high in the nest again and I wonder how many owlets were actually still under her body. I guess we will find out soon. Food seems not to be scarce. There was another gray-black feather ball at the edge of the nest, which I believe was a dead coot again that one of the parents had bagged.

NATURE CLICKS #365 - TRUMPETER SWANS

Green Island Wildlife Refuge, Iowa

During one of my recent trips to the Green Island Wetlands I came across this pair of Trumpeter Swans. It is really not difficult to find them anymore. These wonderful birds have made a great comeback here in Iowa. Getting close enough for a good photo is a different story that cannot always be told. The swans were fighting the squally wind and so did I during my attempts to keep the focus on them. Most of my images show the two swans swimming next to each other and looking in the same direction. That one shot, where one of the trumpeters started preening its feathers made all the difference for me. This little gesture changes the story telling. Neither the strong wind nor my presence seemed to bother them. They preen their feathers when they feel comfortable and safe.

UPDATE ON THE GREAT HORNED OWL

March 21, 2017  -------   

I have been several times at the nest of the Great Horned Owl at Mud Lake last week. As the two photos show the conditions can be very different from one day to the next.

Five days ago, March 21, great late afternoon light hit the nest. Mother owl didn’t change position at all. I recognized a ball of gray-black feathers on the right. This is probably the remains of some prey, possibly an American Coot, that she or the male owl had bagged.

March 26, 2017

This image is from today, March 26, 2017. The rain had just stopped and the owl still looks quite wet. She sits very high in the nest and that makes me believe that her offspring has hatched already some time ago. Here is a time table of my first sightings of an owlet at the same nest for each year:

2016: March 28, a second owlet March 31

2015: March 16

2014: March 28

2013: April 14

It looks like we may see some new life soon. I will try to visit the nest more frequently during the upcoming week.

Both photos were made with the Sigma 150-600, at 600 mm in DX-crop mode of the Nikon D750. This is the equivalent viewing angle of a 900 mm lens. I use the DX mode if I can’t go physically closer to my subject.

STITCHING A PANO TOGETHER

Click for larger image! --------

We had a dull, dreary, and rainy day and as a result no new pixels made it onto the memory card today. Not a big deal and it was a perfect time to browse through older images and clean up the photo library this evening.

During my recent visit at Mono Lake on the east side of the Sierra Nevada I made a few attempts to shoot some panorama images. As mentioned in an earlier post, it was extremely windy that day and so I shot handhold the whole time. I remember my first attempts to make a digital panorama, about 8 - 9 years ago, were a nightmare in post process. Thanks to the amazing software capabilities of Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop (I used Lightroom for this photo) it is really a breeze to stitch several photos together for a panorama these days.

So why even doing it? On a website, like this blog, a panorama looks most of the time tiny, depending how big your computer screen or mobile device is. It is the printing that makes all the difference. This picture was made from four photos. The content needs to overlap a little but at the end it led to an image with over 12,000 pixels on the long side. This allows to make a print 40 inch wide (~ 1 meter) or even larger without any loss of detail.

NATURE CLICKS #364 - NORTHERN HARRIER (FINALLY!)

Green Island Wetlands, Iowa  --------   

I don’t know how often I have aimed my lens at a Northern Harrier in the Green Island area over the years but never came back with a result that was more than a “private documentary shot”. This hawk has hoaxed me many times but a week ago I finally made a couple shots that can be shown in public. No, this is not the photo I have in mind, there is a lot of room for improvement, but hey, the jinx is broken…😉

Northern Harriers use their sense of hearing to help locate their prey, which is unusual among hawks. Their owl-like facial disk helps with directional hearing.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2017 #7 - ON THE OTHER SIDE

Great Blue Heron, Mississippi River, Potosi, Wisconsin --------

Someone may ask why I don’t shoot much on the east side of the Mississippi River in Wisconsin or Illinois? The main reason is that much of my shooting time is in the afternoon or evening and at many places where the river is accessible I would shoot towards the sun. This can be interesting and may lead to some great results but with birds and water involved it is not my first choice considering colors and contrast. However, last Sunday I went across the bridge to Wisconsin and checked out the area around the boat landing and public access in Potosi. I found large numbers of ducks, geese, and even Trumpeter Swans. My favorite of the day was finally this Great Blue Heron, who briefly interrupted its staring into the water for fish and gave me a nice pose. Although they are not much different in size from a Sandhill Crane, it is easier to get a sharp image of a Great Blue Heron. The better contrast on their breast makes it a breeze to lock the focus point. Why the breast? It is on the same focal plane as the eye and the eye has to be sharp.