NATURE CLICKS #478 - SHORT EARED OWL

Short-eared Owl, Mississippi River, Green Island Wildlife Area, Iowa

This is by no means a sharp photo and I’m not talking only about the blurred wings (which I actually like), but the eyes and face are not really sharp either. However, I couldn’t resist to post this image because a Short-eared Owl has been in front of my camera only once before. There was hardly any light left when the owl appeared and hunted along the dike that crosses the Green Island Wildlife Area. With its buoyant flight and constantly changing directions it was difficult to lock on the focus. After watching the Trumpeter Swans (see my last post) I was just about to wrap it up when the owl approached my location on top of the dike. I still had the Nikkor 70-200, f/4 on camera, I used just before for some landscape photography. The only way to get at least a documentary shot was to increase ISO to 1000 and leave the lens wide open (f/4). With a little bit of light on the owl’s face and stretched out wing, the photo gives us an idea about the time when the hunting starts for the Shored-eared Owl. They forage mostly at night and the diet consists of mice, voles, moles, shrews, ground squirrels, small rabbits, and muskrats, but they also take small birds and large insects. Open spaces, like grasslands, marches, and prairies are the preferred habitat and the Green Island Wetlands fall certainly into this category.

AN EVENING IN THE WETLANDS

Trumpeter Swans flying in for the night, Green Island Wildlife Area, Iowa

It was about time to pay a visit to the Green Island Wildlife Area, a wetland at the confluence of the Maquoketa and Mississippi rivers. My last visit was back in September. I avoid Green Island during duck hunting season. Parts of the wetlands are closed for hunting but access is also limited for everybody else at that time. Beside that I don’t think it’s the best idea to run around and be an accidental target for those dudes who forgot their glasses at home…😉

Red-tailed Hawk,   1/125 s, f/9, ISO 400, @850 mm, Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Sigma APO Teleconverter 1.4x EX DG

As expected late in the day several raptors showed their presence. I photographed a Red-tailed Hawk in the same dead tree before earlier this year, and it might be the same one, but this time the bird was already in the shade. I tried it with the 1.4 teleconverter, making it a 850 mm focal length. The result is less tree and more bird. I braced myself against the car window to get this shot.

Bald Eagle,   1/1250 s, f/9, ISO 400, @850 mm (DX mode: 1275 mm), Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Sigma APO Teleconverter 1.4x EX DG

The compounding effect of flooding during the last ten years has left hardly any trees alive and this landscape has already changed dramatically. Who knows, this might be the last photo of a Bald Eagle on a dead branch of this particular tree. Well, the other trees around don’t look any different… Next year the tree is probably gone. To get this shot I pushed the “tools” and my abilities to their limits. Since the water was covered with ice for the most part the eagle wasn’t there for catching fish, but probably enjoyed the last rays of light yesterday evening as much as I did.

Trumpeter Swans, 1/400 s, f/6.3, ISO 400, @600 mm, Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S,

The sun gets out of sight a little earlier in the Mississippi Valley than what our phone apps may tell us. After patrolling the gravel roads in the wetlands for any kind of wildlife I returned to the dike for some “after sunset” shots but another lens change came first. Wave after wave of Trumpeter Swans flew in, crossed overhead, and probably landed on the ice of Blakes Lake on the east side of the wildlife area. This bird was almost extinct in Iowa at some point in recent history and seeing so many swans congregating during the winter warms my heart… (I didn’t count but I think it was way more than 100 birds)

Green Island Wildlife Area, Iowa

Finally between the calls of Sandhill Cranes and the hoots of a Great Horned Owl I was able to make the landscape picture that was on my mind. Apple’s Steve Jobs was famous for ending his keynote speeches and then turning around and saying “One more thing…” Well, I have one more too, but will show it in my next blog post. 😊

THE BISON BELOW

American Bison, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, September 2020

You can tell, this bison has fought a few battles during the mating season, which takes place from late July to August. I was actually looking for some Mule Deer near a trailhead in Roosevelt National Park when suddenly this bull showed up. He disappeared into a small canyon and this allowed me to place the tripod near the edge and make a few clicks from above of the grazing bison. Keeping a safe distance to these large animals is important, not just during the mating season, and no photo is worth risking the life of an animal or your own.

GET IT RIGHT IN CAMERA (PART 2)

Eastern Gray Squirrel, 1/800 s, f/9, ISO 400, @850 mm, DX mode (1,275 mm)

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Sigma APO Teleconverter 1.4x EX DG, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head

Although with a totally different aspect, I’m picking up from my last blog post today, “Get it right in camera”. All photos are from last weekend. Way too many times I do have to crop some of my wildlife images, mainly because of too much distance between the camera and the animal. There has been progress over the years but it remains a challenge and I’m not always up to it.

Black-capped Chickadee, 1/400 s, f/9, ISO 400, @850 mm

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Sigma APO Teleconverter 1.4x EX DG, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head

Well, there is a piece of gear in my bag that can help to get closer and fill the frame without cropping, but I admit, it hasn’t seen the light of the day much lately. I’m talking about the SIGMA 1.4 teleconverter that compliments the SIGMA 150-600, f5-6.3 and can extend its focal length from 600 mm to 850 mm. On a camera with a half size sensor or in DX mode on a full frame camera, like the Nikon D750, you can even get the angle of view of a 1,275 mm lens. Wow, this is a lot more than the naked lens can provide!

Red-bellied Woodpecker, 1/1250 s, f/9, ISO 400, @850 mm

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Sigma APO Teleconverter 1.4x EX DG, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head

Of course there is a downside. With a maximum aperture of f/6.3 at 600 mm the SIGMA isn’t the fastest lens anyway, but with the teleconverter attached it becomes a f/9! This needs a lot of light for a good function of the autofocus system. But if the focus locks on, this lens / teleconverter combination delivers a sharp picture. It’s not the perfect solution for “low light” wildlife photography. But if the sun comes out and you have the great contrast, colors, and light this time of the season has to offer, you might be suddenly closer to your subject and after a while you don’t even know where the “crop-button” of your photo editing software is located…😉

GET IT RIGHT IN CAMERA

Ortenburg castle, Bautzen / Germany

There are different ways to fill a window and as you can see I found a few over the years. It seems to become popular to replace the sky or other elements of a picture in Photoshop. There might be sometimes a reason to that, but I still prefer what I learned during the ages of film, “get it right in camera”…

Window in Aminas Fork, an old mining ghost town in Colorado.

Prague, Czech Republic

Chicago, Illinois

NATURE CLICKS #477 - WILD TURKEY

A gang of Wild Turkeys, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND, September 2020

I guess you saw that coming, Wild Turkeys in my blog right at Thanksgiving holiday here in the US 😉. Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota is a good place to watch them. Quite often they show up near the road and most pictures can be made from the car, which serves as a mobile blind in this matter. We saw a number of large families, which shouldn’t be a surprise knowing that a nest usually has 10 to 15 eggs, sometimes even more.

Thanksgiving might be a little different for many of us this year but I hope you still can enjoy it. If nothing else, go out with your camera and come back with some good pictures!

NATURE CLICKS #476 - BIGHORN SHEEP

Bighorn Sheep, Roosevelt National Park, North Unit

Joan and I were happy to watch and photograph Bighorn Sheep in the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park again. During our first visit in 2015 a ranger told us, you will be very lucky if you can find the Bighorn Sheep. They spend most of their time in the canyons of this badlands area and therefor not easy to spot.

Well, this year we found a splendid ram and four ewes grazing on the grassy slope above a canyon. We spent about 20 minutes with the bighorn sheep before they disappeared into the valley. Enough time to work with these amazing critters…

Male bighorns can be dangerous and are able to kill a human if threatened, so maintaining a safe distance is a good idea. There was a small ravine between my tripod and the animals and I felt safe to be that close. The first image is uncropped and gives you an idea about the real world at 600 mm focal length, while the second photo didn’t have a very interesting background, just plain grass, and I felt a slight crop would benefit the outcome. The sheep gave us a look ones in a while but most of the time just ignored us and that is always a good thing if you are close to a wild animal.

BEFORE THE WINTER COMES

A pair of Tundra Swans approaching and greeting other members of the flock. The yellow spot at the base of their bill makes identification relatively easy.

It is a two-hour drive for us along the mighty Mississippi to visit the Brownsville Overlook. This observation point, just ten miles north of the border to Minnesota, is a popular spot in November by bird watchers, photographers, and people who love to see the wonders of nature. Every year thousands of Tundra Swans rest in this area on their way from the arctic region to the mid-Atlantic coast. In addition local and migrating Trumpeter Swans, Sandhill Cranes, Bald Eagles, and ten thousands of ducks are also part of the mix that that can be watched.

A family of Trumpeter Swans. They are larger than Tundra Swans and their bill is completely black.

ENCHANTED HIGHWAY (A SLIDE SHOW)

Taking pictures of other peoples art makes me always hesitate and asking myself, why would I ever publish them? Here I try to put that in context with the Black & White photo “Enchanted Highway”, the only picture of that shoot that I really value. I do a bit of travel photography but mostly publish it in privately distributed books, and that’s where the pictures of sculptures would have a place to live. The photo of the “Enchanted Highway” stands out on its own, but why we would even go there, in the middle of frigging nowhere in North Dakota?

Wikipedia says: The Enchanted Highway is a collection of the world's largest scrap metal sculptures … along a 32-mile (51 km) stretch of two-lane highway in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of North Dakota. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enchanted_Highway)

I would agree not to call it a “tourist trap”, because we didn’t really see many people at the end of August 2020, during some of the best travel times.

For my photography friends, here is a little information for those who may consider to include this remote location in one of their future travel plans. If you just travel this road during the day, as we did, the direction of sunlight may not be in your favor. Some of the metal sculptures have their face pointed at Polaris and keeping the sun out of the frame might be a challenge during the day. As you can see in some of the images, clouds help a lot and finding a way to place them in your photo may be beneficial. Towards the end of this 32-mile trip the blue parts of the sky were completely covered by clouds and that was the other challenge to deal with… If time is not a factor and you can stay in the charming little town of Regent, North Dakota , I’m sure sunrise and sunset are your best friends…

BACK-LIGHT

I’m not known as a “people photographer” but when these two young runners passed by I had to make the click. This was a month ago and I walked with our little dog at sunset on the Heritage Trail in the valley below. Due to the wildfires in Colorado, Montana, and California the sun had this hazy, almost dirty appearance and made for interesting back-light on the leaves and logging equipment in the background. While I was still debating with myself if this would be enough for a picture, the girls entered the scene. And suddenly I had a photo that made sense…

JUST LOOK FOR THEM

Little Maquoketa River Valley, Iowa

This photo was taken more than three weeks ago, down in our valley where the Little Maquoketa River meanders through the fields and meadows towards the Mississippi. I love the moody side of fall, with some leaves still present and fog hiding much of the clutter between the trees. The corn at the bottom of the picture was still waiting to be harvested, which by now is all done. On a gray day like this it is a much bigger challenge to tell a visual story about the season than with bold fall colors all over. It can happen I go home with still an empty memory card in the camera but sometimes the subtle things in the background make the image, we just have to look for them…

A UNIQUE ROCK

Little Missouri National Grassland, North Dakota, September 2020

When we drove by at this solitary towering sandstone rock on the way to the Elkhorn unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the morning, I saw some potential for a black & white image if some elements in the sky would be present. The unique shape of this rock drew our attention and how long it took for wind, rain, and snow to form it from sandstone that ones was a layer of sand on the bottom of a shallow sea, filled with abundant marine life.

While driving back from President Roosevelt’s former ranch in the afternoon a few clouds just moved through and we tried to take advantage of it. I remember that I had the camera slightly tilted to the right to give the grassy slope a little less presence in the photo. Other than climbing up the steep slope, it was an easy click to be made. In post process I applied a red filter B&W preset to make the sky darker and let the rock and single cloud stand out.

NATURE CLICKS #475 - LEAST CHIPMUNK

Least Chipmunk, Little Missouri National Grasslands, North Dakota, September 2020

The Least Chipmunk is the smallest of its kind here in North America but it is the most widespread. We don’t have it here in Iowa but during our trip through the Dakotas and eastern Montana we had a chance to watch these agile little fellows several times. Seeds, berries, nuts, fruits and insects are on their menu and most of the time we saw them chewing or carry something to their burrow.

Sure, this is not a critter that is difficult to photograph but therefore the photo has to be a little different. Light, color, or gesture  This Least Chipmunk was busy finding something in this tree but when he or she paused and observed the surrounding neighborhood, it was time to press the shutter release button of the camera.

1/320 s, f/6.3, ISO 320, @600 mm, with Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head;

VISIBLE DYNAMICS

Little Missouri National Grasslands, North Dakota, September 2020

Some of the questions I wanted to find answers to during our vacation trip were, how can I make the dynamics in the sky at certain times part of my visual storytelling, or how can the fast movement of clouds be made visible in a still image? Therefor I have a lot experimented with neutral density filters. For example in the photo you see here, the Breakthrough 10-stop X4 ND filter extended a 1/40 s exposure up to 30 seconds at f/22. Much can happen in 30 seconds! The wind blew pretty strong that evening and it wasn’t just the clouds that were moving. As you can see, it also blurs part of the grass and the trees. First I thought that wouldn’t work well, but the rocks in the background become the anchor point for the eye. They are there since millions of years and as long as the tripod with the camera is not shaking, they will remain sharp. All the other elements, clouds, grass, sage brush, and trees show movement and let you hopefully feel the wind… 

NATURE CLICKS #474 - ROCK WREN (FIRST SIGHTING)

Rock Wren, Little Missouri National Grasslands, North Dakota, September 2020

It has been two months already since we enjoyed the sighting of a Rock Wren, which was the first time ever that we saw this tiny bird. We had the remote Wannagan Campground, located just west of the border to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, for ourselves and it allowed me to walk around with camera and tripod wherever I wanted to and without disturbing other campers. Actually I was after some Mountain Bluebirds (Click HERE for a picture I took earlier that day) but when an unknown bird call sounded from some nearby rocks, my attention shifted immediately.

The Rock Wren lives in the western part of the US and southwest Canada and the location we found it is pretty much at the eastern border of its range. I just read that male Rock Wrens can have a large repertoire of more than 100 song types. I think that’s remarkable! This bird is not known to drink water, but gets the liquid it needs from food. Their diet consists insects and spiders and they hunt for them between and around rocks. Winters are pretty cold up in North Dakota and the Rock Wren migrates to the warmer regions in the southwest of the US and to Mexico.

Photographically not all wishes became true. The topography of this location did not allow  to get closer with the tripod and so I applied a crop to both photos. The location itself was perfect. Having a Rock Wren on top of a rock, surrounded by some grass stems and sage brush, tells a great story about its habitat in the badlands of North Dakota.