A SUCCESSFUL HUNTER

Sharp-shinned Hawk

There was some turmoil in the air but let me start with the story before the drama unfolded this morning. Part of my morning routine is to check on bird feeders, water levels of the heated bird baths, and just watch the actions of our feathered friends from behind the balcony door. As seen other times before, there was a moment this morning when every bird either went away or just froze any movement. All the woodpeckers and nuthatches stopped moving and looked like sculptures and no sparrow, junco, finch, titmouse, or cardinal was really visible. This is a sure sign that our Sharp-shinned Hawk is in a nearby tree and on the hunt. I looked into the woods behind the house for ten minutes but couldn’t see the raptor. I just knew the hawk was there. Suddenly hell broke loose and some of the 25-30 Northern Cardinals that were hiding between tree branches panicked and among them was the hawk. He caught one of them mid-air and dropped immediately to the ground. And this was where both photos were made. You can’t see the poor cardinal under the snow but you get a picture of a successful hunter. The hawk spent a few minutes sitting over its prey before it took off and flew into a grove of eastern cedars and out of sight.

Sharp-shinned Hawks are pursuit hunters and catch their prey, mostly small birds, often by surprise, either mid-air or on the ground. They can navigate dense woods at high speeds and are agile and acrobatic fliers.

I was lucky to find an unobstructed view between the trees and the hawk gave me enough time to calm down and handhold camera and long lens while shooting from the balcony deck.

STORY CONTINUOUS

Tufted Titmouse

I’m writing this blog about nature and photography since more than 11 years and the question, what is the next story I can tell with my photos, is always in the back of my mind. It seems like winter, snow, and how do the animals deal with it might be still the main topic for some time. It started snowing this afternoon and it looks like tomorrow the day will begin with snow removal again.

The camera sits on a tripod most of the time in the house and quite often I just open a window and start shooting. Sometimes a good result is out of the question, due to the lack of light or other circumstances, but it is the daily practice with camera and lens that may make the difference next time, when a great photo opportunity appears right in front of me and within the blink of an eye.

It was pretty cold again today and I can’t leave the window open for too long. But we have so many birds around here, there is hardly any lack of a subject. It was the gesture of this Tufted Titmouse that made me select this photo for today’s blog post. I love when it all comes together, shooting practice, having fun, and a decent picture, even if the visual story is sometimes similar to the last one…

BRAVING OUT ANOTHER STORM

Another winter storm hit the area again a couple days ago. I tried to capture a photo with some storytelling about and how the birds brave it out. It doesn’t really need much to give the viewer an idea. The snow covered branch and the snow trails in the background set the stage for this male House Sparrow. Shutter speed had to be slow to make a trail and here 1/50 second at f/8 was used to make the click. Some people don’t think it is worth their time to aim the lens at such an ordinary bird but I strongly disagree. They are part of our natural heritage and just because they are abundant doesn’t mean they are less important. And look at at this guy, isn’t he pretty?

NATURE CLICKS #482 - SAME HAWK, SAME LOCATION, DIFFERENT DAY

I thought I give it a try again today and went back to the same location as yesterday. Sure enough, the Rough-legged Hawk was present again, this time perched in a tree, a little further away from the road. They are known to perch sometimes on very slender branches on top of a tree and I have watched this behavior at the dark morph of a Rough-legged Hawk lately at a different location. This time the bird waited for me and gave me a few seconds to make some clicks before she flew away. You can see how the feathers cover her whole legs. The name “Rough-legged” refers to that. In North America only Golden Eagles, the Ferruginous Hawk, and the Rough-legged Hawk have feathers all the way down to their toes. We expect another snow storm tomorrow and I wonder sometimes how these birds manage to survive these often brutal weather conditions…

NATURE CLICKS #481 - ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK

These are my lucky shots today. On my short trips to the Mississippi River during lunch break I drive quite often with the camera on the passenger seat or in my lap and look for wildlife. Rough-legged Hawks spend the summer up on the arctic tundra and come down to southern Canada and the U.S. for the winter time. Up north they feed mostly on lemmings and voles, while mice and other rodents are on their diet here during the winter. This hawk is a light morph but I have watched a dark form as well during the last two months only a couple miles away from this location. This Rough-legged Hawk is possibly an immature female but I’m not an expert enough to say that with certainty.

Rough-legged Hawk, near Sherrill, Iowa

She was perched on a utility post, a perch they like to hunt from. They need open habitats, such as fields or prairies. The procedure is always the same. I make sure nobody is behind me, slow down the car, roll the window down, take the hands off the steering wheel, grab the camera, stop the car, and start shooting. I have trained this many times on gravel roads without traffic but it still needs a bit of luck to get the picture. The hawk took off right before I came to a standstill but she flew towards me and I was able to fire five shots. I thought I missed the focus completely but later at home I found out that two shots were at least usable, although they are not tack-sharp.

It was not a first sighting of a Rough-legged Hawk, but I’m very happy because it was the first time I was able to come back with a picture that is more than just a documentary shot for the records. 

Both images: Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, …@600 mm, 1/1600 s, f/8, ISO400. Shot in full frame mode (FX) but cropped in post to DX dimensions, which delivers an angle of view like with 900 mm focal length.

SNOW, AND MORE SNOW

Deciduous forests without their leaves are not always the prettiest thing to photograph, except after a storm that makes the snow cling to trees and branches. Suddenly all kinds of lines and shapes are revealed and we are reminded how beautiful winter can be. All photos were made just in the neighborhood, here on our ridge above the Little Maquoketa River Valley. I hope you enjoy!

All images: Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4

VISIT FOR LUNCH

The deeper snow makes our little herd of White-tailed Deer even braver and since a few days two fawns show up already around noon for a lunch. While one ate the seeds that dropped from the bird feeders, its sibling stood guard and observed the surroundings. They must have found out that the photographer prefers this time over the hour after sunset due to better light…😉 Look at the ears! They change direction every few seconds and tell the story about the mission of this little guy.

However, this evening two does and four fawns returned, obviously knowing that I had thrown a couple extra hands of bird seeds onto the snow. At night we hear some coyotes bark, yip, and howl behind the house or down in the valley. Live is not easy for the deer at the moment…

Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4,   @200 mm, 1/800 s, f/8, ISO200

YEARS IN THE MAKING

Moonrise over the Mississippi, Mud Lake, Iowa

Today’s photo was several years in the making. I had this shot in mind for a long time but quite a few things had to be true for this image. First I wanted the Mississippi River with an ice cover and with a fresh layer of snow on top. Of course, I needed a full moon and time of sunset and moonrise only a few minutes apart from each other. It was important to me to have a little glow on the rocks of the Wisconsin side of the river and also still some light left that filled the valley and gave the snow some structure. And last but not least it required a clear sky to make it all happen. As a bonus this evening there was no wind and the temperature was balmy -10 ºC / 14 ºF. What I didn’t expect, but really like, is the fact that the moon lightened the snow patches on top of the bluffs and make them stand out.

I have scheduled and tried this shot several times before over the years but quite often clouds were in the way or something else didn’t work out. At one time a few years ago I showed up a little bit early at bitter cold temperatures. Some moisture must have built up in the camera and about when the moon showed finally up over the horizon line, the shutter mechanism was probably frozen and the camera failed to do the job. Back home and after bringing the camera slowly back to room temperature and let it dry out, everything worked just fine again. I learned my lesson and today I made sure the camera didn’t undergo any sharp temperature changes (like from heating in the car) before the actual shooting.

Here is an app for your phone I can highly recommend for an event like this. The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE) is a great planning tool and shows you exactly on a map where the moon or sun will rise or set and when the time is right to be ready for the shoot.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, RRS BH-55 ball head, Vello cable release,   @200 mm, 1/8 s, f/8, ISO100

IN THE VIEWFINDER

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

In a blog post last year I called the mountain on the left hand side the ‘Winking Mountain’. I don’t know if it even has an official name but I thought that name would fit…  This is another picture I made in Badlands National Park during our vacation trip in 2020. It was made from a different vantage point, that includes the mountain, but doesn’t make it the central subject of the photo.

When you are on a road trip you can’t always be choosy about the time at a particular location. This was late morning and the colors were already kinda soft. Darkening the sky brings the clouds to our attention and gives the scene a bit more drama. Finally working on the contrast with the highlights and black sliders in Adobe Lightroom allowed me to create the photo I had in mind while looking through the viewfinder.

AFTER THE SNOW STORM

Dark-eyed Junco

We had about a foot of fresh snow last night. While the snow storm slowed down this morning I made a few clicks of the birds that try to survive the winter here in eastern Iowa. Dark-eyed Juncos are present by the dozen and are among my favorite birds to photograph. 

The challenge is always to separate the dark eye from the rest of the upper part of the bird. Getting a little bit of light on the eye ring is key and it helps if the eye has a hint of catch light, even if it is the reflection of the flash that was used to bring out some colors. The flash also helps to tell the story about “Winter-wonder-land”. The background has to be dark if you want to see the falling snow. A slower shutter speed makes for nice snow trails but this morning I wanted to capture more of the calm that follows a snow storm. Without totally “freezing” the snow flakes in the background the desired balance was attained at 1/640 s for this image.

NEW COLLECTION: ICY ART

I have quietly started a new little project, called ICY ART. I don’t know yet where I’m heading with this one, but for now I like to show some of the results here on my website. The idea to photograph frozen water as a natural appearance came already several years ago but I have not pursued it seriously until recently. I’m in the great outdoors almost every day, sometimes only for a few minutes and sometimes for a whole day. I like the idea that nature alone is the sculptor and light can reveal or conceal shapes, colors, and reflections, sometimes just depending from what angle we look at the subject. If you like to see what made it into the ICY ART collection so far, click on the photo above and it will take you right there.

SQUIRREL APPRECIATION DAY

Eastern Gray Squirrel

Early this morning I read a FB post from my German photography friend Maren about ‘Squirrel Appreciation Day’ last Thursday, which also included a nice photo of a squirrel. A moment later I looked out the window and checked our bird feeders and had to start laughing out loud. Seven Eastern Gray Squirrels had hijacked the feeders and bird bath and didn’t leave any space for the birds. This isn’t totally unusual but after a very cold night (-19ºC / -2ºF) the squirrels were really desperate to get some food in their bellies. 

Alright, they can be annoying at times but they are also cute and play a role in the eco system. Let them have some sunflower seed too! Here is one of my favorite photos of an Eastern Gray Squirrel as a belated tribute to National Squirrel Appreciation Day.

NATURE CLICKS #480 - AMERICAN TREE SPARROW

This photo is already two weeks old but it could have been made today because the landscape had a fresh layer of snow on top of the old one this morning. The American Tree Sparrow breeds in far northern North America but during the winter they migrate south and we may have a chance to watch them. They feed usually in small flocks, mostly on seeds, but here in our woods we only see one or two occasionally.

During these gray days, with little or no sun peaking out from behind the clouds, I still like to include a little bit from the “cold part” of winter in my visual storytelling. Blue is the color of cold and I try to keep the white balance around 5500 Kelvin. Gray clouds render gray snow and the idea is just to counter that by controlling the white balance in camera. A hint of flash helps again with the colors of the sparrow.

THE DAILY PRACTICE

White-tailed Deer fawn

Theoretically I could make this photo almost every day right here in front of the house when we have snow on the ground. The White-tailed Deer, who roam the area, know where to find food despite the snow cover. If you hang your bird feeders too low they may empty it within a short period of time. Usually they come for what’s dropped to the ground by birds and squirrels, but if we have really deep snow, I throw a couple extra hands full of seeds out just for the deer. This morning I saw a doe at 5am, and that was still too dark for a picture. The best time is usually in the late afternoon. We have a few fawns, born in 2020, that are brave enough and come all the way to the front porch. If I see them ahead of time and before they walk in, I can open the bedroom window and just wait for them…

I have made photos of White-tailed Deer in better light but we can’t be always choosy. We need to keep the ball rolling, even if weather, light, or other circumstances are not in photographer’s favor. If nothing else, it’s the daily practice behind the camera that counts and that may help us to make the technical side of shooting a subconscious part of the process.

NATURE CLICKS #479 - CAROLINA WREN

The Carolina Wren has one of the most remarkable songs we can hear during the winter. They are here all year long but we see them most of the time only in the cold season. I saw a pair the other day but usually only one bird shows up briefly every day. The wren moves fast and hops around between a suet feeder and the ground. Hard to make a good image that way. Yesterday, while I was out on the balcony with the camera on tripod, this Carolina Wren appeared right in front of me. They are slightly bigger than the House Wrens, who spend the summer here every year between the end of April and August.

The equipment I used for the photo was the same as mentioned in yesterday’s blog post. That little bit of flash light made all the difference again between a dull picture and one with some colors.