NATURE CLICKS #558 - AMERICAN AVOCET

American Avocet, Maskunky Marsh, Mahaska County, Iowa

Business required me to travel this week in Kansas and Missouri but unfortunately the camera stayed in the bag due to the lack of time. On my way back to eastern Iowa today I finally stopped at the Maskunky Marsh, near Oskaloosa in Mahaska County. I was there only once before, in July 2021, and it was the first time that I saw and photographed Yellow-crowned Night Herons. I knew this wouldn’t happen today but my hope to find some other shore birds came true.

This migratory single American Avocet was feeding in the shallow water of the marsh. The bird is in its breeding plumage and it was the first time that I saw an avocet in Iowa. I read about occasional sightings by other birders but we are not in its breeding range, which is further west and northwest.

The American Avocet feeds by having the bill underwater and swinging it from side to side along the bottom. This way they stir up aquatic insects.

Both photos are heavily cropped, although the first one was even shot with the TC 1.4, extending the focal length to 850 mm. There was just no way to get any closer to this bird but for an important sighting, like this avocet, I gladly crop the heck out of the image. 😉

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Sigma APO Teleconverter 1.4x EX DG

FLYING IN FOR A MEAL

American White Pelicans, Green Island Wildlife Area, Mississippi Valley, Iowa

With a wingspan up to 110 inches (280 cm), the American White Pelicans make a big impression while they soar often in large flocks above our heads. Their flight is graceful and a feast for the eyes. This was only a small fraction of a squadron of about 50-60 pelicans that flew in at a lake in the Green Island Wetlands. A minute later they started herding fish in a corner of the lake. Nature at its best!

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S,   @ 600 mm, 1/2000 s, f/8, ISO 1000

GUARDING THE OFFSPRING

I saw quite a few Canada Geese sitting on nests during the month of April and so it was not a surprise to see the first pairs with their offspring last weekend. This pair had obviously five little goslings while another one I saw guided only two through the waters at Green Island. The parents are extremely protective and guard their offspring very well.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S,   @ 600 mm, 1/800 s, f/8, ISO 1000

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S,   @ 490 mm, 1/800 s, f/8, ISO 1250

RETURN OF THE COLORS

Many of the wildlife photos we create in the wetlands along the Mississippi River can help to tell the story about the arrival of spring in the valley. A lot of birds are in their breeding plumage and some species are seen only during spring migration, when they use the Mississippi Valley on their route up to the arctic tundra. Snow Geese are a good example. But how about the vegetation? Well, the dried-up reeds and grasses from last year still dominate the landscape and frankly spoken neither look very photogenic, nor do they help to say, look spring is here. But we can turn around and look at the slopes below the rocky bluffs that mark the edge oft the valley. The fresh green in the trees wasn’t there a week ago and the bottom below the trees is covered with thousands of wildflowers. People that live in warmer areas year around and do not have such long and often gray winters may not fully understand why we long so much for those signs of spring. Yes, I love winter too, but it’s a great time when the colors return to the valley!

DANCE PERFORMANCE

Greater Sandhill Crane, Upper Mississippi Valley, Green Island, Iowa

It was a busy weekend, mainly with other things than photography, but today I managed to make a trip down south to Green Island. I was greeted with a ”dance” from a pair of Sandhill Cranes. They mate for life but have a dance-like performance to maintain their relationship.

During this performance one may throw plant matter with mud or sticks in the air. If you look closely at the photo above, you may see a branch flinged by the crane, visible to the right of the bird’s head. It is pretty intense, fast, and a lot of fun to watch and photograph. I knew the distance to the Sandhill Cranes would require to put the 1.4 teleconverter between the lens and camera. I didn’t have enough time to do this and shot all images in full frame mode (FX), with the intend in mind to crop the images in post processing.

It all ended suddenly. The pair of Sandhill Cranes stood for a moment motionless side by side and then moved on feeding and foraging in the shallow parts of the wetlands.

Watching a wildlife performance like this is very exciting but the best medicine to detach from the ordinary things in life for a moment… Can you agree?

NATURE CLICKS #557 - HOODED MERGANSER

Hooded Mergansers, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa

I shoot a lot more than what I ever can publish here in my blog. But today I have a photo from a couple weeks ago that I really still like to share with you. Hooded Mergansers form pairs between November and January and after they migrate here from the south there is only a small time window to take a picture of male and female together. They are monogamous but ones the female starts to incubate, the male abandons her. I try it every year, often with mixed success or no results, to make a photo with both birds together. This time a pair of Hooded Mergansers gave me enough time and finally swam to an area at the pond where the background was not too much illuminated but still enough light to make the mergansers stand out. I never see the males during the summer and just wonder if they immediately move south after their part in the breeding process is done?

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S,   @ 600 mm, 1/3200 s, f/8, ISO 800

’WORK NIGHT’ WITH THE CAMERA CLUB

HOURGLASS / MONOCHROME

Monday evening we had a ’Work Night’ during the meeting with the Dubuque Camera Club. The club has acquired a set of three continuous LED lights and the members had a chance to try them out and play with different functions, color temperatures, and settings. It was a lot of fun and very interesting to see all the different approaches to work with a few items that some members had provided for this shooting. We can now use these lights for our own little and bigger projects.

The hourglass above is placed on a reflecting plate and was my favorite subject. At a serious product shooting you normally would avoid the reflections of the light sources on the glass walls, but I thought it added an interesting artsy-fartsy effect.

RUBIC CUBE / COLOR

The RUBIC cube was also very popular. The star effect on the glass plate is the reflection from an umbrella that was mounted in front of an LED light. The key for this shot was to hide the knob in the center of the umbrella behind the cube. The black & white version is actually the same photo as the color image above. I played with different B&W filters in Adobe Lightroom and was once more amazed how different the photo was rendered with each filter effect, even without any changes of exposure values. Back in the days I shot a lot with black and white film, but now, many years later I just start to understand what it really can do for my photography.

It was an interesting evening and interacting with the other members of the club during the shooting was a lot of fun. Thank you to Ron Tigges for preparing this and the set-up!

RUBIC CUBE / MONOCHROME

All images: Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, RRS BH-55 ball head,

WITH SUMMER PLUMAGE IN THE SNOW

Male American Goldfinch with spring molt almost completed

The photo today sums it all up how we started the day. A fresh layer of very wet snow clung to trees, flowers, and bushes while more than a dozen American Goldfinches visited our bird feeders. They are in process of changing from winter plumage to breeding plumage by a complete molt of their body feathers and most male goldfinches have their distinctive summer colors already. Yesterday evening when it started snowing I was already hoping for this photo opportunity in the morning. As you can probably tell, I was not unhappy. The snow melted away during the day and spring will continue…

PLAN B

To call today’s weather ”nasty” is probably an understatement. We went from T-shirt weather back to winter-wonderland within 24 hours. Rain, wind and finally some very wet snow canceled the original plans for the weekend but it is always good to pull out ”Plan B” for such an occurrence. We had recently renewed our membership at the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium here in Dubuque, Iowa. In early March the museum has opened the new exhibition RIVERS TO THE SEA, featuring 12 new aquariums, 100 species of marine animals, and much more.

I took the Nikon Z6II with the Nikon Nikkor Z 24-70 f/4 S attached and used just the available light as I found it at each aquarium or display. The thick glass between me and the marine animals made manual focus often the better choice instead of relying just on the autofocus system of the camera. Learned a lot today, not just about the science of the animals, but also about shooting with high ISO settings and working under low light conditions.

A visit in the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium became PLAN B today. I can highly recommend it for people of all ages!

MAKING THE DIFFERENCE

Black-capped Chickadee enjoying the last sun of a warm spring day

During my public presentations about wildlife photography I point out that shooting the local species, the animals we can find all year long in the area where we live, is a great starting point. It will lead earlier or later to success and encouragement for further advance with wildlife photography. Even with the most common cameras, the ones we have in our cell phones, good results are possible. With this endorsement comes always the remark, make a difference by photographing the local species in great light. Having a photograph of a very rare species in mediocre light is sometimes accepted for documentary purposes. But with the local species we should make a difference. Quite often we try to tell a story about animal behavior, about the season , about a certain gesture, or just about their beauty. Sometimes all of those together. A certain quality of light may draw the attention to a picture of a common species, the animal that everybody has seen a thousand times before, it will make the difference.

AFTER THE ADVENTURE

A day comes to an end at Green Island Wildlife Area, Iowa

Shortly after my little adventure with the Striped Skunk in the Green Island Wildlife Area last weekend the sky turned into some color. I went for a compressed view, left the Sigma 150-600 on camera, pulled the zoom back to 230 mm, and set the white balance to 6750 Kelvin. The nesting tunnel was placed almost dead-center as an anchor point and reminder that this is a managed wildlife area. I forgot to look if there was a Canada Goose in this particular nest but I remember that many of the nesting structures in the wetlands were taken, fiercely defended by males and females. Good way to end a day in the Great Outdoors!

NATURE CLICKS #556 - YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER

Male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

As mentioned yesterday already we had some early migrating bird arrivals this week. The first male House Wren was here eleven days earlier than 2022 and we saw a couple Chipping Sparrows, almost three weeks ahead of last years arrival date. Both species will raise their offspring here.

But the biggest surprise came yesterday when a male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker showed up and visited our trees several times during the day. We are near the southern edge of their breeding range, which goes all the way up to northern Canada. The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is the only woodpecker in eastern North America that is completely migratory. We had a successful brood here in our woods in 2014 and the last time I photographed this woodpecker was in April 2018.

Sapsuckers feeding a little different than any of the other six woodpecker species we have here in the Little Maquoketa Valley. The following is a quote from the CornellLab website https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-bellied_Sapsucker/lifehistory#food :

As the name indicates, sapsuckers rely on sap as a main food source. Just like people who tap maple trees to make maple syrup, these birds drill their wells in early spring. Sapsucker wells are neatly organized, with several holes drilled in horizontal rows. The bird first drills narrow, circular wells into the tree’s xylem—the inner part of the trunk—to feed on sap moving up to the branches in early spring. Then, after the tree leafs out, the sapsucker begins making shallower, rectangular wells in the phloem, the part of the trunk that carries sap down from the leaves. This sap can be more than 10 percent sugar. These phloem wells must be continually maintained with fresh drilling, so the sap will continue to flow. Sapsuckers tend to choose sick or wounded trees for drilling their wells, and they choose tree species with high sugar concentrations in their sap, such as paper birch, yellow birch, sugar maple, red maple, and hickory. They drill wells for sap throughout the year, on both their breeding and wintering grounds. In addition to sap, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers also eat insects (mostly ants) and spiders, gleaning them from beneath a tree’s bark like other woodpeckers. And at times they perch at the edge of a tree branch and launch after flying insects to capture them in midair, like a flycatcher. Sapsuckers are also attracted to orchards, where they drill wells in the trees and eat fruit.

In my second photo you can see how the sapsucker has its bill in a hole at a tree branch, he obviously had drilled. There is also a hole visible with sap pouring out in the first image. It is to the left of the bird’s foot. You may not see that if you read this blog post on a device with a small screen. Beside being very happy about this photo opportunity I just thought it is very interesting how these woodpeckers time their migration with the arrival of spring and sap starting flowing in the trees here in eastern Iowa.

NATURE CLICKS #555 - STRIPED SKUNK

Striped Skunk moving along the banks in the Green Island Wetlands, Iowa

Since last weekend we have warm weather and with it came the arrival of several bird species from the south, some of them earlier than usual. But before I get into that I like to show you a couple more photos from last weekend. After I had the kayak stored back on the roof of the car I decided to go for another round in the Green Island Wetlands, this time by car.

Pretty soon I came across this beautiful Striped Skunk, who moved quickly along the banks of the lakes and ponds. I was actually very happy because I have seen more dead skunks than living creatures here in the Midwest so far, mostly killed by vehicles. Until now there was no usable photo of a Striped Skunk in my library. I stopped several times and tried to get a shot from the side or front of the critter. The skunk knew I followed but kept moving and sometimes stopped and licked its nice fur.

Erected tail, first warning. The chemical defense system on its backside was luckily not employed!

Finally, shortly before crossing a small pond and disappearing between the reeds, the skunk stopped, turned around, and erected its tail as a warning to me. I watched this guy very closely. The last thing I wanted to happen was getting sprayed by its two highly developed scent glands, one on each side of the anus, containing the very unpleasant smelling musk. There is a reason that in Germany this animal is commonly called ”Stinktier”, which translates to ”stink-animal”.

GREAT LIGHT WORKS

Not every critter or bird is as attractive as the pelicans I had yesterday in my blog post, but they all play their role in the ecosystem of the wetlands. It took me a long time to learn that the only way to come back with a decent picture of animals, who are a little less appealing, is the presence of great light. A gray sky or a lot of glare on the water will effect the results often not in our favor. Including some colorful reflections on the water, without making them the subject of the photo, can also help to make a nice portrait of a muskrat or turtle. Paddling the kayak with the sun sitting low and from your back or the side is the most promising scenario.

This Common Muskrat swam right at me shortly after I left the boat ramp at Green Island. Muskrats eat the roots, stems, leaves, and fruits of a many water plants. Even though they are mainly plant eaters, small fish, clams or snails can be part of their diet.

To see turtles stretched out on a log in the water is very common in early spring, when they warm up in the sun. The Painted Turtle with its fine yellow lines is the most common turtle in the Mississippi. While approaching them I usually stop paddling as I get closer and let the boat just drift towards these reptiles. This extends the time they will stay on the log before gliding into the water, time that helps to fill the frame.