MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2024 #1 - JANUARY, ALREADY UNUSUAL

Mississippi River, Bellevue, Iowa

Of course, I will continue publishing photos right from here, the Upper Mississippi Valley, and will try to tell the story about this beautiful place with my images again in 2024! I will hopefully let you participate how seasonal changes at the big river may appear and how climate change effects the nature I try to photograph. I’m much aware, I may end up with photos that are sometimes totally different than during the last twenty years, taken at the same time of the season.

It is tempting to let the shoreline cut through the image right in the middle of the photo and make it an artsy-fartsy image, mirroring the landscape, but it was more important to me to make it a photo of the day and as I really saw it.

So here we are, January 6, 2024, and the main channel of the Mississippi River is completely free of ice. There is a little snow dust in the woods, but that’s about it for winter so far! Well, we now have a snow storm in the forecast for early next week but, maybe I can now finally put the swimming trunks away…😉

However, it makes me happy if you follow again the MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES in my blog and as always, let me know your thoughts about any photo you see. Your opinions are highly appreciated!

NATURE CLICKS #568 - RED-TAILED HAWK

Red-tailed Hawk, Mississippi Valley, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa

It was already the second time this year that I visited the Green Island Wetlands. In comparison to New Year’s Day last Monday, when almost nothing was frozen over, we saw a thin layer of ice on most of the lakes and canals today. As gray as the sky was again it didn’t make sense to point the lens at any birds in flight. However, there is a number of raptors that try to make a living between the fields and wetland areas and getting a shot with a background other than just plain gray sky was at least worth a try.

As always, some local Bald Eagles perched near open water and I saw a winter guest, a Rough-legged Hawk, in one of the dead trees. North America’s smallest falcon, the American Kestrel was present but this fierce little raptor didn’t let me come close enough for a photo. Flocks of American Tree Sparrows were feeding on seeds along the dykes in the wetlands and I wonder if the kestrel was preying on them or if he just looked for little rodents.

This Red-tailed Hawk was perched in one of the big cottonwood trees near the road and had some patience with my presence. The bird holds on to the branch with just one claw while the other one peeks out between the feathers from underneath its belly. I moved in a position with as little sky as possible in the picture but a bit of snow in the tree. Is it a perfect shot? No, but I came back with a photo from my trip and that’s all what mattered under the gray sky today.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Farmland, Bankston, eastern Iowa, 12/31/2023

The last photo from 2023 is the first one for the new year. A hike in the valley of Bankston County Park on the last day of the year was followed by a short drive across the country side nearby. For a brief moment the clouds opened up and the light touched the farm and field at the horizon. One of the moments with the camera in hand I was thankful for in 2023.

I wish all readers, visitors, and followers of my photography website a peaceful year 2024 and many happy moments while pursuing your own photography!

RETROSPECTS 2023 - #6

Sharp-shinned Hawk, Little Maquoketa Valley, Iowa, February 2023

This is the raptor every other bird pays utmost attention to in our woods, the Sharp-shinned Hawk. When all the woodpeckers or nuthatches freeze motionless and the sparrows and finches disappear suddenly, we just know the ”sharpy” is somewhere around here. Sometimes we don’t see him or her but all the birds obviously do and immediately adapt their behavior. They are able to move very fast between the trees without hitting a branch and can strike with surprise. I have seen a Sharp-shinned Hawk taking a Northern Cardinal down mid air. What follows is usually not very pretty but nature’s rule requires that they all have to eat sometime for survival…

In early February this hawk spent more than half an hour in great light near our bird feeders and the only difficulty to overcome was to find a position with the camera that had an unobstructed view between the trees. It was just another great moment in 2023 and worth to mention again.

I WAS WAITING FOR THIS!

Female Red-bellied Woodpecker

You haven’t seen much new here in the blog lately beside my ”RETROSPECT 2023” blog posts, but today I had to take the camera out on the porch for some exciting bird photography. It is still warm, way to warm for this time of the year, but late morning it started snowing. The roads still remained clear but in the trees the white stuff accumulated a little bit. After all the gray weather and rain lately, this was a delight today! It also was another chance to work with the new speed light, the Westscott FJ80 II with a dome diffuser attached. As always, shortly after the camera on tripod was in place outside the door, the birds started to return.

The still young oak tree in front of the house, becomes more and more a hub for the birds before they fly over to a feeder. This female is one of three Red-bellied Woodpeckers that have their home somewhere nearby.

Female Downy Woodpecker

I’m trying to find out how many Downy Woodpeckers we actually have here in our woods. So far I have counted 7, but since they move fast between the front and back side of the building, I’m still wondering if there is even a couple more hanging around.

Female White-breasted Nuthatch

A couple of White-breasted Nuthatches are permanent residents up on the bluffs here. This female showed up alone today but quite often we see both birds and sometimes the male is stealing seeds from the female.

I used the Westscott FJ80 II speed light in manual mode for today’s photos. With its big display it’s easy to change the settings, eben without the use of my glasses. I’m very pleased how this new tool in my bag delivers . With the diffusion dome attached you can’t even tell that a speed light was used, since there is hardly any catch light in the bird’s eyes, but the colors of the feathers are revealed gorgeously. This is most prevalent in the photo of the Red-bellied Woodpecker.

As always, I try to tell a story with the photo and today it was all about the snow. To get the trails of snow flakes it takes about 1/60 s to 1/160 s. At that shutter speed not every shot is tack sharp while using a 600 mm focal length. Nevertheless, at the end the old rule applies, if the eye of the bird is not sharp, the picture ends in the virtual trash can, no matter if the snow trails look good or not…

RETROSPECTS 2023 - #5

American White Pelican, Mississippi Valley, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa, April 2023

I opened the paddle season much earlier than other years and put the kayak in the water at the Green Island Wetlands already in early April. While paddling between the islands I discovered a small flock of American White Pelicans. All seven birds had the keel developed on top of their bills, a feature they only show during their breeding season between February and June. It was a narrow spot and I had no chance to paddle much around them. They let me come very close but eventually took off and flew to a different place in the wetlands.

RETROSPECTS 2023 - #4

Juvenile Bald Eagle, Mississippi River, at Savannah-Sabula bridge, February 2023

It looks like only for the second time in twenty years we will not have any snow on the ground for Christmas. Snow is a great reflector of the light and can be very beneficial for our story telling about wildlife. In January / February the Mississippi had some ice cover but not as much as other years. Open water often attracts large numbers of Bald Eagles. I found a good spot near the Savannah-Sabula bridge down south for watching the eagles catching fish.

I made the click at the third attempt of this young eagle to pick up a small fish it had dropped on the older and snow covered ice earlier. The light was nicely reflected at the bird and I also liked the reflection of trees on the thin new ice in the background.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2023 #11 - A TOUCH OF MELANCHOLY

Mississippi River, John Deere Marsh, Dubuque, Iowa

I guess I’m finishing my Mississippi River stories of 2023 at the same location where I started them this year, at the end of the dyke that protrudes far into the river, near the big John Deere factory north of Dubuque, Iowa. It’s the fog that tells today’s story. Cooler water comes slowly down from the north while the air temperature is way too warm for this time of the season. With almost no wind today there were no ripples on the water and the fog had a chance to stay in the valley. Some thin sheets of ice had piled up on a mud bank lately, but it was the only white spot around. The scene had a certain melancholy and proofed what I have said often before, the Mississippi River is never twice the same…

RETROSPECTS 2023 - #3

Great Blue Heron, Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, California

In March I had a chance to go back to one of my favorite wildlife shooting locations, the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, the well known laguna next to the Pacific Ocean in Southern California near Huntington Beach. I have been there numerous times before over the years and every visit holds another surprise. It is not difficult to find and photograph the Great-Blue Heron here in the Mississippi Valley or its side valleys. Well, we can’t offer a shot of breeding herons in a palm tree here, but for the first time I was able to watch Great Blue Herons building nests in these palms that grow at the edge of the Bolsa Chica Wetlands. While one bird was out to find sticks and other material to built a nest, the other one watched the nest site and made sure the neighbors from the next palm tree didn’t claim any of their possessions. Fascinating and worth to mention in this year’s RETROSPECTS…

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head,…@600 mm, 1/800s, f/6.3, ISO 2000, image slightly cropped

RETROSPECTS 2023 - #2

Red-headed Woodpecker

It was a thrill to watch a pair of Red-headed Woodpeckers working on the cavity in a tree trunk for their nest. It was my first time in spring at the Valley of Eden Bird Sanctuary over in Illinois, about an hour away from home. I really wanted to make this kind of image of a Red-headed Woodpecker since a very long time and all dreams came through this year. I wasn’t able to follow up on this later in the season, for example while the woodpeckers were feeding their offspring, but it is definitely on my list for 2024 to check out this great location again.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, 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,…@850 mm, 1/640s, f/9, ISO 1600, image cropped

RETROSPECTS 2023 - #1

Anvil clouds, Sage Creek Valley, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

As the year comes slowly but surely to an end I already look back and start analyzing what have been the best photography moments in 2023. During the short trip to Badlands National Park in early June I had definitely some good opportunities for wildlife and landscape shooting. These cumulonimbus incus, also called anvil clouds, moved towards the campsite rapidly, but the thunderstorm was mild and only little rain hit the ground. The bison trail in the grass leads the eye nicely along Sage Creek Valley and towards the clouds.

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S,   @ 31 mm, 1/100 s, f/8, ISO 100, camera setting : Monochrome / red filter

HISTORY IMAGINED

Missouri River between Nebraska and South Dakota

It’s hard to believe that when someone travels across the fields, grasslands, and prairie here in the Midwest that there was only one valuable photo opportunity during the whole week. Sometimes things just don’t line up the way we photographers like…

Coming from Nebraska I crossed the Missouri River into South Dakota yesterday afternoon. Well, I guess it was photographers ”luck”, with not a single cloud in the sky (sigh!!!).

While standing there I imagined the time before the mass slaughtering of bison during the 1870s, long before this modern bridge was built, and bison crossed the shallow river at this place. Maybe the people that owned the land, the Native Americans who depended on hunting bison and lived along the Missouri River, may have enjoyed the same view from this hill above the river banks. Who knows?

Another historical moment happened already in late summer of 1804, when the famous Lewis and Clarke Expedition came up the river by boats during their journey to the Pacific Northwest. Their over 8000-mile expedition trip for the US government took two years, four month and ten days. When this expedition moved upstream, most of the difficulties were still laying ahead of them.

COMBINING BOTH PASSIONS

VINYL RECORD SHELF THROUGH THE GLASS

Beside photography I enjoy listening to music from my collection of vinyl records, especially after return from a business trip or a long drive by car. Last night I just combined both passions. While the music of Fela Ransome Kuti’s LP ”Open & Close” from 1970 filled the room, I lined up my glass with the edge of the rug and the table and looked for a nice magnification effect of the vinyl records in the glass. Some new LED light bulbs in the lamps above the record shelf create a different light intensity than before and it gave me the idea for this photo.

ALWAYS ASK FOR A HIGH FLOOR

I made it a long time ago a habit to take the camera with me when I travel, even if a very tight schedule during a business trip may not allow to spend time behind the viewfinder. If nothing else, there is always a chance to have a view from the hotel window and one good reason why I always ask for a room on a higher floor. This time it was only the second floor but it was still high enough for this shot across a busy road in the foreground.

BIRDS AND A NEW TOOL IN THE BAG

Black-capped Chickadee

I haven’t produced much with the camera lately, mostly due to a busy travel and work schedule, and this won’t change much for the next couple weeks. We had some snow on the ground this morning but it melted away quickly and made for a gray and drab rest of the day. I had in mind to do some bird photography, just shooting away from a tripod on the porch, while the birds approach our numerous bird feeders. With the lack of quality light it was the perfect time to practice with a new tool that is in my camera bag already since October. I just had no chance until today to use a new speedlight, the Westscott FJ80 II, for any wildlife photography. It has delivered good results so far for taking pictures of machinery during a trade show in October and for family photos during my recent trip to Germany.

Male House Finch

Of course, I was excited to see what it can deliver for color enhancement of birds on a gray day like today. I tested a lot today but will talk about the technical side of this speedlight in a future blog post. More practice with the new tool is definitely required, but so far I have been impressed with the quality of light it can deliver with a diffusion dome attached.

All photos: Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head, Westscott FJ80 II speed light, Westscott Magnetic diffusion dome

Female House Sparrow

Male Downy Woodpecker