On the water again

 

A nice holiday weekend lies behind us. The weather was mild, but not hot, and we took the kayaks to the Green Island Wetland Preserve for some paddling and exploring new routes in this backwater area of the Mississippi. The water level in the river was still way above normal, which is not necessarily bad for paddling in the backwaters.

Many birds take care for their offspring and you may not see them much out in the open water. It is always a challenge to take the camera with the long lens into the boat but if everything comes together the results can be very rewarding. Shooting on eye level with a bird that swims or just sits along the shore leads to a more interesting perspective than shooting from an elevated road along the shore.

This pelican didn’t seem to be bothered by my presence as I approached it carefully and with very slow paddle strokes. I really wanted this photo because of the nice background with the blooming bushes and the story it tells about the fact that every island and peninsula is flooded.

Enhancing the light with flash and soft box

Today we got reminded that we are still in the middle of winter. Lots of snow fell during the morning until noon. Well, I call it ideal weather for bird photography! The snow drives the birds to the feeders and water sources that we provide for our feathered friends. Snow flakes create always a nice dynamic in the photo and help to tell the story about survival in harsh weather conditions and this is why I like this kind of weather for shooting birds around the house.

The lack of light (strong overcast) was compensated by using the Nikon SB600 speed light and my self-made soft box. If you like to see how that light enhancer looks like, click on the link HERE , and one of my older posts will open in a new window. The softened light from the flash brings out the colors in the birds. While this works well you still don’t want too much reflection of the flash in the frame. I set the camera to manual mode (today I used most of the time 1/250s, f/8) and also reduce the output of the flash by -2/3. The shooting distance was about 3 meters (10 feet). After a few test shots it is not difficult to find the settings that you may like for your photo. I prefer to use the manual mode for this kind of shooting because it gives me consistent results over a period of time. If the light changes on a larger scale I change the settings of the flash light accordingly.

If you like to try something similar at your bird feeders but do not have a soft box, just take a white napkin and put it over your flash. This is not perfect (neither is my self-made soft box!) but it will give you some results you may like much better than just from the naked speed light. It is a starting point, give it a try!

Post processing for these images was very simple. I cloned out a few snow flakes that reflected the flash light a little too much. Other than that, just the usual tweaks in the basic menu of Adobe Lightroom, RAW sharpening, a little noise reduction, and finally some Highpass sharpening in Photoshop of the critical parts (eyes, maybe feet or some feathers). After three minutes the photo is ready to be saved as a jpeg file as you can see it here in the blog.

I hope my little description of today’s bird shooting may encourage you to try something similar at your own bird feeders, or even better out in the woods. Stay warm and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Bird migration week

 

I have been at the Mississippi River almost every evening this week. Bird migration is in full swing and the interested bird watcher has a good chance to see many birds that are only here for a very brief stop. The distance is quite often too big for a good quality image and many shots were made only for my own documentary and records.

This shot of the Greater White-fronted Geese is from last Saturday. It was made in the Green Island Wetlands and is heavily cropped. I was back there on Monday and they had moved on already on their journey to Greenland or Northern Canada. Instead I had my first sighting of four Snow Geese but they were even further away and no picture will be published this time.

The Northern Shovelers are really good looking ducks and a few stay even here during the summer. Beside them I saw Buffleheads, Canvasbacks, Lesser Scaups, Blue-winged Teals, Green-winged Teals, Common Mergansers, Hooded Mergansers, Wood Ducks, and the first pair of Killdeer.

Good places for bird watching are the John Deere March at the Mississippi River behind the big Deere factory here in Dubuque as well as Mud Lake Park, just north of it. The main channel of the river is free of ice, only the remains of some ice floes on this little island tell still the story about winter. There is still ice in the shallower backwaters but this may change during the next few days.

I will be in different parts of the country for the next seven days but I'm glad I had the chance to see the birds going north. I wish all friends of my blog a wonderful Easter weekend. Go out and make some clicks and let me know what you find!! :-)

Bird migration - new arrivals

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

This photo gives you maybe an idea what problems the photographer had to face in the Green Island Wetlands today. First, the wind was blowing very strong and even shooting from a car wasn't easy. The wind was shaking the car quite hefty and my keeper rate for sharp images dropped below average. Second, there was always some dust in the air and changing lenses was not really the smartest thing to do. I left my 50-500 on camera all day long. And third, the birds kept a good distance to the levees where I was shooting from.

Here comes the good news. Migration is in full swing and many birds that will spend the summer here in Eastern Iowa have already arrived. I had a blast watching the White Pelicans furiously fishing, even if it was quite a bit away. I saw from a distance a group of Northern Shovelers. Too far for a picture but this will change soon. The image below is from last year.

I worked for an hour along a mud bank with a season of Killdeer. Many clicks, some of them sharp, but I still don't really like any of them. Mud is not the best background and today it reflected the blue sky in a way I didn't like. It was way too harsh. Shooting from the car on top of the levee means you always shoot from slightly above. I was not able to eliminate the reflections by changing my shooting angle. Leaving the car is not really an option. The birds tolerate the car, but as soon you get out they will fly away.

Last not least, I made a first sighting today. It was a small group of Greater White-fronted Geese. I didn't know that until I had a closer look at the pelican photos on my screen at home. The photo above shows three of them on the left hand side. There were actually three more outside of the frame. The original files have enough resolution to zoom in and to identify the birds. They are probably a subspecies, flavirostris, the "Greenland" White-fronted Goose. This subspecies is darker and have an orange bill instead of pink.

On my way home I stopped briefly at the Mill Creek Ponds, west of Bellevue, Iowa. A pair of Trumpeter Swans made it home again, as already during the last two years, and it looks like I can continue my reports about them at this location. I really wonder if this is the same pair (probably) and if their young one made it through the winter? I also saw two male and a female Hooded Merganser in one of the ponds. Looks like new photo adventures are just waiting for us…

Nature clicks #86 - Red-tailed Hawk in flight

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

A long wanted shot made it finally onto my hard drive last weekend. This Red-tailed Hawk hovered over a snow covered slope in the Mill Creek Valley near Bellevue, Iowa. I stopped the car and started handhold panning while standing in a puddle of a muddy gravel road. I didn't really care, the hawk was more important than the condition of my boots at that moment. The hawk scanned the slope almost systematically for prey and came several times back to my location. Not as close as I would have liked to, but at least it presented its body for a brief moment in best light. I will not keep it as a secret that the photo is cropped but it is sharp enough and retained some detail after the crop. I believe it payed back that I have practiced a lot during last month on the Bald Eagles. I was happy to make my first picture of a sitting hawk two weeks ago and now I'm glad to have a few images of a Red-tailed Hawk in flight.

Checking out a new location

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

The best time of the year to watch Bald Eagles here along the Mississippi is during the winter, when ice covers the river and the eagles gather at the dams. Locks and dams have been built for navigation, not for flood control, and they are sometimes the only places that are not frozen over and allow the eagles to feed during the cold season. Because of the mild winter we didn't see many eagles in December and January but opportunities have been good during the last few weeks.

The image above was made less than a mile south of dam #11 in Dubuque, Iowa at the 16th Street Detention basin. This pond has seen lately some heavy construction as part of a restoration project that will improve flood protection in Dubuque. Despite still ongoing landscape work many birds took already possession of the pond, located just a stone throw away from the Mississippi.

My buddy Dave made some nice shots there of a group Great Blue Herons last Saturday. I stopped at the pond again on Sunday to study the light for future "shooting adventures". The visitor access is on the  north side. I can tell, the layout hasn't been designed by a photographer… ;-) Oh well, we have to be flexible, right? I went to the south side, an industrial area and quite a bit above the water level (Yaiks!). However, having the sun in my back was so much better. Four eagles were sitting in one corner of the pond that was still covered with ice. Once in a while they took a turn and were circling over the lake. If you can manage to keep the wires of a power supply line that crosses the pond out of your frame (Yaiks again!  ;-)  ) you may get lucky and make a click like the one above or even better. I should not complain too much. I'm happy for the people in the city that don't have to go too far for watching some wildlife. Right now everything looks still "bare naked" at the pond while construction is still not finished. But seeing already many ducks, geese, herons, gulls, and some eagles is a good indicator that this pond will become a great place for future bird watching and photography experiences.

Just me and the geese...

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

It was a good weekend for wildlife photography, especially in the late afternoons on Saturday and Sunday. I stopped briefly at Dubuque's 16th Street Detention basin, a pond known for good bird watching. I met my photography friend Dave Updegraff there who was testing his new lens on some Bald Eagles and Great Blue Herons. We had a little chat and after that I moved on to my favorite wildlife shooting area along the Mississippi, the Green Island Wetlands. The ice  is melting rapidly and I was hoping to find Bald Eagles feeding on dead fish, like I had seen it last year. Surprisingly I didn't find any eagles there at all. My theory is, because of the mild winter the ice wasn't frozen as thick as last year and as a result less fish died. No fish means no eagles. I will consult a biologist sometime to find out if that is true.

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

As the ice disappears the Canada Geese move in. I was there both days, Saturday and Sunday, and it seemed the number of geese had increased quite a bit from one day to the next. If you are a follower of my blog you already know that it doesn't really matter to me what kind of critter is in front of my lens, if only the light is right. And it was great light. I spent two hours until sunset to watch how the light unfolded. I pushed the limits of handholding the camera by shooting ISO 100 the whole time. It was nobody there, not even people driving through. Just me and the geese. Time well spent…

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

Nature clicks #85 - Female Northern Cardinal

 

Nature unfolded its best reflector today, with other words we had fresh snow on the ground. Not much, but enough to boost light and colors.

This female of a Northern Cardinal is a permanent resident in our woods around the house. I can recognize her easily because her colors are slightly lighter than other female cardinals that stop here. I waited almost motionless near this elm tree for quite some time in order to make this photo. Cardinals are extremely shy and don't come close very often.

Butt shots are rude, but…

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

…I believe there is always an exception for any rule. To be honest, this is one of my favorite eagle photos this season. The Bald Eagle just came down from a tree above me, caught the fish right in front of me, and flew away with its prey. I never saw its face, just kept clicking despite it was a butt shot... It is the position in the frame, the subtile light, the spray behind the eagle, and the color of the ice that make me like it.

Intelligence outsmarts "just being smart"

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

This photo bears a lot of information. First it proves that the fish were smart because they were hiding under the ice from any predators. Second, the eagles were outsmarting them by cracking the ice with their talons and catching the fish anyway. It also tells the story about how fast it happened. The eagle seems to be already more than a meter away from the hole in the ice it just created, but the bits and pieces of the cracked ice were still flying in the air. If a Bald Eagle starts to fly a curve and is descending at the same time you just know the bird may come down eventually and strike. You never know how and where it may happen. All what the "poor" photographer can do is to keep the autofocus sensor on the eagle's chest. Why the chest? It's on the same focal plane as the eye, which needs to be sharp, and the chances to follow your subject with the sensor are much higher this way. Quite often the eagles just picked up a fish that the Ring-billed Gulls had dropped a few seconds before, and so I wasn't really questioning why the eagles came down over the ice and not over the water. But it wasn't until I reviewed my images at home, that I discovered that the Bald Eagles actually broke the ice in order to catch the fish below. I think it is just amazing and increases my desire to study these wonderful birds of prey even more.