Iowa landscape: Upper Iowa River

 

Joan, Cooper, and I went out for another paddle adventure last weekend. This time we explored the Upper Iowa River, northwest of Decorah, Iowa. This is a very popular river among paddlers and people that just want to drift downstream in an inner tube. We used a shuttle service on both days that brought us and our kayaks to an access point of our choice upstreams and then we paddled several hours back to our campsite in Bluffton, Iowa.

I didn’t take the camera with me on Saturday because we had never paddled a river with partly fast flowing water and ripples before. After the first tour I felt more comfortable and really wanted to make some images of this gorgeous river valley and the rocks and bluffs. Sunday was also a lot more quiet and we saw more wildlife than the day before.

Creating the photos was a little like making lemonade out of vinegar. The wonderful sunny weather created of course some very harsh light, but this was the only challenge that I had to face beside keeping the gear dry.

My subject is the landscape and I used the canoes and kayaks on the water mainly to create some scale for the image. Since we paddled part of the river the day before I had already some ideas where to stop. By using the reflections of the bluffs and rocks on the water as part of the composition I tried to give the scene in these photos a romantic touch.

We have paddled only a few sections of the Upper Iowa River yet, but there is a lot more to explore and we really want to go back there. And the dog? Well, Cooper “The Kayak-Hund” decided to jump out of the boat into the water a couple times, always at moments when he was not supposed to do it… But this is the fun you have when a dog is on board… ;-)

Guard of the hole

 

This was supposed to be a photo of a 13-lines Ground Squirrel but instead our dog Cooper took the center stage. We were at the observation parking lot at the airport again this evening. There is a burrow in the slope of the hill where I have photographed these little critters before. While waiting for an airplane to land one of the ground squirrels stuck its head out of the hole. The instinct of the Rat Terrier in Cooper (he is probably a mix of Rat Terrier and Blue Healer) took over and he started chasing the little squirrel immediately. The squirrel disappeared rapidly with a loud squeal. For the next forty-five minutes the dog guarded the hole with utmost attention but I guess the squirrel had better things to do than messing with Cooper… ;-)

All about ice fishing today...

Ok, today’s post isn’t so much about photography or nature. I posted already a couple landscape images a few days ago, but Brian, my German photography friend from Texas, wanted to see more about the ice fishing we did last weekend. So, here are some pictures and a few words about the fishing itself.

First we had to remove some snow and drill the holes with an ice auger. The ice was about two foot thick and that took about a minute before the drill touched the water underneath. Whatever you do on the ice, there is a lot of joking going on as you can see here. Our friend Doug swung the shovel while Bryan got ready to drill the next hole, and I was waiting to clean the snow and ice out of it with a ladle.

Since a few years our buddy Dale brings his dog Tucker along, who enjoys to run around in the snow and check out the deer tracks along the lake shore.

In Wisconsin every angler can have three fishing lines in the water and we use so called “tip-ups” for fishing. If a fish bites and pulls the line, a flag goes up and a little bell rings, indicating that there is some action going on. Sometimes that never happened during the whole weekend but this year we caught nine Northern Pikes (German: Hecht!!). As soon a flag goes up everybody who sees it yells”tip up!!” and the owner runs to his hole and tries to get the fish out of the water. Well, this is sometimes easier said than done… My friend Bryan got this one onto the ice and tried to get the hook out of its mouth.

Well, the rest of the time you hang around “base camp”, talk smart, drink some beer or German style “Glühwein”, eat unhealthy food from the grill, and have a good time with friends… ;-) Every year since 2007 we meet for a weekend in January up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin and our TEAM ICE adventure became a nice tradition everybody looks forward to. Bryan, Dale, Doug, and I know each other through business in the graphic industry and my brother in law Don joined the group three years ago. Don, who is a farmer, wasn’t able to join us this year because of some problems with his livestock (we missed you Don!) but I’m sure he is sharpening the hooks for 2015 already… ;-)

More impressions from the wetlands

 

You may say, "Just one picture? We still like to see a little more from the wetlands!" Ok, here are a few more. The Mississippi has a pretty high water level at the moment and so have the Green Island Wetlands. All the little islands and big parts of the woods are submerged and it was a very interesting experience to paddle in places that are usually above the normal water level.

Taking pictures from the kayak is a totally different game. There is always a little fear to drop the gear into the water and of course holding the D300s with the Sigma 50-500 steady without shake is not easy at all. The wetlands are wide open for the most part and approaching ducks or coots undetected is nearly impossible. We had an encounter of a Barred Owl that got attacked by a number of blackbirds. Everything happened so fast that I wasn't even able to point the lens at the bird. However, it was exciting watching it.

Our dog Cooper isn't always sure about the whole kayaking experience but as you can see he is very relaxed most of the time. I think he just doesn't enjoy wearing his life vest. We put it on for him so we don't have to worry about him so much in case something happens.

We enjoyed paddling on a channel surrounded by large trees and somehow it reminded us of the mangrove forests of the South. There were lots of birds up in the trees and we tried to identify them by their calls. We saw a Prothonotary Warbler, a first sighting for Joan, but the photos I made did not deserve the attribute sharp :-(

Did we see some wildlife other than birds? Yes, we did, but this will be for another post here in the blog, so please stay tuned...

Expanding the range

Nikon D300s, Sigma 150mm / f2.8 APO EX DG HSM

We decided to go camping to Gov. Dodge State Park over in Wisconsin this weekend. The weather doesn't get any better than what we had the last two days but we also wanted to take our new kayaks out on the water for another tour. After seven years of talking about we finally bought two kayaks a couple weeks ago. We have tested them already twice on the Mississippi River and Joan and I really love it. Beside the fun and good exercise a boat tour can bring, I in particular also hope to expand my range for wildlife photography in the future. The big question this weekend was, how would our little dog Cooper behave in a kayak? He is afraid about almost everything that is new in his life and we had concerns he wouldn't like being on the water. I guess sometimes we worry too much, he seemed to enjoy every minute we spent on the water.

The State Park has two wonderful lakes with very clear water and both are surrounded by trees and rocks. It is a paradise for paddling. We saw several birds, a muskrat, and fish but I didn't take the camera with me into the boat this time. However, I had a great wildlife encounter this morning during an early photo shoot, so please stay tuned for my next "Nature clicks" post...