Nature clicks #236 - Up on the prairie

 

We are lucky to live only about a mile away from a nice little patch of "goat prairie". Quote: Pohlman Prairie Preserve is a unique 23 acre site consisting of native bottomland forest and native prairie remnants on the high bluffs overlooking the Little Maquoketa River valley (source: mycountyparks.com).

Sunday evening Joan, our little dog Cooper, and I hiked the short switchback trail up to the top of the limestone bluffs. Any time, except of course during the winter, you can find there something that is botanically interesting. I’m not really into macro or flower photography but I like to chase the light and with plenty of wildflowers, berries, and insects there is always something to point the lens at. Nothing exciting, just some simple clicks from the prairie…

What happened?

 

This is a valid question after I haven't posted in my blog for three weeks now. September is usual a very busy time for me because of an annual trade show at the McCormick Center in Chicago. As always, our company was  an exhibitor at PRINT 2013 and right before, during, and after the show is very little time for me to pursue any photography projects. But the real reason for my time of silence is that my MacBook went out of business just a couple days before the show started. The repair took longer than expected and it was a painful time to deal with it. I will spare you all the details, I'm just happy to have the darn thing back... :-) Thank you to all of you who visited my blog despite nothing new was posted here!

We are packing the stuff for our upcoming vacation. However, the weather was too nice to be inside all day long and so I took Cooper, our little dog, and went for a walk on the Heritage Trail. The trail down in the valley of the Little Maquoketa River was once a railroad track. This grasshopper enjoyed the warm September sun on one of the new boards that tell about the history of the little towns in the valley and the railroad that ones connected them. We have plenty of grasshoppers here and I usually don't pay too much attention, but I really liked the light and the colors it revealed on this little bug.

Weekend on the water

 

We spent last weekend over in Southwest Wisconsin and explored Yellowstone Lake State Park and ones more Governor Dodge State Park. Both have wonderful lakes to paddle and swim and that's how we took advantage of the nice summer weather. It was also a nice opportunity to practice shooting again from the kayak. There is no room for error when you take the camera with a long lens attached in the boat but I managed to come back with dry gear. ;-) The flat parts of the lakes have a lot of water plants that cover the surface and this is right now the playground of thousands of dragonflies, damselflies, and other insects.

I believe these damselflies are Circumpolar Bluets but I have not been able to identify them yet for sure. They hardly sit still and even fly around in a "double pack" while obviously in a mating mood. I tried the 50-500 with the tripod fixed to the kayak but this didn't give me enough flexibility to work with insects. It works for birds if you can get close enough. I finally had better results with the Sigma 150/f2.8 macro lens and the camera just loose on a strap around my neck. Of course, the keeper rate is not as high as on solid ground but as I said here in the blog before, if I come home with one image that I like, I'm a happy man... :-)

Almost ready to leave the nest

 

It might be annoying for some people but I have no problem at all waking up every morning by the song and flutelike melody of the House Wrens that have their nest in a bird box just in front of our house.

They are extremely busy lately because their offspring needs a lot of food. Both parents care for the baby birds and bring grasshoppers, spiders, and caterpillars to the nest. The size of the pray becomes bigger as the young birds grow.

They stick their little head out of the hole and even if one of them had just received a meal they ask immediately for more as you can see in the third image. We don't know exactly how many baby wrens are in the nest. I have seen at least two at the same time but I believe there are at least three or four in the box. We expect them to leave the nest within the next few days and hopefully nothing will prevent them to grow up. Last year the first brood was destroyed by a raccoon. We have a another bird box behind the house and can hear the offspring of a second pair of wrens in this one as well. The frequent rain lately and the warm weather are ideal for all kinds of insects and the young House Wrens have obviously enough to eat. Beside the raccoons there is another predator around that likes to get a hold of the young birds, but this is for another post...