Today's Mississippi River story

 

I had some other things in mind for today’s blog post but this one is fresh out of the camera. I went to the Mississippi this evening again and wanted to check if the Sandhill Cranes use the same spot as last year to spend the night. It was a nice tour with the kayak but I didn’t see or hear any cranes. Instead this Great Blue Heron was standing in the reeds where the cranes used to rest for the night.

The sun was diffused by a cloud and the light was nice and soft. I used a little fill flash in order to manage 1/250s of exposure time and to boost the colors. Remember, in the boat I have to handhold the heavy lens and shooting with a slower speed didn’t deliver a sharp image today.

Flooding at the Mighty Mississippi

 

I will not talk much about photography today. This post is a little more on the editorial side. The heavy rainfall during the last couple weeks made the Mighty Mississippi even mightier than usual and many places along the river are flooded.

Yesterday evening I arrived at the little campsite at Finley's Landing right after another rain shower and the first photo gives you an idea what I was talking about above. I guess some people that had planned to camp there during the upcoming holiday weekend may have to change their plans…

Later, a little further north at Mud Lake Park, I saw the same scenario while another shower just poured down on us. Parts of the park and campsite were under water and the boat ramps disappeared completely in the river.

However, fast moving clouds and the occasional sun ray made for some good light in the evening. This is where the Mud Lake Marina and the actual Mud Lake, which is a backwater area in the river, connect to each other. The water flows down to a slightly lower level but the current is usually very moderate and it is no problem to paddle even upstream with the kayak. Not so yesterday. The passage between the main land and the island on the other side was at least twice as wide The little turbulence in the water marks a spot where a sign post is located that usually sticks 3 - 4 feet out of the water…

First warblers moving in

 

I spent an hour this evening to find the young Great Horned Owl in one of the numerous trees near the nest site but had no success. I wonder if the mother has called the owlet over to an island-like dam in the river, where I have seen her hunting while the young bird was still in the nest during the last couple weeks.

Later, while trying to capture one of the Tree Swallows or Barn Swallows, who fed on insects along the edge of Mud Lake, I suddenly discovered the first Yellow-rumped Warbler this year. It was the fifth rainy day in a row, cold and with gray clouds. Fill flash was agin the answer to reveal some colors. A little later I saw a couple Palm Warblers in the bushes along the Mississippi River. I made only one click of the Palm Warbler but the picture was not in focus. At least it helped me at home to identify the bird 100 percent. I really look forward for some warmer days and hopefully some more opportunities to see Warblers moving in from the south.

Arrived - The Purple Martins are here

 

Shooting birds against a gray sky is actually a no-no but sometimes a story can be told by breaking the rules. Joan and I went down to the Mississippi this evening to check on the owlet again. We saw it briefly in a tree, not far from the nest, but I was not able to make a photo.

So what is the story? It’s the final arrival of the Purple Martins, Tree Swallows, and Barn Swallows. The martins spent the winter in the tropics down in South America and they have a long exhausting journey behind them when they finally come back to their breeding grounds. As you may recognize I try to keep man-made items out of my images when it comes to wildlife photography. But here is one exception. Nothing tells the story about their arrival better than having a whole bunch of them resting on an electrical wire. What you don’t see is the big nest house on a post that is right below this cable and where probably most of them were born. Purple Martins develop a strong loyalty to their nest site and will return every year in most cases. I saw a couple martins already three weeks ago. The older birds return earlier and subadult martins generally return to their breeding grounds 4 to 6 weeks after the adults.

We haven’t seen the sun since almost four days and heavy gray clouds were still present this evening. I used fill flash to bring out the colors of the birds against the gray sky. In order to minimize the unattractive background the upper half of the first image was cropped to make it a panorama. Not ideal, but it is my way to tell the story about the arrival of the Purple Martins this year.

Nature clicks #208 - Great Horned Owl, ready to leave the nest

 

A big area of precipitation is still moving through the Midwest while I’m writing these lines. It dominated the weather today but I had to go to Mud Lake at the Mississippi to look for the young Great Horned Owl this evening. Last year April 25th was the last day I have seen a young owl still in the nest before it started the so called “branch hopping”. It means it still stays close to the nest but moves around in the trees near the nest. The development of this year’s owlet was very similar and my suspicion got confirmed today when I saw the young owl sitting on the edge of the big nest. It is ready to leave the nest and I caught the first moment of this important step.

I tell you, it was not an easy task to make this image. The rain was more a mist at that time but nevertheless the equipment got wet, slowly but surely. The light? Well, there wasn’t much and the only way to get something out of the “gray weather soup” was to use the Better Beamer flash extender for some fill flash and color improvement. Having the owlet sitting at the edge of the nest allowed to get closer to the tree and at the same time to shorten the distance because of a steeper shooting angle. I still struggle to use the flash extender. Too many times I don’t like how the eyes of the animal turn out. They look sometimes like a couple LED’s…:-(   Before I went out today I read a few pages in my favorite book about wildlife photography, Moose Peterson’s “Captured”, and there was the hint I was looking for. It’s called “feathering the light”, a technique that uses the outer edges of the flash beam, means the soft part of the light is used instead of the whole beam. Not that I mastered it today but I got a little closer to an acceptable result. More practice is needed… However, seeing the young Great Horned Owl in almost full size for the first time this year was an exciting moment that was worth the effort to deal with the “lovely weather”…

Evening at the big river

 

Joan, Cooper, and I spent some time down at the Mississippi at Mud Lake Park this evening. Some thunderstorm cells and clouds moved out of our area to the east, into Wisconsin and Illinois, and made for some nice subjects to photograph. We heard the calls of the Sandhill Cranes, saw pelicans and eagles, and got finally a great view to the young Great Horned Owl. This time the owlet didn’t retrieve back into the nest and we were able to make some good clicks. Time well spent!

Breakfast for the eagle

 

I was about to enter my car down at the Mississippi River yesterday morning when I saw a Bald Eagle flying up from the water with something flapping in its talons. My first thought was it had caught a fish. The bird landed in a tree nearby and I realized that the eagle had preyed a small bird, which I later identified as an American Coot. They are here in abundance and obviously part of the eagles diet. What followed was a bloody mess for the bird and the eagle didn’t look too pretty either around its bill. I have seen many Bald Eagles catching and eating fish but never feeding on waterfowl until yesterday.

My tripod was already stored in the car and so I tried to handle the long and heavy lens by hand. Branches obstructed the view and the sun was straight behind the eagle, means I had to move slowly to a different spot. The eagle gave me less than three minutes to figure out a way to overcome a tricky light situation and find the gap between the gazillions of bare branches. It wasn’t until a fisherman’s boat drove by behind me that the eagle took off with the remains of the coot in its talons. What an exciting moment to start a day with…

Nature clicks #204 - Bufflehead

 

I try this bird since several years and this is how much I got so far. The Bufflehead is one of those pretty ducks that are extremely skittish. We see them every spring during migration time, mainly on the Mississippi River, but every photo I made before showed only some white dots on the water. They keep their distance from the shore as soon they sense some movement. The Buffleheads have their breeding grounds in Canada and the Mississippi Valley is obviously one of their migration routes. I have updated my EASTERN IOWA WILDLIFE GALLERY recently but I guess I have to do it again… :-)

River in motion and other news

 

The first photo is already three days old. The ice on the Mississippi started to break up and just got jammed across Mud Lake because of the dam a couple miles down the river. The other image is from today at almost the same spot. The main channel is clear now and only the quieter backwaters and the marina are still frozen over. There were even a few guys ice fishing on the ice of the marina this evening.

Hundreds of Canvasback moved in (the photo shows only a small fraction) and will probably continue to go further up the river. Unfortunately I haven’t been able yet to get my lens close to them. I’m not crazy enough to step on the ice of a big river in motion… ;-)

The other news is that I saw clearly an owlet in the nest of the Great Horned Owl. The mother wasn’t present at my arrival at Mud Lake Park but a fuzzy looking young owl peeked over the edge of the nest when I pulled into the area. After watching the ducks on the river I checked the nest again and the mother had returned. The owlet wasn’t visible anymore. I guess the mother bird ordered it back into the safety of the deep nest. I’m excited about maybe having the opportunity again to make some photos of a young Great Horned Owl in the next few weeks. We will see…

Weekend river report ;-)

 

I wanted to see what’s going on along the Mississippi River between Dubuque, the Green Island Wetlands, and Sabula, Iowa this weekend and I was not disappointed. There is still some ice cover above the dams in the river, where the water is more like a big lake, but below the dams and where the river is narrow the ice is gone.

Here is a list of birds that I saw this weekend. Not all came into reach for a quality photo but I write this also for those folks who are just interested in the nature along this part of the Mississippi.

Red-tailed Hawk, Green Island Wetlands

Bald Eagles, almost everywhere along the river

Ring-billed Gulls, everywhere!

American White Pelicans, Green Island, Sabula

6 Sandhill Cranes, Green Island

Mallards, Dubuque + Green Island

Hooded Merganser, Sabula + Mud Lake Dubuque

Common Merganser, 5 males and one female at Mud Lake Dubuque (not much open water there yet but they obviously used a couple open spots to rest during their migration)

Great Blue Herons, Dubuque

Canada Geese, Green Island, many pairs everywhere,

Buffle Heads, Sabula

Great Horned Owl, Mud Lake (was near the nest again, saw still just the mother on the nest)

Horned Lark, Green Island + near Sherill, IA

American Kestrel, south of Bellevue IA

And finally I saw several pairs of Northern Shovelers in the Green Island Wetlands. This is a duck that is easy to identify, not just because of their spoon-like, oversized bill. It takes quite some patience before you can make the click. There is no way to enforce it. The best way is to drive up close, stop the car and wait until they swim towards you. Don’t make any sudden move and don't get out of the car,  they will otherwise get airborne within a second. The Northern Shovelers seemed to search the company of the Canada Geese. They may feel safer in their presence.

Spring is an exciting time along the Mississippi and I always look forward to after the winter, especially after a long and cold one as the last…;-)