Back at the great architects

 

I spent the last two evenings down in the valley at a colony of Cliff Swallows I found about three weeks ago underneath a bridge that crosses the Little Maquoketa River. Since then the swallows were so kind to built some new nests on the outside of the bridge so I didn’t have to climb underneath anymore, between big boulders and the mud of the river. The nests are still under an overhang of the bridge and it is necessary to throw some additional light at them for a good picture. For now I used my speed light mounted directly on top of the camera and it delivered some acceptable results. I may try my little softbox the next time and use it off camera for an even softer light with less shadows.

Cliff Swallows are some amazing architects who build their gourd-shaped nests out of mud and the darker color of some parts told me that they still work on them. The whole colony was very busy catching insects. We have gazillions of annoying little gnats here at the moment and some mosquitos as well, so there is food in abundance. Standing beside the river with a tripod for a long time requires the use of some bug spray on your skin to make it halfway bearable. Other than that, it is a lot of fun and very interesting to watch their interaction with each other.

It didn’t look like that they had laid their eggs yet. The swallows came repeatedly back to their nests, rested for a little while, and went out again for another feeding frenzy.

I can’t let this opportunity, to have these beautiful Cliff Swallows relatively close to our home, pass by and I hope I’m able to see them raising their offspring soon. I’ll keep you posted…

Nature clicks #225 - Cliff Swallow

 

Back in early May I reintroduced you to several of the swallow species that we can find here in Eastern Iowa. If you missed this post but still like to have a look, just click HERE and a new window will open and will bring you back to this post. One species was missing, the Cliff Swallow, although I had seen it in 2013. Luckily a few days ago I recognized some swallows flying under one of the bridges that cross the Little Maquoketa River down in our valley. Pretty soon I identified them as Cliff Swallows, mainly by the distinctive spot on their forehead. I came back last Sunday, prepared to climb under the bridge into the mud of the river bed. They were in process of building their nests out of the mud that they can just find below in the river.

I think it is fascinating to watch these little architects how they do this. For them the structure of the bridge is a perfect place and a great habitat to raise their offspring. The building material is right below, the bridge protects them from predators and weather, and they have plenty of food available because of all the insects that call the river bed home. The only concern that I have is a big river flood, as we have seen it before, when the water level may reach the lower parts of the bridge. This would cut them off from the nest and may put their chicks in danger.

I shot these images in an awkward position on a steep slope under the bridge for about thirty minutes. The mosquitos were biting, it was muddy and slippery, and I was concerned, not so much about myself, but about my gear falling into the river. At the end I was very happy about to see the Cliff Swallows again and bring home some decent photos that tell a little story about these master architects.

Swallow's paradise

 

It was a great weekend for wildlife photography because all the summer birds came back and it wasn’t easy to decide where to shoot first. There was probably lots of action everywhere. I had to make a necessary trip to Davenport on Sunday and on my way back I spent several hours in the Green Island Wetlands.

There were thousands of swallows flying and catching insects over the water and marsh areas. I saw at least three species, the Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Barn Swallow, and Tree Swallow, and sometimes they were all in the same spots.

It was windy and sometimes large groups were resting together in a tree or shrub, like in the first image. The colors of the Tree and Barn Swallows are just wonderful and all of them are such elegant flyers and fun to watch.

There is a lot more exciting things to report from last weekend and hopefully time will allow me to do. So please stay tuned…

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 #171 - Tree Swallow

 

It looks like this is the year for making photos of any member in the swallow family we can find here in Eastern Iowa. I'm happy to show you these pictures of the Tree Swallow. It was fun watching  them last Sunday in the wetlands catching insects in flight but also seeing them coming to the ground foraging on spiders and insects. Because of their speed it is impossible (at least with my technical means) to make a sharp image of a swallow in flight but when they land on the ground comes the chance to make a click. Tree Swallows return to their nesting grounds long before other swallows come back. I don't know why it took me so long to present you an image of this pretty bird...?? ;-)

Nature clicks #169 - Purple Martin

 

The Purple Martin is not an uncommon bird, especially along the Mississippi River. However, I never have made a photo of this bird of the swallow family. I took our little dog Cooper out for a walk to Mud Lake Park at the Mississippi River last night. The campsites were all empty again after the rainy holiday weekend and we had the park and the wetlands all for ourselves. The martins were flying over the water of the marina and the adjacent parking lot but always returned to a big bird house that sits high on a post beside the boat landing. They feed on flying insects, mainly mosquitos yesterday, and catch their prey mid-air.

We still had an overcast and gray clouds are never a good background for any bird shot. I used the SB600 with flash extender again last night to fill in some light and make the colors pop a little more. Not perfect, but it beats the alternative, coming home without any shot... ;-)

Nature clicks #168 - Cliff Swallow

 

The cold and rainy weather continued today but it didn't stop me from going out and paying a visit to the Green Island Wetlands. It seemed everything slowed down in the rain. You can hear the birds but they seem to stay away from the open water. I tried it anyway and was even blessed with another first sighting of a bird. It was a dark day again with a strong overcast and I knew light would not be sufficient for working with the long lens in the wetlands. Just putting on a flashlight does not do the trick either because the distance between the camera and the birds exceeds quite often the range of a flashlight. The solution for today's shooting conditions was the attachment of a flash extender. This is basically a fresnel lens, made out of plastic, that is mounted about 8 inches away from the  front of the flash head. I'm using the Better Beamer flash extender and this inexpensive device is able to increase the flash output by about 2 to 3 f-stops. Using the flash in TTL mode helps to get the right amount of light to your subject.

When I saw the Cliff Swallows flying around my "car blind" I was first a little confused. I saw swallows with squared tails and I also saw swallows with deeply forked tails. It wasn't until some of them were sitting down in a bush right beside the water that I realized that some Barn Swallows were among the Cliff Swallows as you can see in the second image.

It is 9:30PM and I just checked the weather forecast for Memorial Day. It looks like it is not a good idea to stow away the flash extender, and oh, there is a "flash flood watch" in effect for our area.... What a lovely holiday weekend.... ;-) Enjoy yours anyway!

Nature clicks #162 - Barn Swallow

 

The Northern Rough-winged Swallow I posted about yesterday wasn't the only swallow that enjoyed the abundance of insects last weekend in the Green Island Wetlands. This colorful Barn Swallow was resting on a gravel road while several others were flying over the water of the Mississippi backwaters. I assumed they were still on their migration path to Minnesota or even Canada because they mostly use buildings for their nest sites. I used the car as a blind again and the bird gave me almost three minutes to position myself and make a few clicks.

Nature clicks #161 - Northern Rough-winged Swallow

 

It was a great weekend to be outside. I did some shooting around the house on Saturday but today nothing could stop me to go back to the Green Island Wetlands. There is plenty of water everywhere. The Mississippi water level was even higher than on Friday, most islands are under water, and I heard there is still a lot of snow up north...

Have you ever tried to make a picture of a flying swallow? Well, not an easy task as you can imagine. Actually it was quite a challenge that I faced today and it took me a while to figure out a way of getting an image of a swallow with open wings. There are many of the Northern Rough-winged Swallows in the wetlands at the moment. They feed almost restless on insects over the ponds and lakes. As I said, almost restless. Sometimes they sit for a few seconds on a perch, mostly a branch that sticks out of the water.

I approached carefully one of those perches that the swallows used frequently, (hiding behind a dirt hill) and focussed on the end of the branch. Because the lens has such a shallow depth of field at 500 mm focal length it needed manual focus to make a halfway sharp image. There is no way that the autofocus will really lock on when a bird approaches the landing site with high speed as swallows usually do. It happens so fast that I have of course plenty of pictures showing the bird finally sitting but a few shots worked out well as you can see... More to come