Nature clicks #249 - Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

 

The second big surprise this week was the presence of a juvenile Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. I have no doubt about that it is the same that was raised this summer here in our woods by its parents. A look into all of our bird guides (iBird 7.2 PRO app; Smithsonian Handbooks - Birds of North America, Eastern Region; National Geographic - Complete Birds of North America) reveals that this woodpecker spends the winter usually south of central Missouri. What’s going on? Don’t they know the rules? ;-) We will see what happens if the temperature may drop much deeper sometime later this winter…

Nature clicks #246 - Northern Flicker

 

This morning I spent some time behind the camera with the long lens attached and watched the birds in the “front yard studio”. We are happy to see a pair of Northern Flickers again around here. They were mostly digging in the ground for food with their beaks. It came a little bit as a surprise when suddenly the female landed right in front of me on a dead branch. I made three clicks and liked the one you see here, with her head turned back, the best.

The other good news is that beside the woodpeckers that are here all year long (Downy, Hairy, and Red-bellied Woodpecker) a young Yellow-bellied Sapsucker showed up. I saw an adult sapsucker in April 2014 for the first time here on the bluffs and today’s encounter makes me believe that they had a successful breeding season. The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is usually not here during the winter and I wonder if I may see the bird again in the next few days.

Lots of other birds but this has to wait for another post…

Nature clicks #234 - Pileated Woodpecker

 

The Pileated Woodpecker is the #1 on my “most wanted” list for bird photography. It is the largest woodpecker North Americas (other than the near-extinct Ivory-billed Woodpecker). We have them here all year long, at least one pair. Most of the time we can hear its “cuk-cuk-cuk-cuk-cuk” but it is not very often that we see this big guy and it is even more difficult to make a picture. I have never seen a Pileated Woodpecker coming to a suet feeder, like any of the other six woodpecker species we can find here, although my books say they do come to feeders. The last time I made a photo of this wonderful bird was in 2010, so it was about time to get a new and maybe better image.

This morning I heard the woodpecker’s call several times from a tree near the house. I grabbed the camera, went into the woods, and was very happy to find a female sitting on a branch high up in the tree. She gave me a few minutes before she took off…

Light at its best

I can’t really tell how the quality of light was during the day because I spent most of it behind my desk, trying to finish a work project. However, early in the morning and early evening we had some awesome light for wildlife photography today. The first two images were made at our “woodpecker tree #2”. It gets the early morning sun at this time of the year because the trees have still no leaves. The critters must like it too because it was still quite cold this morning and they all posed well for my pictures. The two other photos were made this evening down at the Mississippi. Again, great quality of light for this Northern Flicker and the Blue-winged Teals. I hope you enjoy.

We wish all of you a wonderful Easter weekend!

Nature clicks #205 - Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and other bird infos

 

We must live in woodpecker paradise and I’m absolutely thrilled to show you today’s photo. The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is the 7th woodpecker species that we have seen in our woods here and it is a first sighting for us. The yellow bellied is the only sapsucker that is normally found in the eastern part of the continent and is our most highly migratory woodpecker. (source: National Geographic Complete Birds of North America). I saw this female already three days ago on our big maple tree in front of the house and she has returned every day since.

Making this photo was not an easy task. The sapsucker is very skittish and it took me three days to make finally a click and produce an image that I can show here in the blog. The light came from the back and my lens had some problems to focus properly under these conditions. I may try something different tomorrow evening.

I know some birders read my blog and therefor I like to give an update on some other birds. The Brown Creeper is still here and I wonder if this one will stay during the summer. My literature tells me that this is a possibility for our area. The Eastern Phoebe has arrived this week and I made already some photos. I wasn’t at Mud Lake at the Mississippi today but saw the young owlet with the mother bird earlier this week. Not a great image, more a documentary shot for those who care. However, this old eagle's nest is huge and it gives you an idea how big this Great Horned Owl really is. The young one seems to do well.

Nature clicks #200 - Northern Flicker

 

Surprise, surprise (not really), we had some fresh snow on the ground this morning… I got up early to take advantage of the great light, provided by a slightly diffused sun and the snow as a reflector. First I followed some fox tracks in the snow back to the rocks and the valley behind the house. The tracks in the snow told me that the fox had checked the old den from last year and I wonder if we will see another litter of fox pups again. Second, the light made the colors of the moss on the rocks pop and in combination with the snow it was worth a few clicks to me.

Back at the house I set up the tripod with camera and long lens attached on the porch and it took only a minute and the woodpeckers showed up. I counted four Downy, one Hairy ,and three Red-bellied Woodpeckers. However, the star of this early morning was a male Northern Flicker. We have here the eastern form of the flicker, the yellow-shafted, as you can easily identify by the second photo. It is this time of the year when most of the birds get a color boost because of the mating season. I wrote it before, this is the first winter in the last ten years that we have seen the flicker all winter long. Usually they have been here only a few days in very early spring.

It took only a few hours and all the new snow melted away. The old one is getting icy and may take still a while to disappear.

It is my 200th blog post “Nature clicks”. I started this category four years ago and it became the stage for photos and information about critters and other things in nature that got my interest. I think the Northern Flicker with its wonderful colors is a great bird to celebrate this little milestone in my ongoing photography journey. Thank you to all my friends and visitors of this blog for stopping here regularly or occasionally!

Nature clicks #189 - Male Northern Flicker

 

A few days ago I reported about a couple Northern Flickers that showed up here around our house (see Nature clicks #188). A day after I posted the photo of the female bird I was lucky enough to have finally the male Northern Flicker in front of the camera. You can clearly see the mustache stripes in his face that make it easy to distinguish the males from the females.

Nature clicks #188 - Female Northern Flicker

 

It is this time of the year when temperatures may go below zero, both, in degree Celsius and Fahrenheit. It is also a great time for bird photography for two different reasons. First the birds come close to the house, to feeders, and most importantly to places where they can get some water to drink. If you make the efforts to provide food and water, by means of a heated bird bath for instance, you can create a good environment that draws the birds close to your camera. The second reason is the light. The snow that covers the ground works like a giant reflector and helps to make decent images without fiddling with additional light sources. Yes, a fill flash coming from a little softbox might be very helpful, especially if the sun is hidden behind clouds, but with sun light the “snow reflector” does a pretty good job.

I had written before here in the blog that we have seen up to six different woodpecker species on our ridge above the Little Maquoketa River Valley. The Northern Flicker is one of them but usually we see them only briefly during late autumn or from late winter into early spring. However, this season we watch a couple of  them every day. This is the biggest woodpecker that comes to our feeders. They are slightly bigger than an adult Red-bellied Woodpecker. The Northern Flicker is only outsized by the Pileated Woodpecker but these big birds do not visit the suet feeders or even come near the house.

Today I had a chance to make a few clicks on this female Northern Flicker. Both sexes are easy to distinguish. The females resemble the males and have a black half moon shaped spot on their chest but they lack the black moustache stripes in their face. The Northern Flickers seem to be a lot more cautious and nervous than the other woodpeckers that are here all year long and so I’m very happy to share this image with you today.

Nature clicks #156 - Red-headed Woodpecker

 

What a surprise when I looked out the window yesterday morning and saw a Red-headed Woodpecker. I have seen it only ones before around our house and that was when I still shot a film camera, means at least six years ago. We have five other species of woodpeckers here but this one was missing in my digital library so far. I spent most of the morning to capture photos of this wonderful looking bird. The Red-headed Woodpecker was extremely aggressive to its cousins and especially rude to the Red-bellied Woodpeckers, who are about the same size. The next surprise came this morning when I saw a second one. They both were not very friendly to each other near the suet feeders in the yard. We wonder if they are just on their way through to breeding grounds further north or if they will stay here. This bird is not uncommon in our area, we have just not seen it very often on our rocky ridge here. Time will tell and for now we are just excited to see the Red-headed and enjoy its presence.

At the "Woodpecker tree"

 

I believe today was the first day in almost a week that we saw the sun coming out. The days are already a little longer and the time after 4PM bears potential for some good light. You might be tired seeing woodpeckers and nuthatches here in the blog but I experiment with a new "Woodpecker tree" at the moment and like to share my first results. This Red-bellied Woodpecker is a real beauty and making the click is a "must" if the light is right. They are very shy and a fast move  will drive them away immediately.

The Downy Woodpecker is much easier to get. I wrote a couple weeks ago that we have about six here in our neighborhood and they usually tolerate my presence much better. They are a great subject to hone your shooting skills, except when they hang on a suet feeder and try to knock something loose and eat. With other words, motion blur is the main reason for putting an image into the trash can. Light was lovely and this female seemed almost to pose for me.