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.

Nature clicks #243 - Gray Tree Frog

 

This is our “house frog”, a little Common Gray Tree Frog. It lives on our balcony, under a canopy of grape vine leaves and between flower pots that we have outside during the summer. The 4 - 5 cm long (1.5 - 2 inch) frog is always good for a surprise and we see it quite often. The Gray Tree Frog can change its color in seconds and this helps it to blend in with tree bark or leaves. They are nocturnal and spend the day resting in trees and shrubs, or like this one, in the plants on our balcony. One of the most interesting facts is that the frog is capable of surviving freezing of their internal body fluids to temperatures as low as -8°C (17.6°F).

It took me quite some time to figure out how to light my subject and to make these photos in very low light between the branches of a Crassula ovata plant. Luckily the frog was cooperative and didn’t move too much. The best results were obtained by using a camera off flash, pointing upward, and using just the light that bounced back from the grapevine leaves that grow above.

Let the weather dictate what to shoot

 

This post was supposed to be published last night already but another line of thunderstorms rolled over the country and I rather preferred to unplug the computer. We have the typical June weather with intensive periods of sun interrupted by thunderstorms and rain. The best way to deal with it from a photography standpoint is to go for the right subject, clouds when a storm is near or wildlife during overcast and sunny periods.

There are two ways to attract hummingbirds to a yard, you either hang feeders with artificial nectar (sugar dissolved in water will do it) or you plant flowers that the hummingbirds like because of its nectar. We do both. Joan has done a great job of planting a patch with Monarda, better known as Bee Balm. This flower attracts the little birds not just because of its color but it is obviously a good source for the liquid food they need.

Making a sharp image of a hummingbird in flight is kind of a challenge. Their wing beats can go up to 100 beats per second. The key is again using “peak of action”, the short moment when the body is not in motion while they hover and drink out of the flower. I’m using a fill flash for the colors and therefore do not shoot in continuos mode. As always, the eye has to be sharp in wildlife photography. The motion blur of the body and wings tells the story about what kind of dynamic these tiny birds have…

Nature clicks #216 - Chestnut-sided Warbler

 

If you stop here in my blog for the first time or haven’t been here for a while, this week it’s all about the warblers that came through here during their migration in the last few days. Today I’m happy to report another first sighting for us, the Chestnut-sided Warbler. It breeds in Canada from south-central Alberta east to Nova Scotia and in the US from the Great Lakes region to New England. They feed mostly on insects and some fruits (source: iBird PRO app, which I can highly recommend for any bird lover).

The photos I have shown recently were all made in “sniper mode”, means just a single click, one shot, no continuos shutter release. This is how it was in the days of film, when nobody would rip through with 6 frames per seconds or even faster. One reason why I do this is the recycle time of the speed light that I use for some fill flash, to let the colors pop even in low light conditions. The other reason is that I try to shoot at the peak of action, the short moment when the warbler may stop for a fraction of a second before it makes the next move. Most warblers feed on small insects that they pick from underneath the fresh leaves and they are constantly on the move and seem never to stop. Sometimes you have to follow the bird with your lens while it is behind some branches or leaves. The short moment, when they enter a clear spot, without obstructive objects between them and the lens, is the moment when the shutter release button gets pressed. As you can imagine despite “sniper mode” some images will land finally in the trash can because focus was not obtained correctly or the bird was not even in the frame because the photographer was too slow… ;-)

“Warbler week” is not over yet, although I saw a lot less birds today from my office window, but I still have some more birds to show here in the blog. So please stay tuned…

Nature clicks #215 - Yellow Warbler

 

The Yellow Warbler is not just here in Eastern Iowa during migration time. We have seen them before in previous years during the summer but these are my first photos of this species where I had a chance to get close. Both photos were made in the early evening, right after a thunderstorm went through, two days ago. Using a speed light was necessary because there was really not much ambient light left. The raindrops on the branches and a little reflection here and there help to tell the story about this male Yellow Warbler, gleaning little insects while it still drizzled. I told you it would be a “warbler week” here in the blog, so please stay tuned if you like it…

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”…

Cardinals everywhere

I think I stayed a little more on the conservative side when I told you a few days ago that we have a conclave of Northern Cardinals of about 15 birds here in the woods around our house. They are here now most of the day and I had the chance to count them again. Now I would say the flock has at least two dozen birds that stay together during the winter. I hope you don’t mind that I show you a few more images of these great looking birds. They will separate soon and it is hard to make a click that close during the summer (oh, I will try anyway).

Here is “The Punk”. The photo was made yesterday during the big gathering in the evening and the wind was still blowing after we had some more snow during the day.

This female had checked in at our “balcony studio” and used the Red Cedar branch to wait for a free spot at the bird feeder.

The last image is a day older than the other two but it was made also a few minutes after 6pm. The snow on the slope in front of our house made for a nice background and bounces the indirect flash light nicely onto the cardinal.

Nature clicks #191 - Northern Cardinal

The last birds that we see here every day are the Northern Cardinals. They seem to prefer the very early morning and early evenings for their visits. We have a conclave of about 15 cardinals who stay together during the winter. The daylight lasts already a bit longer than during the winter solstice a month ago. This allows to make a few clicks after work without relying totally on the flash light. However, I use the speed light as a fill flash to bring out the colors. This photo was made at 5:30PM today. As you can see there is still some daylight coming through the woods in the back and from the side, making for a nice separation of the bird from the background. The branch from a Red Cedar is part of our “balcony studio”. I think it worked for this photo… :-)