Nature clicks #238 - Killdeer (on the nest)

 

This isn’t my first image of a Killdeer sitting on eggs but it is definitely the one I always wanted to make. Will talk about this later.

This is in a corner of a big parking lot in the Green Island Wetlands but these birds love to lay their eggs there since I started watching them several years ago. It makes me always very nervous watching this, even if the parking lot is not busy this time of the year. It is mainly used for the trucks and boat trailers during the duck hunting season in the fall. However, beside me other people come out there to watch birds or to fish and it is easy to destroy the eggs without even knowing it.

Quiet often one of the adult birds tries to lure you away by running in a different direction or by sitting in an empty spot and pretending to be on the real nest. This one wasn’t moving and when I approached the bird carefully it lifted its body up and I was able to snap a picture and saw at least two eggs underneath the Killdeer.

The key for the photo was to put the belly down on the gravel and support the lens with a foam roll (“boat noodle”) that I use usually as my support on the car window. I remembered that the background was always the biggest problem with my older pictures and I crawled around the bird until I found the position where I acquired a liking for background and direction of light.

Nature clicks #237 - Northern Water Snake

 

When I go on a photo trip in the evening or during the weekends I have my eyes open for any critter out there that tries to make a living in the Mississippi Valley. Two days ago I discovered this Northern Water Snake in the marina of Finley’s Landing down at the Mississippi River. It was swimming very fast and so it was almost impossible to focus the lens on the reptile. But suddenly the snake stopped, probably because it sensed danger by my try to follow it at the edge of the water.

Northern Water Snakes are nonvenomous but they can bite if handled. They may briefly grab hold while twisting the body, producing more laceration than most other harmless snake bites. These snakes can be found in all of Iowa except the north-west and north-central parts. They eat fish, frogs, and salamanders. (source: “The Snakes of Iowa”, by Dr. J.L. Christiansen and Dr. R.M. Bailey).

Looking at the final photo on my computer screen I thought it was interesting how the snake supports its body while resting on two stems of reed. It’s the little things in nature that amaze me the most quite often…

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…

Nature clicks #235 - Belted Kingfisher

 

This photo is hopefully a starting point. I try to make a picture of the Belted Kingfisher since a long time. It is the most skittish bird you can imagine. I found a pair of kingfishers today at Finley’s Landing, a marina and campsite down at the Mississippi River. I had no chance to get closer for this shot, there was water between me and the dead tree where the male kingfisher was perched. It is not so difficult to find them. Often you can hear their loud, penetrating rattle before you see them.

I know the image lacks some detail due to a heavy crop and the long distance that puts my SIGMA 50-500 to its limits. However, I’m not unhappy about the picture because it shows a typical scene, with the kingfisher high up on a perch, which is of course quite often a dead tree, and the lush green of the forest in the background. I usually have the patience to stand or sit and wait for a better opportunity but this was at 7pm and daylight was fading away quickly. I guess I have to try it again and maybe start a little earlier since the daylight time is becoming shorter again with every day…

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…

Nature clicks #233 - American Mink

 

Remember, yesterday I talked about that by leaving the camera at home during a kayak tour last Friday I missed the opportunity to shoot an American Mink that I saw along the shore. Well, today I got another chance at a total different location. This evening I went down into the valley in order to continue to work on another bird project (I will report about this later this week). While still just getting ready for shooting and firing the first test shots I suddenly saw an American Mink on the other side of the Little Maquoketa River. The critter moved very fast over logs and through the bushes that grow along the water and I never got a chance to even focus on the mink. Just across from my location it climbed a big cottonwood tree and disappeared in the canopy. A woodpecker flew out of the tree and I got concerned that the mink was after the bird’s eggs or offspring. Nothing happened for about a minute. I didn’t see it anymore. Suddenly the mink climbed down with something in its mouth and disappeared somewhere in the thick bushes above the river bank. Everything happened very fast but I was able to make five clicks. At home I saw that this American Mink had killed a young squirrel, probably right in its nest. Well, this is nature in its purest state and for me it was very exciting to watch.

The photos are not necessarily good wildlife photos but they are important documentary shots for me. It was the first time that I was able to make a photo of the mink and now I have a foundation to built on… :-)

Nature clicks #232 - Philadelphia Vireo

 

An eventful and very nice weekend is behind us, although not much photography was involved. We finally got our kayaks out and paddled on the Mississippi. On the first tour Friday evening I left the camera at home and of course, missed my chance to make a photo of a mink that I saw climbing over drift wood along the shore. The lesson learnt was, never, I mean never ever leave your gear at home when you go out into nature… :idea:  Joan joined me on the second trip Saturday morning. We had a really good time but a chance like the night before did not repeat. We saw some herons, an egret, muskrats, and lots of turtles. The photography results were mediocre, nothing I like to show here…

Instead I show you for the first time a Philadelphia Vireo. I still have some photos with birds from last month that I haven’t been able to identify yet. I made several shots from different perspectives of this Philadelphia Vireo and even if not all of them are tack sharp, or sometimes a branch covers parts of the bird, every image can be helpful for identification. At this particular picture you can’t see it but another one shows clearly that the vireo’s bill has a little hook at the upper mandible. This was the final hint for me in this matter.

I have never seen this vireo before, they come through here only during their migration to Canada, but I’m very happy that we can add another species to our list of birds that we have seen here on the bluffs above the Little Maquoketa River.

Nature clicks #231 - Semipalmated Sandpiper (?)

This Semipalmated Sandpiper should be in the lower Arctic regions by now, where it usually breeds during the summer. Nobody probably knows what inflicted the large wound below its left wing. This could be the reason that the little guy was left behind during migration. It may have been a bird of prey or any other predator the sandpiper maybe managed to escape from. However, it seemed to do OK and the bird enjoyed a bath and the following drying and preening process of its feathers at the boat launch of Finley’s Landing at the Mississippi.

As always, sandpipers are not easy to identify (at least for me). There are many combinations of feather patterns and color changes, and that’s why I put a question mark behind its name in the headline of my post. If you have another idea, please let me know. I’m always open for suggestions and like to learn the differences.

Nature clicks #230 - Green Heron

 

I guess I never get my warbler stories finished, too many new things happen in the great outdoors these days… ;-) Jenny, the naturalist from the County Conservation Board, gave me the hint last Sunday to check out the nature area of Finley’s Landing, a popular beach, boat launch, campsite, and marina at the Mississippi River. I have been at the beach before but didn’t really know that there was a nature preserve adjacent to the marina and campsite. Nobody was at the campsite and the marina this evening and I had it all for myself, ideal for wildlife photography. Pretty soon I saw a Belted Kingfisher, a couple muskrats, several dragonflies, and I watched a raccoon crossing a creek on a fallen tree. As I was about to leave, a bird flew under one of the boat docks. My excitement grew when I realized that it was a Green Heron. I have made pictures of this bird before but still didn’t have a shot that I really liked. They are not uncommon here along the Mississippi but we don’t see them as much as the Great Blue Heron. I just read that the Green Heron is one of the few tool-using birds that sometimes drop bait onto the surface of the water and go for the small fish that might be attracted. I didn’t see this kind of behavior today but I thought it is an interesting fact that I will pay more attention too the next time I see a Green Heron hunting for fish.

Nature clicks #229 - Nashville Warbler

 

I still have a backlog of photos that I like to show you here in the blog. Not so much because of image quality but I like to wrap up my series about the warblers that we have seen in our woods in May. The Nashville Warbler is one of them. I had three sightings between May 12, and May 19 2014 but none of them ended with a photo that I’m halfway satisfied with. I just could not get it sharp. The photo may work here in the blog but if I would try to make a larger print there is just not enough sharpness.

It was the first time that we saw this bird but I guess we have to wait until next year, or maybe the migration in the fall, to make a photo with a little more detail. For now we are at least happy that we have seen the Nashville Warbler, the jinx is broken ;-) …