Green Island Wetlands - scouting for the signs of spring

 

I couldn't wait to get out in the wetlands again. It is usually the most exciting time in the year to be out there and I did not get disappointed yesterday. Although many water bodies are still frozen there is some open water now. Thousands of Mallards and Canada Geese use the wet fields to rest and feed on their way up north. Many Geese couples became territorial and get ready to brood in the wetlands. My friend, the Northern Harrier, was flying low during its hunt for mice but didn't still do me the favor to come a little closer. Well, my chance will come one of these days... ;-)

I got greeted by three Sandhill Cranes shortly after my arrival and as I wrote in this blog before, there is no better music in my ears than the calls of the Sandhill Cranes. As last year I saw a few Greater White-fronted Geese. They still have a long journey laying ahead of them because their breeding grounds are in Greenland or Northern Canada. I will show you a picture later this week. Among all the Mallards I saw some Northern Pintails, a duck species that is still on my "most wanted" list. Unfortunately the distance is mostly too wide for a frame filling image.

I wanted to scout some new routes for using the kayak in the Green Island Wetlands and did some hiking deeper into the area. The sun was shining, Bald Eagles soared overhead, and I counted 44 swans at two different locations. Life doesn't get much better! The area is mostly wide open and I had not much hope to get a good shot of any animal but took the camera and the 50-500 with me anyway. Suddenly five of the Trumpeter Swans, that were resting on the ice, took off, made a loop, and flew directly towards me and our little dog Cooper. While they approached us in a straight line I had time enough to zoom the lens back to 165 mm and focused on just three of them. I started firing probably too early and was almost out of memory when they were overhead. The camera slows down when the buffer becomes full and you can't shoot with 7 frames per second anymore.

Today the winter came back with some snow and gray clouds but yesterday I certainly found them, the signs of spring...

Nature clicks #142 - Purple Finch

Purple Finch, Female

I thought I have shown it all for this winter season but there is still something new. A couple weeks ago I already thought that bird photography with great light from down below (because of the light bouncing from the snow on the ground) is no longer possible. Wrong! The winter with all its features has still a grip on us. Since we moved here to Eastern Iowa in 2004 we saw every winter a lot of Purple Finches dominating the feeders around the house. Not so much this year! There was only one single female that was present all the time together with the American Goldfinches and a huge flock of House Finches. We wondered if she was just not in good shape while the other Purple Finches moved further south last fall. Since about two weeks we see a lot more Purple Finches, mostly females. Yesterday Joan and I heard and saw the first Red Winged Blackbirds (for the locals: at Bergman Park, near Asbury, IA), usually a safe sign of the upcoming spring. To make a long story short, it is just great to see the seasonal changes while still keeping the advantage of the wintry light.

Nature clicks #141 - Blue Jay

 

This is an image I tried to make all winter long. The Blue Jays are extremely shy and skittish. They move fast and sit usually in a particular spot no longer than a second or two.

Not that I need a bird book to identify these birds, their size and color make it very easy, but I still like to learn more about any animal we come across here. I don't get paid for what I'm writing now, nor do I get a freebie, but I really like to recommend an app for iPhone and iPad that I use all the time. I know there are some nature lovers that read my blog because of the information about nature and not so much about the photography facts. This is for you guys (well, for the photographers too ;-)  )!! If an iOS application ever deserves a five star rating it would be iBird PRO 6.1 (at least for me!). This is a great field guide to have with you all the time.

Why do I mention this? I just found a fact that I didn't know but thought it is quite interesting. "The Blue Jay's coloration is not derived by pigments, but is the result of light refraction due to the internal structure of the feathers; if a Blue Jay's feather is crushed, the blue disappears as the structure is destroyed." (source: iBird PRO 6.1). I didn't know this until today but I always wondered about the good luminosity of the blue feathers in any picture I previously made, no matter how bad the light was. Oh gosh, I love science!!! :-)

Nature clicks #140 - Northern Cardinal

 

We had a conclave of Northern Cardinals here all winter long but they usually show up very early in the morning and late after sunset when the light is not sufficient for bird photography. Today they changed their mind. A short but intensive snow shower hit our area today and covered everything with white for a couple hours. As many other birds the cardinals gave our feeders a try and I was actually able to make a few clicks in great light.

Preparing for the next season

 

If you don't live in Eastern Iowa but have checked our local weather on your phone, tablet, or whatever device you may use for this task, you know that this image is not from last weekend. Warm temperatures have brought lots of rain, fog, and most importantly for a photographer, a gray overcast. With other words, I took a break and haven't made a single click this weekend. I used the time to look into future adventures and projects. Today I visited Canoecopia in Madison WI, a canoe, kayak, and outdoor expo. It is presented by rutabaga, a well known paddle sports outfitter. Beside seeing or shopping for every possible product related to this kind of activity you have the opportunity to see all kinds of presentations. I attended two of them and one of course had to do with photography. David Morlock, a photographer from Minnesota, showed some of his images and was talking about "How to make better photos on your paddling trip". All what I can say is, it was time well spent. Shooting from a moving boat is a different story than having the camera on a tripod and it was interesting for me to learn where the challenge might be, if I ever want to come back from a kayak trip with some decent photos.

As much as I like shooting birds in the winter, and especially in a snow storm, I can't wait until we can finally enter the wetlands and backwaters of the Mississippi with our kayaks again. Last year was so dry that it was nearly impossible to use a boat in my favorite location, the Green Island Wetlands. All the rain pouring down on us at the moment gives me hope that this may change... :-)

Nature clicks #139 - Eastern Gray Squirrel

 

I had recently an image of an Eastern Gray Squirrel here on the blog but can you really blame me if I like to show you a couple more if they were shot in really great light? Snow is in general a nice reflector to get some light underneath a critter but if the sun is out it gets even better and the colors come out in a much better way. Some pixel peepers may say, but wouldn't it be better to color correct the snow so it doesn't look so bluish? I'm a big a fan of leaving it just the way it is. The blue is the reflection of the sky and there is no other color that tells the story about cold temperatures better than blue.

Spring project

 

It is the time of the year when plans for photography projects in spring or summer have to be shaped and research for specific locations or critters needs to be done. It is hard to believe that is already six and a half years ago that we have been the last time in the Badlands, South Dakota. This landscape has already fascinated me long before I came to the United States. It played a role in books I was reading as a young boy. I read a lot about the Lakota, their nomadic life on the prairie, about hunting bison, and the fights between the Indians and the white men.

One of my spring projects is to spend an extended weekend in Badlands National Park and do nothing but wildlife and landscape photography. We stopped in the Badlands twice before on our way to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons but it was never enough time to explore the area in detail.

A first step of the planning was to look at my images from 2005 and 2007. In 2005 I was still shooting film (Nikon N2020) but also had a small Minolta point and shoot digital camera with me. Oh boy, little did I know about how to make a halfway decent image at that time! The photos I show here are from 2007, made with a new Nikon D200. It was about the time when I discovered that nature photography was really what I wanted to do.

The Badlands in South Dakota have a lot of wildlife to offer. We have seen bison, mule deer, prairie dogs, bighorn sheep, and pronghorns. The pictures of the Black-tailed Prairie Dogs you see here were made with a Nikon 80-400mm lens that I had borrowed from a friend of mine. It was my first experience with a focal length longer than 300 mm. One of the reasons I like to go in spring this time (we always have been there during fall season so far) is that I hope to see a lot more wildflowers and the grass a little more lush than it was after the dry summers. As more I dive into this project as more I get excited. If I can squeeze it in my work schedule you will be the first to read about it here in the blog. :-)

Digging in the archive

 

Ok, I'm having the blues. No new snow today but a uniform gray sky didn't boost my creativity either. I haven't touched the camera for almost a week now. Instead I'm digging in my archive for pictures that were made in great light and where the sun played at least a role.

I came across this image of a Snowy Egret. It was made in 2010 at my very first visit at the Bolsa Chica Wetlands in Southern California. The egret enjoyed the last light beams, just minutes before the sun dived into the Pacific Ocean. I think it is important to look back sometimes and analyze why some images worked out great while others didn't work at all. I do not delete all misses. They help me quite often later to remember how a particular shooting situation was approached and maybe prevent me from making the same mistakes again. Having a few better ones in reserve isn't so bad either, especially if you can use them after a week with no shooting at all... :-) Have a great weekend!

Nature clicks #138 - Brown Creeper

 

One of my winter projects this season is to get a frame filling image of the Brown Creeper. I'm trying hard but I'm not there yet. For a long time I thought this little bird was only here during migration but this is the first winter we see it repeatedly. They are fast and always keep a safe distance. At least I got some sharper photos now than in December when I introduced the bird in the blog here. Will keep trying again...

Critters dealing with new snow

 

Winter and its weather have never left us really since December last year and today we were reminded that any thought about spring is ridiculous right now. A winter storm came through today and left plenty of the white stuff on the ground. I could talk about birds that have been here all day long but I also took some images of the critters with four legs that came close to our house today. We have lots of Eastern Gray Squirrels here that try to get a good share of the bird food in the feeders. Most of them are really gray but we also have a few black morphs here in the neighborhood. There is one exception and this little guy has really some color in its fur. We wonder if some Red Squirrel was mixed into the equation. We have never seen a Red Squirrel here up on the ridge but we know there are a few down in the valley. The one I show you is definitely as big as a Gray Squirrel (Red Squirrels are much smaller) and we really wonder how this guy got its color.

Any time the ground is covered with snow there is a good chance that the White-tailed Deer will show up in our yard at dusk. Today we had our usual group of two does and two fawns here. I saw them too late to open the window before they arrived and had to shoot through the glass. It was still snowing and the falling snow messed a few times with the autofocus system in the camera. Daylight lasts much longer now already and this image was made at 1/60 of a second. I know, the books will tell you that you need at least 1/320 of a second if your focal length is 320 mm, as in this picture, but I try to shoot long exposure in order to keep the ISO settings as low as possible for best detail in my photo.