Nature clicks #212 - Baltimore Oriole

 

We are out of town this weekend, so no local shooting this time. It doesn’t really matter, the last week offered so many opportunities that can be shared here in the blog. One of the birds we enjoy most at the moment is the Baltimore Oriole. We have seen sometime eight of these fascinating birds at the same time in our yard. They don’t hesitate to take advantage of the hummingbird feeders and we always have some orange halves out on the deck because they really like to feed on them after their long migration from Florida, southern Mexico, or the southern Atlantic coast.

Nature clicks #211 - Scarlet Tanager (yes, again!)

 

Well, I should have waited another day with my post from yesterday about the Scarlet Tanager. I had some better opportunities today and the best thing is that I got an image of both, the male and female Tanager. I have been a lot closer to the birds today and gave the composition some better thoughts (no branch sticking out of a head!… ;-)   ). There is so much action going on here in the woods at the moment. Birds are here in abundance and it is just a matter to decide what bird to focus on. I hope you don’t mind that I chose the Scarlet Tanager again for today’s blog post. Wishing all of you a wonderful weekend!

Nature clicks #210 - Scarlet Tanager

 

The Scarlet Tanager is on my “most wanted list” since I made the first photos in 2011. At that time I made a not very sharp image of this bird sitting on a suet feeder in our front yard. The jinx was broken but it wasn’t a flattering photo. There has been only a small window in time each year that we have seen the Scarlet Tanager. We have this bird here again right now, but despite it isn’t a great photo it is better than the first trial. I cropped it a little because distance was too big and the branch growing out of the bird’s head isn’t a plus either. The bottom line is, there has been some progress but I’m still not 100% happy. Not a bad thing, it keeps me going… ;-)

Nature clicks #209 - Northern Shoveler

 

I can’t resist to show you this photo of a male Northern Shoveler that I made last Sunday in the Green Island Wetlands. It took me several years to get this close to this colorful duck. It was slowly swimming along the shore and foraged by dabbling in the shallow water. They feed on tiny crustaceans, insects, mollusks, seeds, fish, and aquatic vegetation. I had to move my “mobile blind”, the car of course, several times to make this shot finally. It all came together, gesture of the bird, light, and colors…

Garter Snake's dinner

 

I promised you yesterday some more exciting things from my trip to the Green Island Wetlands last Sunday. While driving slowly on a dam between two ponds I suddenly saw a Garter Snake on the gravel road. The snake didn’t move away because it was busy with a Leopard Frog. The frog didn’t look too good, it was already dead, probably hit by a car. The Garter Snake didn’t care about how the dinner looked and starting swallowing its prey.

The snake didn’t worry too much about my presence, neither did I worry about the snake. Garter Snakes are harmless for humans and we see this species more than any other snake in our area. Shooting from above didn’t appeal to me and the only option to get an interesting perspective was to put my belly in the dirt.

It wasn’t long before only a frog leg stuck out of its mouth that the snake moved to the water and disappeared between the reeds…

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…

Déjà-vu

 

If you have a Déjà-vu while looking at this image and read these lines I can’t blame you. My Déjà-vu comes before I make the first image of the House Wren every year. It is exactly the morning after their arrival when the male House Wren starts his chatter and singing right in front of the bedroom window. I say it probably every year that this is one of the most wonderful sounds and signs of spring. I love it! As always, we hope the little guy will find a mate and we can watch them again how they raise their offspring.

First warblers moving in

 

I spent an hour this evening to find the young Great Horned Owl in one of the numerous trees near the nest site but had no success. I wonder if the mother has called the owlet over to an island-like dam in the river, where I have seen her hunting while the young bird was still in the nest during the last couple weeks.

Later, while trying to capture one of the Tree Swallows or Barn Swallows, who fed on insects along the edge of Mud Lake, I suddenly discovered the first Yellow-rumped Warbler this year. It was the fifth rainy day in a row, cold and with gray clouds. Fill flash was agin the answer to reveal some colors. A little later I saw a couple Palm Warblers in the bushes along the Mississippi River. I made only one click of the Palm Warbler but the picture was not in focus. At least it helped me at home to identify the bird 100 percent. I really look forward for some warmer days and hopefully some more opportunities to see Warblers moving in from the south.

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.

From the archive

 

Not a single click during the last four days!! :-(  Several other projects and in addition really bad weather stood in the way. Well, who says the photos have to be from today…?? It's always good to have an archive if time is not available... ;-)  These two shots of Bald Eagles were made March 16, 2014. Enjoy your week!