Nature clicks #86 - Red-tailed Hawk in flight

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

A long wanted shot made it finally onto my hard drive last weekend. This Red-tailed Hawk hovered over a snow covered slope in the Mill Creek Valley near Bellevue, Iowa. I stopped the car and started handhold panning while standing in a puddle of a muddy gravel road. I didn't really care, the hawk was more important than the condition of my boots at that moment. The hawk scanned the slope almost systematically for prey and came several times back to my location. Not as close as I would have liked to, but at least it presented its body for a brief moment in best light. I will not keep it as a secret that the photo is cropped but it is sharp enough and retained some detail after the crop. I believe it payed back that I have practiced a lot during last month on the Bald Eagles. I was happy to make my first picture of a sitting hawk two weeks ago and now I'm glad to have a few images of a Red-tailed Hawk in flight.

Checking out a new location

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

The best time of the year to watch Bald Eagles here along the Mississippi is during the winter, when ice covers the river and the eagles gather at the dams. Locks and dams have been built for navigation, not for flood control, and they are sometimes the only places that are not frozen over and allow the eagles to feed during the cold season. Because of the mild winter we didn't see many eagles in December and January but opportunities have been good during the last few weeks.

The image above was made less than a mile south of dam #11 in Dubuque, Iowa at the 16th Street Detention basin. This pond has seen lately some heavy construction as part of a restoration project that will improve flood protection in Dubuque. Despite still ongoing landscape work many birds took already possession of the pond, located just a stone throw away from the Mississippi.

My buddy Dave made some nice shots there of a group Great Blue Herons last Saturday. I stopped at the pond again on Sunday to study the light for future "shooting adventures". The visitor access is on the  north side. I can tell, the layout hasn't been designed by a photographer… ;-) Oh well, we have to be flexible, right? I went to the south side, an industrial area and quite a bit above the water level (Yaiks!). However, having the sun in my back was so much better. Four eagles were sitting in one corner of the pond that was still covered with ice. Once in a while they took a turn and were circling over the lake. If you can manage to keep the wires of a power supply line that crosses the pond out of your frame (Yaiks again!  ;-)  ) you may get lucky and make a click like the one above or even better. I should not complain too much. I'm happy for the people in the city that don't have to go too far for watching some wildlife. Right now everything looks still "bare naked" at the pond while construction is still not finished. But seeing already many ducks, geese, herons, gulls, and some eagles is a good indicator that this pond will become a great place for future bird watching and photography experiences.

Just me and the geese...

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

It was a good weekend for wildlife photography, especially in the late afternoons on Saturday and Sunday. I stopped briefly at Dubuque's 16th Street Detention basin, a pond known for good bird watching. I met my photography friend Dave Updegraff there who was testing his new lens on some Bald Eagles and Great Blue Herons. We had a little chat and after that I moved on to my favorite wildlife shooting area along the Mississippi, the Green Island Wetlands. The ice  is melting rapidly and I was hoping to find Bald Eagles feeding on dead fish, like I had seen it last year. Surprisingly I didn't find any eagles there at all. My theory is, because of the mild winter the ice wasn't frozen as thick as last year and as a result less fish died. No fish means no eagles. I will consult a biologist sometime to find out if that is true.

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

As the ice disappears the Canada Geese move in. I was there both days, Saturday and Sunday, and it seemed the number of geese had increased quite a bit from one day to the next. If you are a follower of my blog you already know that it doesn't really matter to me what kind of critter is in front of my lens, if only the light is right. And it was great light. I spent two hours until sunset to watch how the light unfolded. I pushed the limits of handholding the camera by shooting ISO 100 the whole time. It was nobody there, not even people driving through. Just me and the geese. Time well spent…

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

Nature clicks #85 - Female Northern Cardinal

 

Nature unfolded its best reflector today, with other words we had fresh snow on the ground. Not much, but enough to boost light and colors.

This female of a Northern Cardinal is a permanent resident in our woods around the house. I can recognize her easily because her colors are slightly lighter than other female cardinals that stop here. I waited almost motionless near this elm tree for quite some time in order to make this photo. Cardinals are extremely shy and don't come close very often.

Butt shots are rude, but…

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

…I believe there is always an exception for any rule. To be honest, this is one of my favorite eagle photos this season. The Bald Eagle just came down from a tree above me, caught the fish right in front of me, and flew away with its prey. I never saw its face, just kept clicking despite it was a butt shot... It is the position in the frame, the subtile light, the spray behind the eagle, and the color of the ice that make me like it.

Cloud chaser

Nikon D300s, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4

We had a gray day for the most part today. It was until late afternoon when finally the clouds broke apart and the sun came out. Time for me to go cloud chasing. The wind was blowing and as a result the clouds moved fast and the light changed constantly. Eastern Iowa is not Yellowstone and finding a great vista can be quite a challenge. I believe it is important to pay more attention to the details in the landscape here to make it work.

It was the hint of light that hit the trees in the foreground for a moment that made me stop the car, get out, and compose the image. As much as I like shooting landscape from a tripod, in situations like today it just slows you down and you may never get the shot you see developing in front of you. Of course, the colors were not bad either today but this is the kind of image I wanted to make.

Intelligence outsmarts "just being smart"

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

This photo bears a lot of information. First it proves that the fish were smart because they were hiding under the ice from any predators. Second, the eagles were outsmarting them by cracking the ice with their talons and catching the fish anyway. It also tells the story about how fast it happened. The eagle seems to be already more than a meter away from the hole in the ice it just created, but the bits and pieces of the cracked ice were still flying in the air. If a Bald Eagle starts to fly a curve and is descending at the same time you just know the bird may come down eventually and strike. You never know how and where it may happen. All what the "poor" photographer can do is to keep the autofocus sensor on the eagle's chest. Why the chest? It's on the same focal plane as the eye, which needs to be sharp, and the chances to follow your subject with the sensor are much higher this way. Quite often the eagles just picked up a fish that the Ring-billed Gulls had dropped a few seconds before, and so I wasn't really questioning why the eagles came down over the ice and not over the water. But it wasn't until I reviewed my images at home, that I discovered that the Bald Eagles actually broke the ice in order to catch the fish below. I think it is just amazing and increases my desire to study these wonderful birds of prey even more.

Big surprise

My friend Dawei sent me a message this morning that the Bald Eagles were on the ice around Credit Island in Davenport, Iowa yesterday. I have never been so far south for eagle photography but I decided to give it a try today. I was not disappointed, there were many eagles in the trees and on the ice but I may write about them later this week.

Today I just like to tell you about a big surprise I had. I tried to focus on an eagle sitting on the ice when I saw three White Pelicans coming up the river. Great! I saw a chance to get them in the picture together with the Bald Eagle. All what I had to do was to wait a few more seconds until they would show up in the viewfinder of the camera. Suddenly the pelicans changed their mind, turned around, and moved down the river in the other direction. S#@%!!! I ran sideways into the bushes and fired a few shots through the branches. This is what I got. :-( No, this is of course not a good photo but I wanted to share it with you anyway. I really wonder if this is a sign for an early arrival of spring. With the mild weather we have this year it might be difficult to tell anyway if the winter is over or not ;-) More to come from today's shooting in Davenport…

Wrong lens, but didn't miss the shot

Nice weather today but unfortunately other things required more attention today than my photography. There was just enough time in the late afternoon for a quick trip to a couple boat landings at the Mississippi River. I had the Sigma 50-500 mounted to the camera in hope for some birds of prey but did not have much luck. Normally I don't use the range below 150mm focal length for landscape photography. Other lenses in my bag do a better job in this range. However, when I saw the Cassville power plant mirrored in the water of the Mississippi and at the same time a big ice floe drifted by, I made a few clicks. Nothing crazy, just lovely light… A few seconds later, as the sun went deeper down, the light lost its magic and was not the same anymore. I'm glad I didn't waste time to change the lens. I would have missed the shot...

Nature clicks #84 - White-breasted Nuthatch

Nikon D300s, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM

Today just a shot from my "backyard series". The White-breasted Nuthatch is here all year long. Their yank-yank-yank calls seem to be heard more frequently now. Spring can't be that far anymore… They are usually in company with the Black-capped Chickadees. The nuthatch moves down pretty fast on tree trunks, head first, and they are always a good subject to practice focussing with the long lens. Their relative, the Red-breasted Nuthatch, is here in our area usually only during migration. I snapped a picture of it last November and wrote a post about it (Click HERE if you like to compare both of them).