Nature clicks #201 - Great Blue Heron

 

Joan had the day off yesterday and asked me to go to one of the nature locations around here in the evening. She really tries hard to get more practice with her new camera. I have never been really late at the 16th Street Basin in Dubuque before but we gave it a try. I gave her the SIGMA 50-500 and let her shoot from the “mobile blind”, our car. The lens is heavy and supporting it by the car window makes sense. Many of my images were made this way.

I attached the SIGMA 150, f2.8 and the 1.4 Teleconverter to my Nikon D300s instead and positioned myself behind the car. Effective 315 mm focal length are not enough reach for the birds on the ice but I was hoping to catch an eagle or Great Blue Heron in flight. The eagles didn’t move at all in our direction but there were many herons that changed position quite often. We waited very patiently and let the birds come to us.

I saw this heron coming from the right. As soon it was over the little patch of open water, I laid the hammer down with six frames per second and panned by turning my upper body, following the heron with the lens. I guess I’m still far away from using proper panning technique but it takes a lot of practice.

The questions is, why did I not start firing when the heron was still over the ice to the right? The answer is, because background matters! The ice had changed color to an ugly gray since I was there last Sunday. The water was just the way you see it here and the shaft of light from the very low sun on the bird’s feathers made for a photo that works for me…

Nature clicks #200 - Northern Flicker

 

Surprise, surprise (not really), we had some fresh snow on the ground this morning… I got up early to take advantage of the great light, provided by a slightly diffused sun and the snow as a reflector. First I followed some fox tracks in the snow back to the rocks and the valley behind the house. The tracks in the snow told me that the fox had checked the old den from last year and I wonder if we will see another litter of fox pups again. Second, the light made the colors of the moss on the rocks pop and in combination with the snow it was worth a few clicks to me.

Back at the house I set up the tripod with camera and long lens attached on the porch and it took only a minute and the woodpeckers showed up. I counted four Downy, one Hairy ,and three Red-bellied Woodpeckers. However, the star of this early morning was a male Northern Flicker. We have here the eastern form of the flicker, the yellow-shafted, as you can easily identify by the second photo. It is this time of the year when most of the birds get a color boost because of the mating season. I wrote it before, this is the first winter in the last ten years that we have seen the flicker all winter long. Usually they have been here only a few days in very early spring.

It took only a few hours and all the new snow melted away. The old one is getting icy and may take still a while to disappear.

It is my 200th blog post “Nature clicks”. I started this category four years ago and it became the stage for photos and information about critters and other things in nature that got my interest. I think the Northern Flicker with its wonderful colors is a great bird to celebrate this little milestone in my ongoing photography journey. Thank you to all my friends and visitors of this blog for stopping here regularly or occasionally!

Thoughts about story telling

 

I’m thankful to my photography friend Dave Updegraff because he made me thinking about my opinion that the 16th Street detention basin in Dubuque is an awful place to shoot. I still think it’s noisy there, but it is a location that serves as a place for birds to feed and rest. I can see why people enjoy it, because it is just adjacent to downtown Dubuque. Joan and I spent some time there last Saturday, and again, just me almost four hours on Sunday. The south side is further away from Highway 151 (less noisy!) and there was a spot where the ice had melted already

Yes , the main actors were the Bald Eagles (at least for most people) but the Great Blue Herons made some nice appearances. The uninspired viewer of this image may say, it’s a bird with long legs near some water,and ok, it must like to eat fish… The more observant viewer can read a lot more of the story by looking at this photo… For example, the image was made at a body of water that had some man made structure (dam, wall, dock, lock??), it was windy (look at the waves…), the birds must visit this place regularly (white excrements on the concrete…), Great Blue Herons eat not just little fish…, and there is some ice in the lower right corner (telling you about the season when this image was made…). For me these are all information on the side, but hey are part of the story. I hope the photo screams… caught in killer light, great bird action, beautiful bird…. ;-)

Bald eagles in abundance

 

The winter struck back again with an inch of snow and temperatures below freezing but it was sunny today. The warmer weather the days before cleared the smaller rivers from ice and even the Mississippi got some open water now. It was a perfect day for Bald Eagle photography.

Lots of action at the 16th Street basin in Dubuque. I actually thought to have just a brief look at this location but I ended up spending more than three and a half hours there… :-)

I can tell you there wasn’t a dull moment during the whole time. The eagles were moving around, caught fish, missed the catch sometimes, and were fighting about the prey. I may show a few more photos during the week.

If you look at my photo from yesterday you can see what a difference a blue sky makes for bird photography, especially with snow and ice around.

New member in the "Family Nikon Club"

 

Joan and I had a blast today. We went to almost every possible location along the Mississippi where there is a chance to see birds and other wildlife. Starting in Dubuque, Iowa we went to Bellevue, Green Island, Sabula, and back to Green Island. Joan climbs the steep learning curve of handling and using a new camera system at the moment. My wife always had a good eye for photography and she is a darn good travel photographer. However, she wasn’t always happy with the performance of her old Fuji camera and lens. She finally joined the “Family Nikon Club” and is now the proud owner of a brand new Nikon D5300 with a Nikon 18-140 mm lens. One of the advantages of choosing Nikon is that Joan can also use some of my lenses, although the 18-140 is a nice lens for travel photography. Today we put the Sigma 150/f2.8 plus Teleconverter 1.4 on the DX body of the Nikon D5300. This gave her the equivalent to 315 mm / f4 on a full frame camera , a range that allows already some decent wildlife photography.

What did we see today? Lots of Bald Eagles, some Great Blue Herons, American White Pelicans, hundreds of Canada Geese, Mallards, and Ring-billed Gulls. And there was a “first one” for me. We followed a lark in the Green Island Wetlands and for some reason I thought it was an Eastern Meadowlark. It wasn’t before I sorted through my images at home that I realized that it was instead a Horned Lark.

The photo of these two Bald Eagles was made right here in Dubuque. More of them were sitting in the trees and on the ice looking out for fish.

Bird report and more signs of spring

 

Following a hint from my photography friend Dave Updegraff I went to Dubuque, Iowa this evening. There is a pond near the Mississippi, called “16th Street Detention Basin”. At my arrival about 15 Bald Eagles were sitting on the ice or flying in circles. I watched them for several minutes but suddenly they all took off and flew towards the river. I guess it was dinner time… Except for one juvenile, that kept circling above for a couple more minutes. I wrote this before, I do not like this place because it is so damn noisy due to the traffic in this area, where several streets intersect. However, this pond provides a resting and feeding place for many birds that come through the Mississippi valley. The other news is that the American White Pelicans have returned. I saw a squadron of 25 birds soaring up the river. If this is not a sure sign for spring than I don’t know what is… ;-) It was warm again today but the river had still its ice cover. This may change any minute.

The Great Horned Owl was still sitting in the nest at Mud Lake Park. No sign of a young owlet yet. I’ll keep you posted how this may develop…

Simple clicks (still with snow and ice)

 

I went on “kestrel patrol” again this evening. I saw the bird briefly but haven’t been able to put the glass on it. Instead I made another image of this old farm house on the hill. A different angle, a different lens, some nice clouds, and you can get a totally different result from the same subject. Click HERE if you like to see the photo that I made ten days ago after a snow storm.

Mud Lake at the big river isn’t far from this location and so I stopped again at the owl’s nest. The adult bird was still sitting in the nest but no evidence that a young bird has hatched.

As the sun disappeared behind the ridge the other side of the Mississippi got painted with some nice and warm light. I used the SIGMA 50-500 for both landscape shots today. The second photo was made at 370 mm and I love how it compresses the scene. It looks like the railroad tracks on the other side are just a good stone throw away but the river is actually 2.3 km (~1.4 mi) wide at this point. As you can see the Mississippi is still covered with ice but we have some warmer days coming and this will change everything here.

Nature clicks #199 - Female House Sparrow

 

It’s hard to believe but I have never made a decent photo of a House Sparrow around here. The truth is that we don’t see them very often in our neck of the woods, so there aren’t too many opportunities for a photo. Last week, when the winter struck again with snow and cold temperatures, a couple of these little birds paid us a visit at our bird feeders. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a hold of the male sparrow but this female posed nicely for a few seconds and so I made the click. I know some people may say, it’s just a damn sparrow, but sparrows play their role in our ecosystem and that’s why they deserve our attention as much as any other bird, at least in my books…

The owl is back

 

This is not a photograph to brag about but it is one that still made my day. Joan and I went on a little “spotting tour” after work today. With daylight saving time in place now the evenings are longer and allow more outdoor activities. The snow is melting rapidly and it felt nicely having temperatures above freezing.

Within an hour we saw several Bald Eagles, an American Kestrel, some other raptor that we couldn’t identify, thousands of starlings, and we heard and saw the first Red-winged Blackbird! Hey, spring is finally coming!! ;-) We made the final stop at Mud Lake, down at the Mississippi River. And there it was, a Great Horned Owl was sitting in the old eagle’s nest, the same place as last year. She didn’t move much and we were wondering if she was still sitting on the eggs. I reported several times last spring here in the blog about one young bird, and hopefully we will see at least another one or more this year. Making photos from the owl in the nest isn’t easy because the nest is quite high up in the tree. The image below was made after the owlet had left the nest. They climb on nearby branches and trees after 6-7 weeks and start flying after 10 weeks.

Blustery cold Sunday

 

The snow storm from yesterday was followed by a sunny day with blowing wind and very cold temperatures. It didn’t stop us from driving through the open country and looking for some wildlife. Joan and I went to the gravel road where I had seen the American Kestrel a few days ago but we didn’t have any luck today. Instead the fresh snow and some clouds made for a wide angle shot of this old farm house on the hill.

Joan wanted to see if we can see the Blue Birds again that I discovered last weekend in the valley. To my surprise we found three of them sitting in a tree above the creek at the same place. Despite the very cold temperatures the creek had open water. This and the fact that this location in the valley is a little protected from the icy wind draws probably the birds in. We also discovered a bunch of American Robins in a nearby tree. I guess spring can’t be that far away anymore… ;-)