Nature clicks #208 - Great Horned Owl, ready to leave the nest

 

A big area of precipitation is still moving through the Midwest while I’m writing these lines. It dominated the weather today but I had to go to Mud Lake at the Mississippi to look for the young Great Horned Owl this evening. Last year April 25th was the last day I have seen a young owl still in the nest before it started the so called “branch hopping”. It means it still stays close to the nest but moves around in the trees near the nest. The development of this year’s owlet was very similar and my suspicion got confirmed today when I saw the young owl sitting on the edge of the big nest. It is ready to leave the nest and I caught the first moment of this important step.

I tell you, it was not an easy task to make this image. The rain was more a mist at that time but nevertheless the equipment got wet, slowly but surely. The light? Well, there wasn’t much and the only way to get something out of the “gray weather soup” was to use the Better Beamer flash extender for some fill flash and color improvement. Having the owlet sitting at the edge of the nest allowed to get closer to the tree and at the same time to shorten the distance because of a steeper shooting angle. I still struggle to use the flash extender. Too many times I don’t like how the eyes of the animal turn out. They look sometimes like a couple LED’s…:-(   Before I went out today I read a few pages in my favorite book about wildlife photography, Moose Peterson’s “Captured”, and there was the hint I was looking for. It’s called “feathering the light”, a technique that uses the outer edges of the flash beam, means the soft part of the light is used instead of the whole beam. Not that I mastered it today but I got a little closer to an acceptable result. More practice is needed… However, seeing the young Great Horned Owl in almost full size for the first time this year was an exciting moment that was worth the effort to deal with the “lovely weather”…

Evening at the big river

 

Joan, Cooper, and I spent some time down at the Mississippi at Mud Lake Park this evening. Some thunderstorm cells and clouds moved out of our area to the east, into Wisconsin and Illinois, and made for some nice subjects to photograph. We heard the calls of the Sandhill Cranes, saw pelicans and eagles, and got finally a great view to the young Great Horned Owl. This time the owlet didn’t retrieve back into the nest and we were able to make some good clicks. Time well spent!

Nature clicks #205 - Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and other bird infos

 

We must live in woodpecker paradise and I’m absolutely thrilled to show you today’s photo. The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is the 7th woodpecker species that we have seen in our woods here and it is a first sighting for us. The yellow bellied is the only sapsucker that is normally found in the eastern part of the continent and is our most highly migratory woodpecker. (source: National Geographic Complete Birds of North America). I saw this female already three days ago on our big maple tree in front of the house and she has returned every day since.

Making this photo was not an easy task. The sapsucker is very skittish and it took me three days to make finally a click and produce an image that I can show here in the blog. The light came from the back and my lens had some problems to focus properly under these conditions. I may try something different tomorrow evening.

I know some birders read my blog and therefor I like to give an update on some other birds. The Brown Creeper is still here and I wonder if this one will stay during the summer. My literature tells me that this is a possibility for our area. The Eastern Phoebe has arrived this week and I made already some photos. I wasn’t at Mud Lake at the Mississippi today but saw the young owlet with the mother bird earlier this week. Not a great image, more a documentary shot for those who care. However, this old eagle's nest is huge and it gives you an idea how big this Great Horned Owl really is. The young one seems to do well.

River in motion and other news

 

The first photo is already three days old. The ice on the Mississippi started to break up and just got jammed across Mud Lake because of the dam a couple miles down the river. The other image is from today at almost the same spot. The main channel is clear now and only the quieter backwaters and the marina are still frozen over. There were even a few guys ice fishing on the ice of the marina this evening.

Hundreds of Canvasback moved in (the photo shows only a small fraction) and will probably continue to go further up the river. Unfortunately I haven’t been able yet to get my lens close to them. I’m not crazy enough to step on the ice of a big river in motion… ;-)

The other news is that I saw clearly an owlet in the nest of the Great Horned Owl. The mother wasn’t present at my arrival at Mud Lake Park but a fuzzy looking young owl peeked over the edge of the nest when I pulled into the area. After watching the ducks on the river I checked the nest again and the mother had returned. The owlet wasn’t visible anymore. I guess the mother bird ordered it back into the safety of the deep nest. I’m excited about maybe having the opportunity again to make some photos of a young Great Horned Owl in the next few weeks. We will see…

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.

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.

Fox and owl stories (brief update)

Before I go on a business trip tomorrow, with probably no opportunity for nature photography, I like to give you a brief update about the animals I follow very close at the moment.

Yesterday I was very concerned about the well being of the little foxes in our woods. A big Barred Owl was sitting in a tree within sight of the den. This was the first time that I have seen a Barred Owl during real day light. We hear their call "Who-cooks-for-you" all the time but have seen it only at dusk or at night. The owl flew away when it saw me. We had seen only one pup outside of the den lately and I was wondering if the owl was a successful fox hunter. Today I definitely saw two different fox pups. One has unfortunately a heavy injured eye and is probably half blind. It acted normal but I have my doubts that this little fox will have a very long life. The second one looked very healthy but peeked only briefly out of the den.

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

Yesterday evening Joan and I went to Mud Lake at the Mississippi River but we were not able to find the young Great Horned Owl. I looked at every tree in the neighborhood of the eagle's nest where the owl was born but with no success. I went back today after 7pm and found it immediately sitting on a low horizontal branch near the water. The last sunlight was falling on its right eye and I was able to make a few clicks. That was the best unobstructed view of the owlet so far.