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I saw plenty of dragonflies, damselflies and butterflies during an evening walk through the Hansen Wildlife Area prairie, a recent donation to Cerro Gordo County Conservation (there are also many varieties of native wildflowers in this restored prairie).
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It was a beautiful night to watch the full Moon rise over Clear Lake, IA tonight. As the Moon got higher in the sky it gradually got lighter and the reflections on the water got brighter. It was unusual to not have clouds or haze on the horizon. (Now, for those who are going to say this is a fake photo let me explain. This is a single exposure, taken with a 400mm telephoto lens on a crop-frame camera which gives it a 1.6X magnification, making it effectively a 640mm lens. Telephoto lenses have the characteristic of making background objects - the moon - appear much larger in relation to the foreground objects. I also cropped it a bit from the original making the Moon appear even larger.)
Dale has solo-paddled the Winnebago River in North Iowa in every month of every year for nearly two decades. This film, the third in a series, highlights his Autumn canoe floats, emphasizing river stewardship and passing on the joy of paddling to the next generations. Narrated with his prose and observations of his passion of paddling and nature around him. Video by Bruce G. McKee, written and narrated by Dale Mills, ©2022 www.brucegmckeephotos.com Official Selection of the Iowa Independent Film Festival 2022, People's Choice Award at the Siouxland Inspirational Film Festival 2022, Official Selection at the Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival.
In honor of SuperB owl Sunday. Here is a short video of some my photos of superb owls. An adult Great Horned Owl in the crotch of a tree. At this time of year it is likely sitting on eggs. (Taken on private property with an invitation from the landowner. Telephoto lens and cropped. Cerro Gordo County.)
Regular birds at our backyard feeders in the Winter include Blue Jays, Cardinals, Downy Woodpeckers, Hairy Woodpeckers, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatches, Juncos, House Finches, House Sparrows, Mourning Doves and probably a few more that I forgot about. We have about 15 feeders and use a lot of black-oil sunflower seed and suet cakes. [Click images to see larger]
I got out to see the lighted holiday tree at the POET bioprocessing plant on Hwy 9, near Hanlontown, IA tonight with a beautiful sunset. [Click images to see larger]
I finally got around to editing a video from last April. Sharp-tailed Grouse doing their spring courting ritual at the Valentine National Wildlife refuge in the sand hills of north central Nebraska. You can see the video at the bottom of this page (click link)
Great Gray Owl at sunset with golden Tamarack trees in the background. Sax-Zim Bog, northern, MN, 11/3/2021. Photo taken from the car, 20-30 yards away. (Thanks to Mike Lentz Nature Photography and Monika Bobek for their suggestions on where to find this guy.) Click images to see larger. A short video of a Great Gray Owl at sunset. Northern Lights from some lonely forest road in Northern Minnesota, 11/3/2021. This was just a couple of hours after sunset, green on the horizon, a few streaks shooting up and a red/purple fringe. In the early morning dark hours the aurora exploded and sent huge streaks of colored light high in the sky. Unfortunately I was asleep in bed by then. Ah, well. It was a wonderful night. I was happy with the photos that I got, alone in the woods, with the Aurora Borealis and billions of stars (until I got cold, tired and went to bed).
A sneak peek at a small segment of our next canoeing video, highlighting some of the joys of paddling in the quiet autumn splendor and passing on the joys and skills of paddling to the next generations. It will be a few months before we are done with this, but we had such a great day of paddling on Wednesday afternoon I thought I'd share a little now. (Also on YouTube https://youtu.be/SCEAaTGMlKA ) Two photos of Ramondskill Falls in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, in eastern Pennsylvania. The first photo is the upper falls, the second is the lower part of the falls as seen from above (the trail to the bottom of the lower falls was closed). Combined they form the largest waterfall in Pennsylvania at about 175 feet, just a few feet shorter than Niagara Falls. (Click/tap images to see the full image.)
We had a short drive through Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio and went for a couple of short hikes to take a few photos. A Great Blue Heron and female Wood Duck were very cooperative. We also visited Brandywine Falls.
It seems that one of the biggest events for Iowa birders and photographers this summer is the appearance of Yellow-crowned Night Herons at Maskunky Marsh near Oskaloosa, IA. They are rather unusual in Iowa, normally frequenting the southern Gulf and Atlantic states. This has been a big deal in this location with hundreds of birders and photographers going to the marsh in the last month to see these birds and other herons, egrets and smaller shore birds.
Part two of this excitement has been two juvenile Little Blue Herons in the past week. They are all white and only look like their adult version by size rather than color. I spent two mornings there this week coming home with hundreds of photos. Click the images below to see larger (captions below each photo). |
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March 2024
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