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I went searching for a Snowy Owl today and found two, south of Nerstrand, MN. I came across the first as it was starting to fly. I quickly stopped the car, rolled down the window and started firing off shots with the camera pointed out the window before I even started to focus or lock on to the bird in flight. I'm just including the out of focus photo here to show the overall speckled coloring of the (female) bird. The second all white (adult male) bird was a few miles away, out in the middle of the field, squinting in to the bright sun and blowing snow. Neither are great photos, but is the closest I've been to Snowy Owls this winter. Still looking (and I appreciate tips). [Click images to see larger]
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We have Bald Eagles in north Iowa, but they are scattered, generally around one of the rivers or creeks, but not in large numbers in any one location. In the Winter they tend to bunch up along the larger rivers, the Mississippi, Des Moines and Iowa rivers and as the rivers start to freeze over more Eagles can be found around the dams. I shared Eagle photos from the Coralville Dam area a few weeks ago. This week there were very few Eagles there so I went a little farther down river in to Coralville at the dam adjacent to the Iowa River Power Restaurant. There is a walkway along and over the river and it is a great place to take photos either above or below the dam of Eagles as they are perched in the trees and soaring down to the river to grab a fish. On occasion there are great aerial displays as two or more Eagles will fight over a fish in mid-flight. I never get tired of the challenge of getting a good photo of an Eagle in flight. [Click the images to see larger] A former co-worker invited me over to try to get photos of a Pileated Woodpecker, which I did not see, but I still enjoyed several birds at the feeders. [Click images to see larger.]
Jack Frost painted his magic across north Iowa again last night. What a beautiful day. With thick fog and below freezing temperature the frost grew on everything. We drove around for many miles and there were thick frosty trees, shrubs, grasses and fences everywhere we went. I don't usually post a bunch of photos at one time, but I couldn't help myself. Click or tap to flip through the images. Enjoy. [Click Images to see larger]
Dale Mills and I started out the new year with a bit of paddling on the Winnebago River down river from the discharge area of the water treatment plant. We made it 1.8 miles before we got to ice-over, but it was at a convenient take-out place to get a ride back the vehicle (Judy's shuttle service). It was a beautiful day, overcast but with no wind and mid 20's temperature. It was a quiet float except for hundreds of noisy Canada Geese and ducks. We saw wild turkeys in trees and along the river bank, five Bald Eagles, a Kingfisher that flew from tree to tree just ahead of us down the river and 13 Trumpeter Swans that got up off the river and flew noisily right over our heads. A great way to start the new year!
[Click or tap to see the individual images larger.] December 31, New Year's Eve day, the last day of 2020. After half a day of Eagle and geese photography I headed over to the Hawkeye Wildlife Management Area near Oxford, IA to take photos of Short-eared Owls. While not a guarantee, they have recently been flying over the grasslands in the couple of hours before sunset searching for mice. I was fortunate to see seven or eight and got photos of two, one flying and one perched on a small tree branch right at eye level near the road. I was able to take photos of the second one quietly from the car in the dim light just before sunset. It was a great way to end the last few daylight hours of the year.
[Click images to see larger] December 31, New Year's Eve day, the last day of 2020 I headed to the Coralville Dam on the Iowa River to take photos of Bald Eagles. They often fish in the tail-waters below the dam at this time of year and the past few weeks has been pretty good for photographers, until I got there anyway. This Eagle on the left was perched in a tree overlooking the water along with about half a dozen others in nearby trees. Along with a few other photographers we watched and waited for a couple of hours hoping they would fly down and grab a fish right in front of our cameras. Well, they didn't move. Not at all. I finally moved to another location farther down where the river was wider and got a few photos, but the Eagle were farther out from the shore. When I left, four hours after I arrived, this Eagle on the left was still perched on the same branch. [Click images to see larger] December 31, New Year's Eve day, the last day of 2020 at the Coralville Dam. I went to photograph Eagles, but while waiting for the Eagles I shot a few photos of the Canada Geese and Mallard ducks. I witnessed one of the strangest thing that I have seen - the geese and ducks with a fish in their beak and fight over them. I've never seen a goose or Mallard eat a fish. From Audubon.org - Canada Geese "Eats stems and shoots of grasses, sedges, aquatic plants, also seeds and berries; consumes many cultivated grains... Occasionally eats some insects, mollusks, crustaceans, and sometimes small fish." I'm not sure that the gees could swallow the fish in these photos.
[Click photos to see larger.]
Click images to see larger.
Yesterday was the most beautiful, calm fall day for paddling the Winnebago River with good friend Dale, co-owner of the Cupola Inn Bed and Breakfast. The colors of the Ash and Silver Maple trees were brilliant, with spectacular reflections in the slow-moving, calm water. Besides taking time for photos we spent a lot of time just floating and enjoying the view. We really were in awe at such a perfect, beautiful day. We saw several eagles, two owls, Canada Geese, and a Kingfisher bird that was just taunting me, continuously flying just a head of us all the way down the river, just a bit too far to get a close-up photo. I did get a couple of photos of two of the eagles though. Click images to see larger.
I'm often asked why I take so many pictures of the same subject. The simple answer is the next frame or the next photo outing may be better than the last. The photo on the left is a gray-morph Eastern Screech-Owl in a Wood Duck nest box. I thought it might be the only guest at the Cupola Inn Bed and Breakfast this spring. However, I went back the next day and got photos of a second gray-morph Eastern Screech-Owl in a different nest box from the first one that I photographed the previous day. Better lighting the second time and I was able to get a better view before it ducked back inside. The slight difference in color of these two images may be due to the lighting, time of day and auto-white balance on the camera. (Click images to see larger.) Update 5/17/2020: I just saw that one of my Screech Owl photos is being used as the banner image on the Owl About Iowa Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/owlaboutiowa/ .
It turned in to an all-day jaunt of bushwhacking and paddling, but I finally got some photos of one of the two Great Horned owlets that fledged the nest two days ago. Fortunately this one sat in the same tree all day (still a bit unsure of his wings), apparently waiting for me to get a somewhat clear view. Thanks to Dale for a great day of paddling.
(Click the images to see larger) Day-one of backyard spring migratory birds. Everywhere I looked there was another bird. We've had Grackles, Red-winged Blackbirds, Starlings and Mourning Doves for several weeks, but this is the start of another wave of migrants. One of the highlights were several Eurasian Collared-Doves high in the trees (common in the south and southwest, but not common in my backyard). The first Brown Thrasher of the year (I love that yellow eye), Song Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and half a dozen or more other warbler species that I couldn't identify or photograph because they move constantly from one branch to another. I also added a photo of a Robin enjoying the sunshine and taking a bath and a Chickadee. (Click images to see larger)
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Bruce's Blog
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March 2024
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