Yesterday we spent the afternoon at the Dale Valley Vineyard celebrating the 15th anniversary of SOAR, (Saving Our Avian Resources), an Iowa-based, non-profit organization "dedicated to saving our avian resources through raptor rehabilitation, education, and research". In addition to lots of good food, activities and music they had two "education" birds - a Red-tailed hawk and "Thora" their resident almost blind Bald Eagle. They also released into the wild, two rehabilitated American Kestrels and two Red-tailed Hawks.I got some nice photos of the birds including one of the Red-tails sitting in a nearby tree after it had been released. Kay, Linette, Terrie and others put on a great event with musical ambiance provided by Charlie Nixon. More about SOAR on their Facebook page or at their web site. Click here to see more images from the day of the birds and events. |
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Yesterday I went to visit one of the local Eagle's nest before the leaves get too big to see it. There were two eaglets visible in the nest and only one adult present in the three-hours that I observed the nest. You have to look carefully at the images below to see the young birds, grayish-brown in color and quite a bit smaller than the adult. The adult would fly over to a branch overlooking the stream like a sentry keeping guard over the unattended chicks. While I didn't see any new food brought in to the nest I did see the adult scrape away and move a large pile of grass in the nest, dig down with her/his beak and rip chunks of meat from whatever dead animal was stored in the pantry to feed the young birds. Then off to the sentry post again while the eaglets laid low in the nest. A relaxing way to spend a nice spring evening - just watching the birds. [Click the images to see larger] I gave in. I finally decided to post some pictures on Facebook also. Go to my Facebook page then click the Like or Follow button and you can stay updated on some of my photo adventures. Of course you will need to log in to Facebook to see them. -
https://www.facebook.com/brucegmckeephotos Last Sunday, January 19, I spent the day taking Bald Eagle pictures at Lock and Dam 14 (or L&D 14) on the Mississippi River near Le Claire, IA (near Bettendorf and Davenport). It's about a four-hour drive for me, but worth it for a chance to get lots of photo opportunities with the Eagles. I've been here several times before (see previous post), and I've found that January is the best time. The river is largely frozen this year and the Eagles concentrate below the dams where they can catch fish. There were more Eagles at L&D 13 this day, but the viewing platform at L&D 14 is much better for photography. There were over 100 people from all over the country and Canada, shoulder-to-shoulder taking photos and watching the Eagles. There is plenty of space to take photos on the platform and along the river bank, but the parking lot does get full. A good Eagle photo day for me at this location is cold, sunny, and the wind from the West or Southwest. I watch the weather and go when the conditions are right. The best light is from about 1:00 - 3:30 in the afternoon, but I like to get there in the morning to get a good spot for photos. I bring a stool, my lunch, dress warm, put toe warmers in my boots and spend the day taking photos and chatting with the other photographers. I have one camera and telephoto lens on a tripod for the distance shots and one hand-held to get overhead shots and flying behind me. Here are just a few shots from the day. Click the images below to see a larger image. There are more Eagle photos here. It is Winter time in Iowa, but an unusually cold one. Today it was -22 degrees F and the wind is blowing. I think I heard that it was a -55F windchill. At least it's not also snowing; it would be quite a blizzard. Today I am trying to stay warm inside editing pictures, pictures that I took yesterday when it was a balmy -4F outside (minus an unknown windchill factor). I bundled up, stayed in the car with the window open and from one vantage point on the Winnebago River, took pictures of eagles, geese, ducks, turkeys and a Red-tailed Hawk. They didn't seem to be too much bothered by the cold.
I was concerned about what might happen to the image sensor on my camera in very cold weather and if it would change the quality of the recorded image, so I posed the question on one of the photography forums that I follow. The consensus is that cold does not negatively affect digital image sensors. However, the cold will cause camera batteries to lose their charge sooner, and the cold metal of the camera on cold fingers or your face while taking pictures could increase the risk of frost bite. In cold weather there are often heat-waves coming up from the ground that will slightly distort things in the distance, causing pictures of distant objects taken with a telephoto lens to be unsharp. Another real concern is condensation that may form on or inside the camera or lens when bringing it in the house (or into a warm car) from the cold outside, just like it does on my glasses. Condensation forming inside the lens or camera could ruin it and cause all kinds of mechanical, electrical or optical problems. Before I bring my cold camera in the house I will either zip it tightly inside my camera bag or I will put it inside a "dry bag" used for keeping things dry while canoeing or kayaking and seal it up tightly (a large sealed zip-lock bag may work also). First wrapping a towel around the camera may also prevent any moisture that may form inside the plastic bag from dripping on the camera. Then, when I bring it inside I will wait several hours to let everything gradually warm up to room temperature before opening the bag. I guess I can't be in too much of a hurry to get to the photos that I just took or to recharge the batteries. Surprisingly, the same thing happens in the summer when taking a camera from the hot-humid outside in to a cold air-conditioned building. So the same steps should be taken to stabilize the temperature before exposing the camera to the colder room to avoid condensation. Well, that is my photo-tip for the day. Here are a few more photos that I took yesterday (click an image to see them larger). I was pleased to have three of my photographs accepted in to the 33rd Annual Cerro Gordo Photo Show at the Charles H. MacNider Art Museum. The photo "The Eagle is Landing" won an Honorable Mention. I felt honored to have received recognition among the dozens of very fine photos that were submitted by others. (Click images to see larger.)
Common Loon, (click for larger image)
Last week I was on a fishing trip to Lake Kabetogama in Voyageur's National Park near International Falls, Minnesota - right on the Ontario, Canada border. We worked pretty hard for several days, often fishing in the rain, to catch Walleye and Northern Pike. There is a "slot-limit" on these lakes. We could keep the Walleyes under 17" but had to immediately return any that were 17-28" back in to the lake. We caught a lot of nice fish in the 17-22" range that we had to let go, but did manage to catch enough to eat while we were there and to take some home. For me, getting in the boat to go fishing is just a ploy to get a little closer to some of the many Common Loons that nest in the area in the spring and summertime as well as other birds. While slowly trolling or drifting with my fishing line and bait in the water, my camera was nestled between my feet inside of two sealed dry-bags. We weren't seeking out the Loons, because my fishing partners came to fish. So if we happened upon a Loon, or had one swim up near us I would scramble to unwrap my camera and try to get a few quick photos before the bird dove and disappeared (sometimes forgetting about my line in the water). They are incredible swimmers and can easily swim 60-100 feet in just a few seconds popping up out of easy camera range. Hand-holding a camera with a big lens in a moving, bouncing boat is a bit of a challenge so I had to compose and focus quickly, use a fast shutter speed and fire off as many shots as I could before the bird disappeared. There were some Loons sitting on nests, and it is a little easier to take pictures of them, but we kept a healthy distance so as not to disturb the birds. In addition, we saw several nesting Bald Eagles, American White Pelicans, Canada Geese, Mallards, Mergansers, Common Goldeneye, Cormorants and more. The forest was full of smaller birds but because of the rain I did not take any pictures. Click on any of the images below to see them larger in a slide show. (You can listen to Loon calls on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology web site.) [More Loons here...] Barred Owl Sunday I went for a drive. I wanted to check on an Eagles nest a bit north of here, and I knew the light would be the best in the morning. I was pleased to find at least two Eaglets in the nest. I was in the car viewing the nest in the tree, so it was a bit hard to tell, but I did see the two in the picture below. The adult male had just brought lunch and then went stand guard in a nearby tree. As I was leaving I spotted 13 Cormorants on the river. The next stop was to look for a Barred Owl that I had heard several times, but hadn't gotten a picture. After a bit of a search in the woods I did find it and he posed nicely for me. In the same vicinity I saw Hermit Thrushes, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Chickadees, Nuthatches, Mallards and three White-tailed Deer. Next, back to the back yard. The sun had come around to the deck and there was nice lighting on the birds near the feeders. Red-bellied Woodpeckers, White-Throated Sparrows, House Finches, Purple Finches, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Chickadees, Nuthatches, House Sparrows, Mourning Doves and two male Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks had just arrived. It was a busy day at the bird feeders. [You can click any of the pictures here to see a larger image.] Today there was a great presentation put on at the Lime Creek Nature Center by Kay from Saving Our Avian Resources - SOAR, a raptor rehabilitation center in Dedham, IA (http://www.soarraptors.org/). She brought two education birds, an American Kestrel, and a Bald Eagle. It was a blowy wintery day, but the room at the nature center was full with children and adults eager to learn about the raptors and to get a close up view. Click for a larger image of the Eagle landing. It was a cold January afternoon last Monday, +3 degrees F and a 20 MPH wind blowing. I sat in the car by the river with the window open, and my lens out the window, watching two eagles come and go, perching in the same tree. They sat nearly motionless for many minutes at a time, only occasionally turning their head to gaze in to the river below or to keep an eye on the hundreds of Canada Geese and Mallards in a patch of open water. One Eagle would fly away, be gone for a while, then the other would leave, perhaps just taking a fly around and then returning to the same branch. I had hoped to get photos of them catching a fish in the river or feeding on the frozen half-eaten fish carcass that was laying on the ice below. No such luck. I waited for nearly three hours (did I mention that the window was open?) and my hands and feet were getting a bit numb. I did get a few photos of perching and flying, and even a yearling deer tiptoeing through the geese in the river to get to the other side, but not the photos I had hoped for. I thought several times that since nothing was happening I should leave, and the late afternoon sun was starting to cast long shadows. I was losing my light. Then as I watched, one Eagle leaned his (or her?) head forward, clearly focused on one spot in the river, and slightly lifted his tail feathers. I knew he was about to fly. I focused on the bird and started taking a burst of pictures as he left the branch and headed to the open water below. He stretched out his talons, spread his wings to control his descent just before he got to the water, and... splash! He apparently misjudged, because he crashed in to the water, nearly up to his neck. He flopped his now wet wings a couple of times and was able to hoist himself out of the water on to the nearby ice where he looked around over each shoulder as if to see if anyone was watching. He shook himself off and flew back up in to the tree to dry out his feathers in what was left of the afternoon sun. An exciting end to my afternoon Eagle watch. (There are more Eagle photos here and here.) Click each to see a larger image.
Click for more Eagle pictures It was a great day of taking Eagle pictures at Lock and Dam 14 on the Mississippi River near LeClaire, IA (near Bettendorf and Davenport). This is undoubtedly one of the better places to photograph Eagles in the lower 48 states. People come from all over the country. I have been there the first week of March, the end of February, and this year the first week of January. This week was by far the best with the most Eagles. At one point I counted close to 50 either perching in trees (12 in one tree), flying over the dam or catching fish in the river. There were also about 70 photographers lined up shoulder to shoulder - lots of big lenses. This is an odd spot in the river because it isn't North-South, but turns to the Southwest. So it takes the sun a long time to get around to the best lighting position for taking photos of the flying birds. Generally, at this time of year, from about 1:00 PM until 3:30 PM is the best time. Earlier, there are a lot of shadows; later and the sun is below the trees on the West side of the river. However, to get a good parking spot and position for tripod set up you may want to get there earlier. Telephoto or long zoom lenses are a must for getting close-up pictures and a fast shutter speed to stop the action. Some photographers hand-held their cameras and others used a tripod. You need to be able to pan quickly as the birds are flying. Watch the weather when planning your trip. It seems like the colder the better. If much of the river is frozen over the Eagles will concentrate below the dam. The best conditions are a bright sunny day with the wind coming from the West-Southwest or from the Southwest. The Eagles will fly in to the wind as they swoop down to grab a fish from the river and this will put them facing toward the sun or with the sun slightly to their right, and facing the right direction for photography from the viewing platform. At some times the action is very fast with several Eagles fishing at the same time. At other times you may sit for a long time with no action. Bring a stool or you'll be standing a long time. I had a good day photographing Bald Eagles and got many shots that I liked. I especially liked the one below of the Eagle looking at the fish that he had just snared. You can see more Eagle pictures here. Getting there: Take I-80 to the Le Claire, IA exit just before the bridge crosses the river to Illinois. It is exit 308. Go south on US Highway 67 (S. Cody Rd) for a couple of miles and turn left (East) in to a drive for the Lock and Dam 14. There is a large parking area below the lock next to the river and a long paved sidewalk for viewing and photography. I had a good afternoon photographing Eagles by the river. As I drove down Birch Drive there was one perched on a tree over the road. I have gotten pictures of an Eagle on this tree previously and it is a great spot to see them fairly close. They seem reasonably tolerant of people as there were a few people stopped and admiring them when I got there. After watching and photographing it on the branch for some time, I got a nice picture as it was taking off from the branch (below). When I drove down to get a look at the nest by the river there was an Eagle on a log in the river. I got several shots there and then a few as it flew up in to a nearby tree and later flew off again. I could see that the female was laying in the nest. She has been there at least the past two days, so she must finally be on an egg(s). I did not get any good pictures today of the Eagles at the nest, but will keep working on that. If they are successful at nurturing the egg(s) and hatching young Eaglets (is that the right name?) they will be around for a few months. Plenty of time to get more pictures. I also saw my friend the Screech Owl today and got a couple of more pictures. [See more Eagle photos]
The immature Eagle on the left had a great perch right above the river in the evening - until an adult came and chased him off his branch. He flew to another nearby tree and looked back at the branch he had just left and the new occupant.
Two adults are pretty settled-in on their nearby nest. Far enough from the road that one needs binoculars, a spotting scope or a very high magnification camera lens to get a good look at them. These birds were close to the road, which made it easy to take a few pictures from the car window. More Eagle pictures here. This afternoon I got a triple - three Eagles sitting together in a tree over the Winnebago River. I believe it is the male who is calling because he seems to be smaller than the Eagle below (the females are larger than the males). It appears that he may be having a discussion with the immature Eagle, but he was calling in response to another Eagle which was out of sight. It's my dads birthday today - maybe he is singing 'Happy Birthday...'.
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March 2024
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