All Categories - Bruce G. McKee Photos

Sandhill Cranes Video

11/7/2019

This has been a multi-year project, with several trips to the Platte River area in central Nebraska to photograph Sandhill Cranes. My trips have primarily been for still photography, but I would usually try to shoot some video as well, when I remembered. Many of the videos were from blinds at the Crane Trust Nature Center near Alda, NE, and the Iain Nicolson Audubon Center at Rowe Sanctuary near Gibbon, NE. Others from the roads in the area. It is a wonderful experience in the late Winter and early Spring to see hundreds of thousands of Sandhill Cranes, and if you are lucky maybe an endangered Whooping Crane.
Here is a short video compilation of several trips.

Sandhill Crane Photos
More Sandhill Crane photos
Whooping Crane Photos

Fall Colors in La Crosse

10/27/2019

We took an afternoon drive up to Grandad Bluff in La Crosse, WI to look at the fall colors and weren't disjointed. Lots of bright colors in the leaves.
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Backyard Birds

10/14/2019

I had fun watching a lot of migrant birds in the backyard. Many were attracted to puddle in the yard where this Cedar Waxwing was splashing around. Several Yellow-rumped Warblers were also all over the yard. [Click images to see larger]

Cedar Waxwing

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Voyageurs National Park Association 2019 Photography Contest

10/2/2019

Two of my photos submitted to the Voyageurs National Park Association 2019 photo contest each received an honorable mention recognition. I also see that they are using my 2018 3rd place winning photo of a Common Loon as their promotional image for the photo contest. You can see all of the winning entries here - https://www.facebook.com/pg/VoyageursNPA/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10157893002155229&__tn__=-UC-R
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Burrowing Owl Photo

10/2/2019

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I was pleased to see that my photo of a Burrowing Owl in a Humbolt county, IA, corn field last year was used on the cover of the 'Iowa Bird Life', the journal of the Iowa Ornithologists' Union (Summer 2018 issue). https://iowabirds.org . It appears that his head is on backwards as he is looking 180 degrees to the rear. The photo was taken from the car with a 600mm lens.
It is very unusual to see a Burrow Owl in Iowa. This lone owl dug a hole early in the spring before the corn field was planted and sat there fro a couple of weeks calling for a non-existent mate. The owl eventually disappeared, I hope moving on to a better environment.
In this same issue of Iowa Bird Life a couple of other photos I submitted were also used.

Northern Lights at Leech Lake

9/30/2019

Photos taken at Leech Lake Minnesota Friday, September 27 into the early hours of Saturday, September 28, 2019. With a forecast of Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) there were lots of people out in the upper midwest to view and photograph the 'lights'. They were a little dim to the naked eye, but the camera recorded these with a 25 second exposure time at f/2.8, ISO 2000.

"Best Local Film"

9/5/2019

Dale Mills and I were honored tonight to receive an award for the 'Best Local Film' for our film 'A February Canoe Float' at the Iowa Independent Film Festival, among the six films that were screened tonight. It looked pretty good on the big screen. I was a bit surprised because all of the films shown tonight were very good. I'm glad they liked ours.
(Produced, directed and edited by Bruce G. McKee, written and narrated by Dale Mills.)
Click images below to see larger.

The film was a semi-finalist at the Muscatine Independent Film Festival, but didn't make the final cut. I'm still honored that it was being considered.

View the film - 'A February Canoe Float'

The Milky Way and a covered bridge

9/4/2019

One more try at a photo of the covered bridge at Wilkenson Pioneer Park in Rock Falls, IA, with lots of stars and the Milky Way this time on a clear night. Because of the Earth's revolving around the Sun the Milky Way is now a bit farther to the Southeast (to the right in this photo) than I would have liked for this photo. I'll be back a little earlier in the summer to try again next year.

Bison at Neal Smith NWR

8/26/2019

I took a short drive through the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge near Prairie City, IA, looking for birds ( which were unusually scarce) and came face to face with this Bull Bison. You can drive through the Bison enclosure and if you're not careful you could have Bison right up to your car. This photo was take from the car with a telephoto lens while the Bison was still some distance away.

Paddling at Ventura Marsh

8/26/2019

It was a quiet morning in the Ventura Marsh as I slid my kayak in to the water for an early morning paddle. Let me rephrase that. It was a calm morning, but anything but quiet. The air was alive with the sounds of hundreds of birds, frogs, toads and the hum of cars and motor boats in the distance. As I quietly paddled to try to get some photos the Great Blue Herons kept a watchful eye on me and noisily squawked their displeasure as they flew away long before I got close to them. When I paddled in close to the cattails I was thrilled to see several little Marsh Wrens. I really get a kick out of seeing them cling to two different cattails or blades of grass as they surveyed the area for bugs. The little Swamp Sparrows were seen in the same area. A couple of new birds for me were a 'Sora' ( I saw three) and a 'Virginia Rail'. They foraged in the shallow water at the base of the cattails and quickly disappeared in to the heavy cover as I approached. There were many Wood Ducks, but they saw me long before I saw them and all I really saw was their tail feathers as they made a quick getaway. As I paddled in and around the backwaters and channels of the floating cattail bogs there were dozens of birds that I could hear but didn't see including several Trumpeter Swans. A lone Osprey flew lazy circles overhead causing the ducks and Cormorants to scatter. A couple of years ago the DNR drained down the marsh to kill out the carp, but guess what, they're back. Several times a large carp would boil up next to the kayak and scared the whoop out of me. Fortunately I have a very stable hybrid kayak or I might have tipped as I jumped in my seat. All in all it was a beautiful morning to be out enjoying nature.
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The Covered Bridge and Night Sky

8/12/2019

A starry night and the covered bridge at Wilkenson Pioneer Park in Rock Falls lit by the bright moonlight. Look above the bridge in the second photo and you can see the Big Dipper. The glow on the horizon is from the moonlight lighting up the ground haze. Not visible this way to the naked eye, but records this way with the long exposure necessary to show the stars in the night sky.
[Click images to see larger]

The Milky Way and a Lone Tree

7/30/2019

There were billions of stars last night in a clear beautiful sky in North Iowa. The Milky Way was extremely bright without a cloud anywhere and just a little haze on the horizon, and of course the light pollution from the nearest town to the south. I was at this location with this lone tree on a quiet country road near Union Hills Wildlife Management Area a couple of times last year, but the clouds always moved in on me. Last night I nailed it. We don't have 'dark skies' like some parts of the country because of all the light pollution from cities, towns and rural farm lights, but this is about as good as it gets. Jupiter is the bright star in the lower right of the image and Saturn is at the tip-top of the tree. I couldn't have asked for a better night - a slight breeze, not a single mosquito, what a great night to be out. There was also a meteor shower, but I only saw two in the couple of hours I was out, but I was mostly looking to the south. A tripod, a wide angle lens, a long exposure and some enhancement on the computer are the recipe for pictures of the stars.
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Zirble Slough

7/29/2019

Cerro Cordo County Conservation is draining out all of the water from Zirble Slough to allow aquatic plants to get re-established for a better environment for birds and wildlife. Then they will allow it to naturally fill again. As the water is very low for awhile it has been full of shorebirds pecking in the mud for insects and whatever else they eat. There was a lot of wildlife there the morning that I visited.
[Click images to see larger]

Another Prairie Photo Outing

7/24/2019

Photo of Bruce

(Photo by Jeanna Petree)

Last evening we had a North Iowa Photo Club outing to take photos of prairie flowers, birds insects and more in a private prairie in North Iowa. It was a beautiful evening and fun to see how the other photographers approached taking photos in this location. The highlight for me was first time photos of several Bobolinks and one Dickcissel, both are birds that normally only found in prairie areas. There was a nice fiery sunset to top off the evening.
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A Prairie Walk

7/22/2019

Yesterday a group from the North Iowa Nature Club went out for a walk in the prairie at Wilkenson Pioneer Park. Here are a few photos from the trip. [Click images to see larger.]