Tag: “bill duncan”

Mondays Are For The Birds – Red-shouldered Hawks

birds, Mondays Are For The Birds

Monday greetings, human.  Another great day at work instead of taking pictures of birds.  I heard the migratory songbird fallout was quite nice around the St. Louis area today.  Good thing I was at work.  One or two days a week being able to do what I want just doesn’t seem to be enough anymore.  I will have a week’s vacation coming up next month, but that seems a long way off.

Anyway, I’m finally getting around to processing some photos of the Red-shouldered Hawk nest I photographed over several weeks this past May.  Here, this little one is showing off one of those innate behaviors.  I’m sure those of you with human babies wish they could do something like this a lot earlier than they do.  Have a great week.

“Red-shouldered Hawk Nest”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera,  EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 640,  f/6.3, 1/250 sec

Mondays Are For The Birds – Red-Eyed Vireo

birds, Mondays Are For The Birds, wildlife

Hello again.  Today I am starting a new blog series that I am calling “Mondays Are For The Birds” and today’s first spotlight bird is this Red-eyed Vireo.  For anyone fool-hardy enough to do some summer hiking in the deciduous woodlands and forests of the Missouri Ozarks, the Red-eyed Vireo shouldn’t be new to you.  When almost all other songbirds have given up claims to their nesting grounds and quit vocalizing for the season, the REVI is just warming up.  In the middle of a sweltering summer’s day one will still hear the questions this guy’s song seems to ask. “Who are you, who am I, Here I am, Look at me, In this tree!”

This photo was taken recently during the fall migration.  This species along with other vireos and warblers will eat primarily caterpillars and other arthropods during spring migration and throughout the summer breeding season, but in fall will switch to a diet primarily consisting of berries, such as those found on the wild grape.

Thanks for visiting today.  I hope you like the photo and I hope you had the best possible Monday.

“Red-Eyed Vireo”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera,  EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 800,  f/5.6, 1/250 sec

Sunshine On My Shoulders Makes Me Happy

birds, Uncategorized, wildlife

Hi everyone.  It’s an absolute gorgeous Saturday here in the northern Ozarks.  I hope the weather is to your liking wherever you are reading this.

This post is dedicated to my grandmother, Genny, who is currently recovering from a health crisis.  Sarah and I are so glad you are getting better and we wish you all the best in a speedy recovery.

Today’s post is a result of one of the magical times I spent recently at Ellis Island at Riverlands.  During an evening hike I noticed I was in the middle of a huge mayfly hatch.  There seemed to mayflys in the millions.  This rang the dinner bell for migrating passerines for miles around the confluence!  This was definitely one of the coolest bird experiences ever for me.  The bird pictured below, a Yellow Warbler, was one of near 50 of this species I came across.  Also in huge abundance were Black and White Warblers, Empidonax Flycatchers, Red-eyed Vireo and many others.  Thirteen total warblers, four vireos and a large handful of other species were all gorging on this insect feast.  The swarm, so thick the flies were perching on me, lasted until sunset and unfortunately I had limited opportunities for getting decent lighting for photographs.  That was frustrating, but being able to watch this natural wonder was reward enough.

This is one of those species that I’ll always remember the first time I found.  It was a springtime male perched on a dead branch singing his heart out and touched by the morning sun.  I never truly saw the color yellow until that morning!  The image bellow does that guy no justice.

Enjoy the weekend and remember, in Missouri, dove and teal are in season so hunters will be out there doing their thing.  There are places nature watchers and hunters use in close proximity, so be careful and considerate.

“Sunshine On My Shoulder”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera,  EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 400,  f/5.6, 1/800 sec

King’s Realm

birds, wildlife

In the field, the brief views I was fortunate enough to get suggested to me this was a Virginia Rail.  The Virginia is only about half the size of the King and this obvious difference should usually make the identification quite easy.  Unfortunately my brief, distant and mostly obscured view of this bird did not allow me to get a good estimate on the bird’s size.  Once back home with the photo and field guides open I began to doubt my original ID call.  I listed as many reasons to feel KIRA as VIRA.  I quickly realized I needed help and rushed the photo and my thoughts to the three wise men of the birding community I knew would love the challenge.  The single photo was less than the smoking gun I was hoping it was.  All three agreed it was most-likely a King Rail, but there is still room for doubt.  Although a photo of a Virginia Rail would have added a new species to my bird-photo-life-list it always makes me happy to find and watch a bird of conservation concern, as is the King.

You can see in this “bird in habitat” photo just the sort of habitat that rails and other waders need.  Rails love to be in water about up to their knees with plenty of vegetation to use for cover.  Most shorebirds like the mud, while larger waterfowl, obviously like a little more water.  Heron Pond at RMBS is being managed to provide the habitat these groups of birds need.  Check out a few images of young KIRA I took a while ago.

“King Rail”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera,  EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 640,  f/5.6, 1/400 sec

The Marsh Chicken

birds, wildlife

This post/photo is dedicated to Paul Bauer, master birder, bird photographer, and steward – a responsible agent in the development and management of Heron Pond and other features of Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary.  Thank you, Paul, for leaving something worthwhile.

The Sora, or as I like to call them the Marsh Chicken is a small but quite abundant rail.  They definitely are one of the easier to view rails to be found during migration, but I found out how common they can be during a magical morning spent recently at my usual haunt at RMBS.  Arriving just before dawn I wandered the slow hike to a nice spot to watch the marsh of Heron Pond while waiting for the ol’ Sumatra brew to kick in.  I had the entire place to myself for most of the next two hours, standing still and counting the birds.  Besides being reminiscent of a chicken, I think Pete Dunn’s description of their bill as “candy-corn-shaped” to be quite fitting and a good field mark for identification.  These guys are often vocal and at certain times of the year their whinny-type calls and grunts can be heard all day long.  Being a rail these guys are definitely timid and spend a good amount of time hidden within the vegetation.  However, I have found these guys to be much more willing to spend time on the open mud in search of food, making a run back to the greenery at the first sign of trouble.  My total count for this particular morning was 62 birds!  Looking around the pond it seems that you would not be able to run through the vegetation without kicking one of these guys with every step.  Standing relatively still allowed me to catch this guy in a photo probably no more than 15 feet from where I stood.

“Sora”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera,  EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 640,  f/5.6, 1/320 sec

As Noisy as a Mouse

birds, wildlife

More often heard than seen, this quite secretive wren rarely is found more than a few feet off the ground.  Like a mouse, these guys spend a great deal of time low in the tall grasses and sedge of wet meadows/prairies.  In July and August taking a walk in this type of habitat within their range will certainly guarantee you will hear their consistent staccato vocalizations as they work to define their small territories and keep rival males at bay.  Trying to lay the glass on these birds is much more difficult.  These guys rarely will respond to pishing, and if driven out of their particular patch of grass they will simply skirt above the grasses for a second or two before dropping back into the bush, yielding partial, unsatisfying glimpses at best.  To get this shot, I admit, I used a vocalization playback.  I played just a few bars and waited.  This guy was not happy with that!  He raced out of his hiding whole and began singing forcefully in attempt to send the potential usurper out of his territory.  I was happy with the few quick bursts of the shutter I was able to get and that was that.  He may have been a bit stressed, but I bet the burst of testosterone he received from successfully defending his kingdom more than made up for it.

“Sedge Wren”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera,  EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 400,  f/5.6, 1/1250 sec

Ancient Seas, Megagrazers and Naked Apes

landscape, sunset/sunrise

The story this landscape could tell.  The limestone, cherts and flints found in these hills were laid down by shallow seas which covered much of North America during the Permian Period.  Winds and waters then sculpted this landscape. The Flint Hills were not much affected by glacial activity.  Easy to erode shales and limestone were the primary building block of the shallow soils now found on these hills, while limestone and flint now remain.  Much of this soil washed down the hills and collected in lower areas like in the Kansas River valley seen here below.  The first grazers to feast on the prairie grasses and forbs of these hills were the Mastodon and Mammoth, followed later by the bison.  Crops like maize and squash were first grown in this river valley by the Kansa Indians and now this fertile land is used to grow modern mono-cultures.  This was my first visit to Konza, and I’m not sure why the tall grass of the tall-grass prairie was not very present in the spots that I found myself.  This could be because of the drought, it could be because of livestock grazing system, or maybe I was in areas dominated by the “short-grass” species, found more typically in the western plains.

“Dawn on the Kansas River Valley″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L USM lens @ 33mm, ISO 160,  f/16, manual blend of two exposures

Kid ‘n Play

birds

This image is from a series I took early this summer at Colombia Bottom Conservation Area.  These two dancing birds were among a large group of Great Egrets competing for standing room only space in a shrinking pool that was loaded with fish.  These moves reminded me of the dancing and rhyming styles of that old hip hop dynamic duo of my youth, Kid ‘n Play.  If I ever get around to processing all the keepers from this series, you will definitely not want to miss the shot I took of the bird I was able to get to wear a “Kid wig”.  😉

Ain’t Gonna Hurt Nobody… We Just Dancin’ Ya’ll!

“Kid ‘n Play”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera,  EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 640,  f/5.6, 1/400 sec

Touched by the Sun

landscape

These glade coneflowers, Echinacea simulata, were found in peak bloom during a May hike at Valley View Glades Natural Area.  Pollen color separates this species from the near identical and more widespread pale coneflower, E. pallida, but some differences in growth habit can be seen as well.  Some species of Echinacea are considered threatened or endangered and loss of habitat and the removal of these plants by non-licensed hunters for the pharmaceutical trade are the primary threats.  There can often be found signs of plant harvesting and rock turning (looking for reptiles and arachnids for the pet trade) at this location and nearby Victoria Glad N.A.  It’s a pity that more cannot be done to protect these ever-shrinking habitats.

“Touched by the Sun″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L USM lens @ 19mm, ISO 400,  f/18, 1/13 sec