Tag: missouri

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

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

Location Spotlight: Devil’s Icebox Cave

landscape, location spotlight

Located within Rockbridge State Park, just south of Columbia in Boone County, Missouri lies the Devil’s Icebox.  This name generally refers to a collapsed section, or sinkhole of this cave system.  One of the largest caves in Missouri, there is an estimated seven miles of caverns, tunnels and sinkhole surface connections.  The geologic features found here were carved of the same Burlington limestone that formed The Pinnacles found a few miles to the north.  This is also one of the most biologically active and diverse cavern systems in Missouri, being home to two endangered species of bat and a very cool species of pink planaria (flat worm) that is found nowhere else on the planet!  I’ve only had the pleasure of two brief visits to this location, but when water levels are low, like we have now, the underground streams and pools drop and allow for relatively easy access to exploring the caves.  Apparently a good sized section is considered easy to explore and a couple of good headlamps are all that is required.  A summertime visit is the perfect time of year to find out first hand why this place got its name.  The temperature seemed to drop about 40 degrees F during our visit this past weekend.  I can’t wait to get back here and explore some more!

“Devil’s Icebox″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 28mm, ISO 400,  f/11, manual blend of two exposures

What Would YOU Call a 680 Ton Rock?

landscape

Meet Dumbo, probably the largest of the free standing boulders to be found at Elephant Rocks.  I’ve shared images of this beast before.  You can see more photographs of Dumbo and it’s granite pachyderm brethren on my Elephant Rocks State Park Set on Flickr.  I’ve recently started really trying to take my post-processing to the next level.  I have come to believe that I can control what happens to the exposure inside the magic light-capture box almost as well as I could possibly want. I’m not saying I know every trick in the book, but I do not feel that I am missing too much.  Post-processing on the ol’ computer (equivalent of working on prints in the wet dark room of yesterday), I realize I can use some improvements and practice.  So, recently I adopted some new software and set out to better improve my workflow and learn some new tricks on the other side of the negative.  I am NOT saying I want to become a Photoshop/graphic artist, but just desire to be able to control aspects of the file that will allow me to create a final image that best represents my concept of the scene when I hit the shutter release.

What am I getting at and just what does it have to do with this image?  One of the possible adjustments that can be found in the latest versions of Adobe software products is the ability to correct for geometric lens distortion.  This is a very cool correction device that allows issues of wide angle (barrel) and telephoto (pin cushion) distortions, usually seen in at least some respect in any zoom lens, to be easily corrected for in the computer.  Depending on the subject, barrel distortion can be particularly troublesome.  In this photo of Dumbo, I proudly went to ACR’s lens correction tab and hit the go button and looked at the results of the default setting.  All of a sudden the cool, slightly exaggerated perspective of Dumbo was gone.  The image became pretty boring, to be honest.  This was a good lessen for me for a couple of reasons.  First, just as nature photographers might use changes in color-cast, manipulations of tonal range, or cropping unwanted portions of an image, we can also use (or remove) perspective changes from lens distortions to make our desired image.  Second, any of these lens corrections made (vignetting, chromatic aberration, and especially geometric distortion) can and will cause degradation to the quality of the final image.  We must carefully decide what corrections are necessary and use the sliders to make the minimum needed adjustments.  Do not blindly accept the defaults given by the software.  I have not been able to find much to read on this specific topic and I am still learning as I get more practice.

“Dumbo”
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 17mm, ISO 160,  f/13, 1/30 sec

The Sandhill Crane

birds, wildlife

This stained adult Sandhill Crane is currently visiting some soy fields near St. Louis.

“Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty.  It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language.  The quality of cranes lies, I think, in this higher gamut, as yet beyond the reach of words.”

-Aldo Leopold

“A Sand County Almanac And Sketches Here and There”

“Stained Adult Sandhill Crane”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera,  EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 400,  f/5.6, 1/500 sec

The Fabulous Water Mills of Jim Lalumondiere

landscape, Ozark Grist Mills

Several weeks back Sarah and I jumped in the N.E.V. and decided to go put a few more Missouri Ozark water mills on our list.  Armed with a copy George Suggs’ “Water Mills of the Missouri Ozarks”, we decided to go after a few that were closer to home.  The first on the list for the day was the Byrnesville Mill.  After doing some location scouting on Google and Google Maps, I decided to just tell the GPS to take us to the town of Byrnesville, then I would go from there.  Of all the cool things, the GPS led us directly to the mill!  If only all my destinations were this easy.  We pulled into a large drive and I realized quickly we were on private property, with cool farm, pioneer and ruin type structures all around us.  Looking around I see a white-haired gentlemen coming out of one of the buildings.  We strike up a conversation and I let him know what we are looking for.  He goes on to tell us some fascinating stories about the buildings and particularly the Byrnesville Mill.

“Byrnesville Mill, June 2012”
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 35mm, ISO 100,  f/14, 1/13 sec

Jim had bought this mill in 1976 and converted it into a home where he raised a family.  I couldn’t think of a better place to grow up!  This was one of a dozen or more mills along a rather short stretch of the Big River.  Elaborate dams, like the one pictured above, and other containment structures were built with most of these mills in order to efficiently harness the water’s power.  The Big River is a remarkable waterway for Smallmouth Bass fishing and apparently it doesn’t get much better than right outside Jim’s back door.  Talk about envy!  Jim was most gracious and let us walk about the property, including his own personal bridge that the railways used to cross the Big River.  The image below shows some of the fascinating objects one can find by exploring the property.

“Mill & Stone Ruins”
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 47mm, ISO 100,  f/13, 0.8 sec

Further conversation with Jim led to the discovery that he also owned the nearby Cedar Hill Mill, which we had planned on visiting as well.  Jim had purchased this mill in 1982 with plans on using it to generate and sell electricity.  This plan did not work out and he has been doing a pretty good job of maintaining it since.  They are currently brainstorming ways that the structure could be used for business.

“Cedar Hill Mill, IR, June-2012”
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 82mm, ISO 640,  f/10, 120 sec

I told Jim about the boom in micro/craft beers and brewery/restaurant style establishments in St. Louis during the past several years.  This building is four stories with part of a river running through it.  Would this not be the perfect place for a little micro brewery and pub!?!?

“Cedar Hill Mill Workings I”
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 23mm, ISO 400,  f/10, Photomatix-HDR blend of 8-images

Seriously, just relocate the several thousand mud-daubers and the swallows, but leave everything else as is.  I’ll even name the first brew: Cedar Hill Mill IPA.  Easy.

It is interesting to read and hear about the changes that went through the life cycle of these water mills as diesel and electricity became much more efficient sources of power.  This mill, built in 1876, was first built to mill grain for human consumption.  Jim told me it was also used to mill grain for the pet-food trade and the energy captured was also utilized in the production of ice.

“Cedar Hill Mill Workings II”
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 21mm, ISO 320,  f/8, Photomatix-HDR blend of 7-images

“Cedar Hill Mill & Big River Dam, IR, June-2012”
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 32mm, ISO 640,  f/10, 90 sec

The majority of the water mill structures along this popular stretch of the Big River have fallen to time and ages.  Likewise many of the dams have been breached as can be seen in the above picture.  This was a popular spot on this Sunday afternoon as dozens of people swarm to this spot to swim and fish.  Just as Jim allowed us access inside his mill to take photos, it comes as no surprise he allows his neighbors to use the dam and the river along his property.  With the magic of long-exposure photography, you can see no signs of the several people who were moving along the dam when this image was taken.

Even though Sarah and I could not find a great place for a meal (always a goal of mine during travels) during this trip, meeting Jim and taking some images I’m somewhat happy with was a great way to spend the day.  I can’t wait to visit Jim again, give him a print or two as thanks for allowing us to explore his properties and hopefully make some more memories.