Tag: riverlands

A Mouthfull

birds, wildlife

“A sense of history should be the most precious gift of science and of the arts, but I suspect that the grebe, who has neither, knows more history than we do.  His dim primordial brain knows nothing of who won the Battle of Hastings, but it seems to sense who won the battle of time.  If the race of men were as old as the race of grebes, we might better grasp the import of his call.  Think what traditions, prides, disdains, and wisdoms even a few self-conscious generations bring to us!  What pride of continuity, then, impels this bird, who was a grebe eons before there was a man.”

-Aldo Leopold-

IMG_7431

“Peid-billed Grebe with Fish”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF500mm f/4.5L USM lens, ISO 640,  f/5.6, 1/800 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

Summer at the Confluence

birds, Uncategorized, wildlife

This weekend I spent both mornings at Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary, arriving near dawn and walking around the trails for a few hours before the extreme heat of the day took over.  Sarah got up early and came with me this morning. Saturday morning I was fortunate to spot this guy feasting on carcases of fish that succumbed to the poorly oxygenated waters of the shrinking, heated pools of the wetlands.  This was my first opportunity at shooting a raccoon.  Even at such an early morning hour, the back-light serves to give a sense of the heat and humidity that were already noticeable.

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

One of the photographic challenges of this location is trying to get shots of the song birds that live among the tall grasses.  They usually stay pretty far from the trails and are usually hidden low in the vegetation.  This Common Yellowthroat Warbler was close enough and partially obscured by the grasses.

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera,  EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 640,  f/5.6, 1/1250 sec

One of the pleasure one can get from a summertime visit to RMBS is watching the Least Tern.  I love watching these guys fish.  This one is beginning the plunge into the water off of Ellis Island to grab a little fish.

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera,  EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 250,  f/5.6, 1/1600 sec

Kudos to Sarah, who took a closer look at these guys.  What looked like a bunch of tadpoles gulping at the surface of one of these rapidly vanishing pools was actually a nice-sized school of small catfish.  If rains do not come soon, these guys have no chance.

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

Sarah also spotted this thistle in early bloom and asked that I take its picture.  I haven’t done a lot of macro style shooting with the 400mm, but I know that using the super tele’s to do this can work magic.  The focus isn’t perfect, but I was actually fighting the minimum focus distance.  I need to try this with dragonflies and other large insects.

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

This morning there was actually a bit of cloud cover over the sun.  I decided to try a little panning blur and thought this was an apt image to go along with the record breaking heat we’ve been experiencing.  Stay cool everyone.  I am sure looking forward to all the time I’ll have to spend in the greenhouse this week.  ;=)

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera,  EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 100,  f/14, 1/125 sec