I have talked about the 16th Street Basin many times on this blog. It used to be one of my favorite places to photograph wildlife. But then the powers to be cut down most of the trees and put up a sun farm and a lot of wildlife never came back.
Yesterday I drove past the basin and was happy to see several species of wildlife there. Nothing like it used to be but there were mallard ducks, Canada geese, ring-billed gulls, and even a couple of eagles, who remained pretty far out in the middle, so it was very difficult to get a good image of them.
So, today is all about the mallard ducks. They were close enough to the short to get some images of them. This particular image is funny because I noticed a male and female (I am allowed to say that anymore?) swimming in circles. When I focused on them with the long lens I notice that the male had a fish he was trying to eat and the female was trying to get it away from him. He finally got it down, so she got nothing. Enjoy your day.
I have never met a Blue Heron that I didn’t want to photograph. I can’t help myself. 🙂
I have three photos for today.
My great friend Mike and I had lunch yesterday and I was about 30 minutes early for our appointment (believe it or not) so I decided to drive a couple of miles to the 16th Street Basin. I was delighted to see a few Herons fishing there.
The deplorable conditions of the basin (junk wise) is something I have talked about before. I was overjoyed to see City Crews working diligently picking up garbage around the shoreline. I stopped and talked with one of the crew and told them how much I appreciated their work and she said that the city was committed to cleaning up the area. Later that afternoon I saw even more workers picking up trash.
I know this is a butt shot but like with herons I just have trouble passing up an opportunity to photograph a Goose. Besides my friend Betty loves geese. 🙂
I didn’t Photoshop out any of the garbage out of this shot. Normally I will work to get all the distractions out of the image but I wanted to give you an idea of just a small bit of the task ahead of the cleanup crew.
After church I drove down to the river to see if there was anything going on. It is said that one definition of insanity is, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I’ll explain…
I have three images for today. One of my favorite places to photograph wildlife in the area has been the 16th Street Basin for a variety of reasons. It has offered an abundance of geese, ducks, herons, egrets, eagles, and various other species including pelicans. I could always count on finding something to photograph at the Basin, no matter what time of year it was.
The Basin was close, only a few miles from home, so it was easy to get to no matter what the weather was doing. There was a lot of distraction (buildings and power lines) to inhibit photographing wildlife in flight but it could be done.
It had a lot of fish in it so it attracted lots of fish-eating birds. Two years ago they chopped down all the trees around the Basin. Trees that provided cover and a resting area for the wildlife. They put in a large solar farm adjacent to the basin, hence the removal of threes. 😦
I keep going back to the basin in hopes of finding something to photograph thus the definition of insanity, because for the last two years there has been nothing to photograph.
Imagine my surprise when I went to my favorite spot of years gone by and found a half-dozen Blue Herons resting. I was excited to say the least. However a sad things is there is no one is taking care of the Basin any more and so I spent a lot of time on each of the photos I’m showing today cloning out all the junk and debris that have built around the banks of the Basin, with Photoshop. 😦
There were some geese and this pair of Mallards swimming near the herons. I couldn’t pass them up.
I have Blue Herons for you today. These images were shot towards the end of the day when the light was soft and a pretty orange. Unfortunately the Herons like to sit at the West side of the 16th Street Basin where all the trees are so the light is really subdued. Makes for difficult shooting conditions, but I was pretty happy with the images I got.
I enjoy watching and photographing Herons. I like to watch them stalk along the shore line and all of a sudden faster than the eye can follow their entire head will shoot underwater and usually come up with a fish, which is then normally devoured in one gulp. 🙂
These guys were really in the dark and I had to use ISO 10,000 to get a usable image of them. I like the fact that their mouths are open and although I couldn’t hear them I suspect they were communicating with each other. Probably saying they wished I would leave them alone.
Busy day today with a long list of to-dos so I’m not sure I’ll get any photography in. I have a photo shoot for my company this week and get to take bunch of head shots, which is one of my favorite things to do.
That’s it for today. Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your day and be careful.
A short post today with only one image. I had one “decent” image of an eagle at the 16th Street Basin on Sunday. I like it because it shows the fish he caught or stole. I didn’t actually see this one get the fish and as my friend Andreas noted they often times will buzz a gull who has a fish and scare them into dropping it.
Even though the photography wasn’t all that great I had a lot of fun watching the gulls and eagles interact. It is so much fun to just sit and watch wildlife doing their thing. You can click on the image to make it larger if you like.
Thank you all for your kind words of support yesterday. They are greatly appreciated.
That’s it for today. Thanks for stopping by the blog. Enjoy your day and be careful.
Relax, I’m not going to show you a bunch of eagle images. 🙂
I was out and about yesterday and as is my habit I always drive by the 16th Street Basin. In years past it has been robust with wildlife, but for some reason it has been absent of wildlife this year.
Yesterday was the exception. I was delighted to see more than a half-dozen eagles sitting on the ice and in the trees. Lots of ring-billed gulls and even a few geese. The eagles were out in the middle of the basin, too far away to get a good shot of them. Besides I have thousands of images of eagles sitting on the ice. 🙂
But then an eagle took off and did a dive (which I missed) into the open water and came up with a small fish. I had trouble following the action but you can see the juvenile eagle in hot pursuit of the adult eagle. Since the juveniles are still learning how to fish they often times try to steal the food of the more accomplished adults.
I was busy photographing gulls because they were much closer to me then the eagles. I was enjoying watching this little guy walk toward me. When I first arrived at my spot he flew away and landed several yards away. He took his time but eventually walked back to where he originally had been.
Somewhere in the tussle between the eagles the fish was dropped and guess who took advantage of that. 🙂
I don’t think it is the same gull that I had been photographing (that would have made a better story) but when opportunity knocks you have to be ready to seize it. 🙂
That’s it for today. Thanks for stopping by the blog. Enjoy your day and be careful.
I didn’t sleep well last night thinking about all the things I need to do to have a successful shoot today in Maquoketa. If I were doing this on a regular basis it would be a walk in the park but every time I do a portrait shoot is almost like my first one. A re-learning experience.
I’m not complaining, just sharing those thoughts. 🙂
I had a lot of to-dos yesterday on my list and finally got them all done by mid-afternoon. I kept thinking the sun was going to come out and I would have a chance to shoot some landscapes but that didn’t happen. So around 3:00 p.m. I headed out to visit the 16th Street Basin and I was happy to see there were a lot of geese, ducks and one lone gull on the water.
I also ventured up to Mud Lake Park but didn’t find anything there to put a lens on.
So I’m getting things ready to head for Maquoketa this morning. It will take an hour or so to set up the lights, background, computer, and electrical cords. Then get the lights balanced and the camera color balanced. Hopefully after that I actually have people who want their picture taken show up. 🙂
Anyway check back tomorrow if you have time and I’ll have all the details. Good, bad, and the in between.
Thanks for stopping by the blog. Enjoy your day and be careful.
I never tire of photographing wildlife. Be it the ubiquitous Mallard Duck or any other common critter. I enjoy watching them interact with their environment an each other. Of course what I really enjoy is photographing them.
The Ducks and Geese in this post were all photographed at the 16th Street Basin. It has not been replete with wildlife this season as it was last year. But occasionally like this past Monday there will be a few water fowl there.
I caught these ducks napping in what little sun there was Monday It was overcast most of the day, cool and windy. I guess they had nothing better to do then nap.
I have never seen a pose like this. He was rubbing his neck on his back and scratching his underside with his foot at the same time. Sort of like rubbing a circle on chest while patting your stomach. 🙂
That’s it for today. Thanks for stopping by the blog. Enjoy your day and be careful.
I spent two hours on Saturday breaking up the frozen snow and ice on our sidewalk. I even did the neighbor’s sidewalk as they must have been gone for the Thanksgiving Holiday. By Saturday afternoon the sun and 47 degree temperature took care of any remnants of the snow and ice so I didn’t get any credit for all my hard work. 🙂
I call the first image synchronized swimming and the second one synchronized sleeping. I went to the 16th Street Basin Saturday afternoon and found a couple of hundred geese and a few mallard ducks on the ice. There was another photographer also taking images. I didn’t stay long as you can only shoot so many images of geese sitting on the ice.
Nothing special about this eagle picture other than it is the first eagle of the season. He was sitting in a tree over looking the lock and dam. Lots of people around watching and photographing him. I think we are all waiting for the river to freeze over so we can get some images of eagles fishing.
I hope to spend some time at Lock and Dam #14 this year. I’ve only been there a couple of times and it’s very crowded but it has the best opportunity to capture some eagle images while they fish.
Burt Gearhart is an accomplished wildlife photographer who spends a lot of time at lock and dam #14 and he has invited me down on numerous occasions.
That’s it for today. Hope you enjoy your Monday. Thanks for stopping by the blog and be careful.
Saturday was pretty much a veg day. Jeanne came home with a bad case of Bronchitis and was pretty much under the weather Friday and Saturday. She got to feeling better yesterday and so yesterday afternoon we did our normal photo trip around town.
First stop as always was the 16th Street Basin. We had heard there were a lot of Pelicans there but we could only find 3 or 4 at most. A couple came in while we were there but certainly not what we have experienced in past years. So in anticipation of finding a body of water full of Pelicans I packed my long lens (500 mm) and the Phantom and we took off.
Before I get too much in to this story I have to tell you about the two flights I did on Saturday. The first flight I flew from the back patio (basketball court) and went over to a small pond that is located on the school grounds. It is about 750 feet away and that is the farthest I have ever flown the Phantom and still maintained video link between the Phantom and my receiver. There were two ducks in the pond and I got as close as I could but the reception wasn’t all that good so I didn’t want to put it in the pond. 🙂
The second flight was later in the afternoon when I decided to take it up and see if I could above 1,000. Actually I got to 1,320 feet. It is amazing how things look from that high. I worked most of yesterday on editing that video but lost my work two times. I’m still trying to learn the video editing program and apparently I still have a bunch to learn.
This image was grabbed from the video and it shows what the neighborhood looks like at 1,320 feet.
Okay, so back to the story of the 16th Street Basin. I shot a few images of the one Pelican that was closest to the shore and then some other wildlife that was close enough to capture and then it was time to fly the Phantom and see if I could get some overhead shots of the Basin.
We went around to the other side (away from all the power lines) and I launched the Phantom. There were two Pelicans out in the middle of the Basin and I flew pretty close to them for several minutes. Came back to where we were and made a perfect landing. No really I did it was beautiful. Went over to turn the Phantom off and realized that I had accidentally switched the GoPro camera from video to still shots. The problem is I don’t have anyway to take still shots with the GoPro when it’s in the air. So all that flying was for nothing.
Well, I reset the camera and took it up again. I got pretty close to a gull and a Pelican and had some fun tracking the Pelican. I know I made him a little nervous but I didn’t stress him very long. Good thing I decided to come back when I did because I was running on fumes (battery wise) as I came in for a landing there was a gust of wind and with the battery so low the controls did not respond as they normally do so I crashed. Yep, it’s on the video. My good fortune I crashed into some soft grass so no damage to the Phantom or the camera. 🙂
I do not know what this duck is and I didn’t have time to look him up. If you know please post in the comments.
The video below is only a little over 5 minutes. Some good music and I think you’ll like the Pelican and Gull. That’s it for today. Hope you enjoy your day. Thanks for stopping by and be careful.
