Ring Billed Gulls

All posts tagged Ring Billed Gulls

Sunday ~ October 07, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on October 7, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

Happy Sunday!

I took a stroll up and down the Great River Walk (Dubuque) last week and made a few images of wildlife that I enjoy photographing.  I have four images today.

This Great Egret was actually at the 16th Street Basin.  Although the city has made an effort to clean the debris from the area it remains inundated with all sorts of garbage.  I cannot believe the insensitivity of some with regards to this wonderful place.

You know, if you’ve followed my photography for very long, that I cannot pass up a chance at photographing a Blue Heron.  The River Walk is high enough and just far enough to allow a great shot with a long lens without stressing the bird too much.

At one end of the River Walk is the barge staging area where they put together barges and load them up.  I had to capture these gulls taking advantage of this temporary resting place.

On my way back I found this guy resting.  So like the one before I had to take the shot.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Monday ~ April 23, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on April 23, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Happy Monday!

Three images for today.  I know, this is a ring-billed gull.  I’ve only posted about a hundred images of them on this blog.  So here is one hundred one.  🙂

Jeanne and I went to the river Saturday waiting for time to go to the reception.  There were some folks throwing bread to the gulls so it made for good practice trying to capture a sharp images of these small birds who are very quick in their change of direction.

I like this image because it reminded me of trying to get a group shot of people.  Someone is always looking the wrong way or has their eyes closed.  The little guy on the right is just not paying attention to his pose and is more interested in the camera.

At the 16th Street Basin we found these pelicans sunning themselves on a concrete wall.  While the the others rest and relax there is this guy keeping his eye out for trouble.  I snuck up on them and only shot a couple of images so I didn’t disturb them.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Sunday ~ October 01, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on October 1, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Happy Sunday!

I have a couple of images for today.

Yesterday I got a hair cut around 11:00 a.m. and Jeanne wanted to go with me because I said I’d buy her lunch.  🙂

She walked around and looked at all the building art while John was working his magic on my hair.

Afterward we went to a new (for us anyway) restaurant called Barrel House.  It is where the former restaurant Crust had been located.  The food was decent but the service was bad.  I’ll admit we were there a little before the noon hour but I had to flag down a waitress to wait on us after ten minutes.  Then After she brought our drinks we didn’t see her again until I waved at her again.

I realize you can’t make a judgement of a restaurant based solely on the performance of one waitress but it did leave a bad impression on me.

After lunch we drove down to the river.  There was a man and woman throwing bread crumbs at the Ring-billed gulls and so I had to capture the first little guy.  Later as we drove to the lock and dam we come across this Turkey Vulture with a face only a mother could love.  He let us get very closed before he took his food and moved on.

Fun afternoon.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Monday ~ July 24, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 24, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

Happy Monday!

I have three images today.  If you like sunsets, then I hope you will enjoy these.  If not then please check back tomorrow.

All three of these images were captured our first evening at the camp.  We got there about 4:00 p.m. as you cannot check in until after 3:00 p.m.  It is a rustic place run by wonderful friendly people.  Although this was our first time there most of the people I met during the week had been coming to the camp for years.  They all knew each other very well and spent many nights at the lodge exchanging stories and memories.

While I was photographing the sunset this fishing boat was returning to the camp.  I have no idea if they caught anything but I thought it was a good capture against setting sun.

I still love to photograph gulls and I noticed this guy sailing by and I hit the shutter while trying to catch up to him.  By the time I caught up with him (with the focus point) he was too far away.  It was only in post processing that I thought it was worthy of showing you.

That’s it for today.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Sunday ~ March 19, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 19, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Happy Sunday!

Jeanne and I went down to the river yesterday.  It was the first day in the last week that I have felt good enough to pursue my photography.  I thought I was getting over my cold but got a second punch Tuesday and left work early Thursday.  Nasty stuff.

Anyway I have three images today.  There wasn’t much going on at the river so I didn’t get a lot of good images.

I always enjoy photographing the antics for Ring-Billed Gulls.  They were close to the water’s edge when we were at McDonald’s park so I grabbed a few shots of them.

There were some boats in the water near the lock and dam.  I captured this image because of the dog in the boat.  He seemed to be enjoying himself while his owner fished.

That’s it for today.  I feel a little better today so I’m going to get out among them.

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Tuesday ~ February 28, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 28, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

february-27-2017

Happy Tuesday!

It has been some time since I was last at the Green Island Nature Preserve and the last time I was there a lot of it was closed because of hunting season.

I was hoping to see some migrating birds but I was obviously a little early.  The only birds I saw were the ubiquitous Canadian Geese and a lot of Mallard Ducks.  The Mallards were very far away and I couldn’t get a decent image of them.  I was watching them as this Ring-Billed Gull flew past me looking for some food.  I watched him make a pass, turn around and come back through.  I was happy with this image.

february-27-2017-a

There were a lot of geese beginning to nest and I watched some turf battles over nesting rights.  Nothing serious.  🙂

There was an eagle flying over the marsh but again he was too far away for a decent image.

february-27-2017-b

So it was back to tracking the gull and photographing him.  I told myself, all I would have had to do was drive down to the river in Dubuque and I would have had the same shots.  It’s always fun to go to Green Island but I have to admit I was disappointed in the lack of subjects.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Saturday ~ December 10, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 10, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , .

december-08-2016

Happy Saturday!

I have three images for you today.  I must have a thousand or more images of eagles sitting on a tree branch, but when I see one I have to photograph it.  I was down at the Lock & Dam #11 in Dubuque to see if any eagles were fishing.  They were not but there were 20 or more in the trees by the Lock and Dam.  That’s the most eagles I’ve seen by the dam in a very long time.

That is exciting because it means it won’t be much longer and I’ll head a little South of here to do some eagle photography in LeClaire.  🙂

december-08-2016-a

Come to think of it I have thousands of images of Ring-Billed Gulls and Canadian Geese as well.  Same problem, when I see them I feel compelled to photograph them.  I need to do some traveling and experience some new scenery.  🙂

december-08-2016-b

My wife and my Friend Betty both love geese and there were hundreds of them at the 16th Basin and at Buck’s Branch yesterday so I had my pick.  I started following this couple right after they swam out from under the bridge on 16th Street.  They were pretty far apart but came within inches of running into each other.  I mean maybe an inch as they were watching me the entire time.

That’s it for today.  We are supposed to get a major snow storm this weekend.  Jeanne and I have a Christmas party to go to out-of-town and we will be watching the radar this afternoon.  There was a time when it didn’t matter what the weather was we were out among them.  A lot older and a tiny bit wiser has made me much more cautious.

Enjoy your day.  Stay warm and be careful.

 

Friday ~ March 11, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 11, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

March-11-2016-03-06-16-A

Happy Friday!

I have some random wildlife images for you today and none of them are eagles.  🙂

Busy work week didn’t leave anytime for photography.  I hope to correct that today as I get out and see what there is to make images of.

March-11-2016-03-06-16-B

I made these images last Monday at Mud Lake Park, North of Dubuque.  I saw this little squirrel scurrying about but didn’t realize he had a nut in his mouth until I got the second image of him when he climbed a tree.  The first shot is of him playing hide and seek with me, hoping that I had gone away.  🙂

March-11-2016-03-06-16-C

“Any port in a storm.” Gulls rest and sleep on a thin piece of ice floating in the back waters of the Mississippi.

March-11-2016-03-06-16-D

I can never pass up a chance to photograph Mallard Ducks.  They are such a vibrant, beautiful, and colorful bird.

That’s it for today.  Hope you enjoy your day and as always be careful.

Wednesday ~ March 09, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 9, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

March-09-2016-03-05-16-A

Happy Wednesday!

I have 5 images for you today and not one of them is of an eagle. 🙂

This image of a blue heron was taken on Saturday at the 16th Street Basin.  I was able to get pretty close to this guy before he decided to fly away.  Normally herons are pretty skittish but for some reason he didn’t seem to mind me until I crossed that magic line and then he was gone.

March-09-2016-03-06-16-B

There was a lot of activity at the Bee Branch Canal and these geese added to the population.  My friend Andreas is always talking about capturing the gesture that a creature makes and so I like to show you this image of the male goose asserting his manhood and saying “here I am baby.”  🙂

March-09-2016-03-06-16-C

These little gulls are pretty adept at catching fish.  Their only problem is hanging on to the fish long enough to get a meal out of it.  Like I showed in the blog yesterday it didn’t take long for a big eagle to swoop down and grab this fish from the frightened gull trying to get out of the way of the eagle.

March-09-2016-03-06-16-A

On the banks of the canal these common black birds were hunting for food as well.  We see them all the time and really don’t pay much attention to them but they are a wonderful bird none the less.

March-09-2016-03-06-16-D

My friend Andreas has been watching an owl at the Mud Lake Park for a few years and has documented several off spring of the owl.  I have never been able to get a glimpse of it let alone a photograph.  So Sunday I had my lucky day and caught this image of the owl keeping watch over the area while she sits on her egg.  Exciting.

That’s it for today.  Thank you as always for following my blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Tuesday ~ March 08, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 8, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , .

March-08-2016-03-05-16-A

Happy Tuesday!

Several images for you today that will tell the story of what happened at the 16th Street Basin on Saturday.  The Ring-billed gulls are very adept at catching fish.  They are not very good at keeping them or eating them.  The eagles on the other hand are really good at stealing fish from the gulls and generally what I see is that the gulls tend to get what the eagles finally discard.

In the above image the little gull has caught a fish and I have several shots of it dragging the fish onto the ice.  It’s quite a chore for the gull as the fish is probably too large for him to eat because of all the competition from the other gulls but more important because there are eagles watching his every move.

March-08-2016-03-05-16-B

Silly little gull now seems to be announcing to the world that he has caught a fish and he is proud of his effort.  Once I saw the fish on the ice I disregarded the gull and kept my lens focused on the fish because from experience I knew what was coming next.

March-08-2016-03-05-16-C

All of a sudden the little gull took to the air and in the blink of an eye the eagle swooped down from his perch and grabbed the little gull’s fish and was off.  I have watched this scenario time and time again.  The gulls do the work and the eagles get the prize. 🙂

I know that this is a butt shot but what I like about it is the fact that you can still see the eagle’s eye and his catch of the day.

March-08-2016-03-05-16-D

On his way with his lunch firmly ensconced in his mighty talons the eagle departs the scene to enjoy his meal.  What of the little gull?  He returned to the scene as if looking for his catch but it was gone.  So he would have to fish some more and hopefully still get something for his effort.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.