Wildlife Photography

All posts tagged Wildlife Photography

Thursday ~ February 01, 2024

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 1, 2024
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

Happy Thursday!

I had the opportunity to spend some time this afternoon at the river.  I was reminded of the fish on a board and when you pushed the red button it would sing, “Take me to the River, throw me in the water.”

It was an unusually warm day in Dubuque and the sun was shining so it was the perfect day to go down to the river.  I was surprised, (although I shouldn’t have been) to see so much open water.  There was very little ice on the river.

Found a bunch of Mallard Ducks along the shore line and I had fun trying to photograph them.  At first they all swim away from you but after they determine you’re not a threat to them they be come more relaxed.

I did a far amount of walking to day, which is good I need the exercise but it was tiring and so I was a little bit sore when I got home.

Remember as always you can click on the image to reveal a larger more detailed rendition of the image.

I couldn’t pass up a chance to photograph a tree that was so perfectly surround by the river.

Once the ducks got use to me they started getting back on the ice and settling down for a nice afternoon nap.

It was a fun afternoon.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your weekend and be careful.

Friday ~ January 01-07-2024

Posted by Dave Updegraff on January 5, 2024
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

Happy Friday!

One of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2024 is to shoot more images.  I’ve gotten away from taking images that catch my attention.  To  that end I purchased a used / refurbished camera that is small enough to carry with me all the time and yet has the ability to deliver some quality images.

Interestingly, I had  this same camera in October 2018 and liked some to the features it had but it didn’t deliver the things I wanted in a camera at the time.  You can see some of the images I took with it at this address on my blog –> November 2018.  (i.e., use the list of dates on the right side of this blog to see the images.

So today I took it with me as I drove around down by the river before a lunch engagement I had.  I came to realize some interesting things.

This camera is good at so many things, (i.e., quick point-n-shoot images, far away images, and images that do not demand a “tack sharp” rendition of the subject of the photo.) As an example, like the one above.

So as long as you understand its limitations and its strengths you can use it to your advantage.  We all have said strengths and weaknesses and it’s important to use them when possible. The above image was taken because it had the Dubuque Water Tower in the background and there was a lot of smoke coming from the smoke stack on the building.  The problem is  the smoke did not get captured by the camera.

So using this camera in the proper settings will deliver great images.  But don’t expect it to do everything that a high quality DLSR will produce.

Remember you can click on any of the images to show a larger more detailed image. 

So that ‘s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by the blog and remember to enjoy your day and be careful.

Monday ~ September 25, 2023

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 24, 2023
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Happy Monday!

I know, you’re getting tired of Egrets already.  I was not intent on photographing any Egrets this time as I traveled to a different location on the Mississippi River.  I actually was just going to do some drone flying around the river but these Egrets were everywhere.

For me it is cool to find Egrets in a tree.  It just doesn’t seem to me that they are suited for landing in trees but they certainly seem comfortable doing so.

You can click on any image to make a larger more detailed photograph appear.  The video below is super short.  I just wanted to see what was on the other side.  Kind of like the chicken crossing the road. 🙂

This is a little 2 minute video of crossing the river.  Enjoy

Enjoy your day and  be careful.

Friday ~ September 08, 2023

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 8, 2023
Posted in: Daily Posts, General Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

Happy Friday or as I use to say when I was working TGIF

Over the last couple of years you have heard me lament the loss of a great wildlife area in the 16th Street Basin.  Almost all of the trees (that eagles used to perch in) were taken out and a vast solar panel array made it difficult for wild life to use the basin.

There were countless times that I would drive to the basin anticipating some wildlife only to find the basin void of any life at all.

Back on August 13th I wrote about the Basin and how I found a lot of wildlife there for the first time in a long time.  Here is the link in case you want to read my rant.  https://updedesignsblog.com/2023/08/13/sunday-august-13-2023/

Well on that day there were 30 or more Egrets, Ducks, Canada Geese, and Pelicans.  I even found a Blue Heron that I wasn’t even aware of until I saw it in post processing the image.

You can see him in the upper right corner of this image.  Unbelievably I have not been back to the Basin to see if the Wildlife are still frequenting the place.

A bunch of ducks were in various parts of the Basin.  The water level like so many areas was very low on the 13th.  I’ll have to get back down there this weekend and see what’s going on.

Remember you can click on any image to reveal a larger more detailed view of the image.

Always the ubiquitous Canada geese were present.  Most of them were on the far side of the Basin, too far away for a good image.

There were a fair amount of Pelicans at the Basin but a lot more at the lock and dam.  With the Nikon D500 set on high continuous mode I ripped off about 700 images.  Most of them were duplicates and my lack of practice with big lens was obvious with a high number of unsharp images.

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

Friday ~ July 15, 2022

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 15, 2022
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Happy Friday.

Had lunch with my beautiful daughter Wednesday and afterward I wandered down to the river.  Found this guy at the 16th Street Basin, which is unusual since they have cleared all the trees the wildlife once used for protection.

I took a lot of shots of him and he didn’t seem to mind.  There were some Canada geese close by and a couple ducks, which I didn’t get any still shots of but I did take some video of the Heron and got the ducks and geese in the video.

I also ventured down to the river and captured this video of the small barge.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ May 18, 2022

Posted by Dave Updegraff on May 18, 2022
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

Happy (Hump Day) Wednesday!

I am not, by any stretch of the imagination. a “Wildlife Photographer.”  I do not study the various species, nor learn their nesting, breeding, eating habits, or their migration time.  Much of the time when I photograph a bird (like the one above) I have no idea what they are called.  I just love photographing and watching all kinds of wildlife.

So after spending about 15 minutes on the internet I “think” this bird is a Pectoral Sandpiper.  But it could just as well be a rooster for all I know.  Point is that for me and I’m only speaking for me, I just like to take photographs period.

Remember you can click on the images to make them large and far more detailed.

Now I do know that this is a pair of Canada Geese.  So I’m not totally oblivious to the species.  I did however use to call more than one goose Canadian Geese, which is wrong and it was pointed out to me in very specific terms.  🙂

For over 20 years I have enjoyed photographing all types of wildlife at the “Duck Pond” including all sorts of geese, pelicans, swans, herons, egrets, eagles, ducks, and assorted smaller birds.

I call it the Duck Pond because several of the locals in Maquoketa refer to it as such.  It is really the Hurstville Marsh / Wetlands.  It is located by the Hurstville Interpretive Center and is normally filled with lots of water.  However at the above image reveals the water levels are very low right now.

Here is a drone video that I shot a few years ago that will give you an idea how big the Marsh is.  Oh and by the way if you watch the full video you will also see that I crashed the drone.  😦

I’m not sure what this bird is.  He is much smaller than the first bird in this post and much quicker.  I probably took a hundred images at burst rate trying to capture this little guy in focus.

Finally this image of what I think are tadpoles.  But I’m really not sure.  What I do know is that there were thousands of these things swimming by my spot the 30 minutes I was there.  So what ever they are there is going to be a whole bunch of soon. 🙂

That’s it for today.  Hope to photograph some more stuff in the coming days.

Enjoy the rest of your day and be careful.

Tuesday ~ May 17, 2022

Posted by Dave Updegraff on May 17, 2022
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Happy Tuesday!

First off I’m not thrilled with any of these images today.  I have shot them over the last few weeks and my lack of skill is readily apparent.  But since I am going to do my best to post more often I thought I would share this potpourri of images.

I only have about 10,000 images of Canada Geese in my files but when I see one I photograph it for my friend Betty who loves Canada Geese.

Found this lone Trumpeter Swan floating down the river.  I thought he might come closer but apparently he didn’t like my presence and he meandered further away from me.

I can never pass up a chance to photograph a hawk, when one presents itself to me.  He didn’t stick around long after I took the first image.

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

Monday ~ October 11, 2021

Posted by Dave Updegraff on October 11, 2021
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Happy Monday!

There is a saying in photography that goes, “Once you’ve photographed your subject, turn around and you might just find another interesting subject.”

I had been photographing a heard of Bison across the highway and as I was walking back to the car I saw this Raven.  I had seen several of them in the park but they would never sit still long enough to get a decent shot of them.

He gave me a couple of different looks and then he decided to fly away.  They are an interesting bird and quite large.

This was our last day in the park and it was getting late in the day so we were headed back to our hotel.  We took a route that we had not been on before and saw this small water fall.  One of the great things about Yellowstone Park is there are numerous pull over spots for people to stop and look.

This is an area that had been ravaged by fire a few years ago.  Yellowstone keeps renewing itself and new growth and new life can be seen in the midst of the destruction.  The park averages 3 to 4 fires a year and some of the areas of the park are in pretty bad shape but there is always new growth occurring.

We found this thermal on our way out of the park.  If you click on the image to make it larger you will see in the upper left of the image the water boiling out of a hole.

Kind of a disgusting image but this is one of the many boiling mud pots that are around the park.  There is a strong smell of sulfur in the air and you are constantly aware of the activity under the surface.

I  really don’t know why this dead tree caught my attention but I felt compelled to photograph it so here it is.

I really hated leaving the park.  Jeanne said it is the most beautiful and exciting place on the planet in her mind.  I have to agree.  Every time you turn around there is another picture to be made or wonder to see.  Also kind of scary when you think that you are in the midst of one of the largest volcanoes in the world and the amount of destruction it would do when (not if), when it erupts would be cataclysmic.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Monday ~ September 06, 2021

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 6, 2021
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

Happy Monday!

Sorry for the delay in posting more images.  I have had some things going on in my life that have taken me away from my photography for awhile.  Today I have several images of Bison.  This was our third day in the park and we wanted to go back to the place where the”Buffalo Roam.”  Sorry I couldn’t help myself.  🙂

Please click on the image to see a larger more detailed version of the image.  Love the look on his face.  It was close to the mating season when we were there and this is one of the things male Bison do to attract a mate.


This was after his dust roll and he came down to where his lady friend was standing.  You can still see a little bit of the dust  around him.  You can see he is announcing his presence with his low bellow.  When they do that I must admit it sounds ominous and foreboding.


I don’t know what she is thinking but she doesn’t look all the interested in him.  He stood beside her for several minutes.  Just swishing flies with his tail and every once in a while he would bellow again.


We never saw that many calves but when we did they were very close to their mother.  If you look closely at his coat you can see that he has had a few scrapes already in his young life.

This is what happens when a Bison decides to cross the road.  Major traffic jam. We saw an entire heard cross the road on our fist day in the park and we were far enough back with our van that I couldn’t get a shot of it.  The park rangers were there to make sure they all got across the road.  An average bull weighs 850 pounds and can run at about 35 mph so they are a presence to be reckoned with.


And now for our biggest adventure.  We had stopped at a picnic area to have some lunch.  There were lots of people there and we thought we were lucky to find an empty table.  There was a group of eight to our left and a group of 4 to our right.  Jeanne happened to mention that all the trees in the area had the bark rubbed off.

Not long after she said that we heard a low bellow and there he was.  He was coming straight to our area.  All of us in unison ran to our cars until he passed.  He came up to our car and I was wondering how I was going to explain this big dent in the car.  But he didn’t bother us and he casually walked on down to the stream for a drink and most of us went back to our lunch.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ August 25, 2021

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 25, 2021
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Happy Wednesday!

I will continue with our last day in the park.  We saw some new things but we also went back to a couple of things we saw on our first day.  Namely the Yellowstone Grand Canyon and the area where we saw so many Bison on our first day.

On our way to the canyon we saw a small heard of elk feeding and resting.  We weren’t lucky enough to see any bulls but we enjoyed watching these just taking it easy.

Back at the Grand Canyon the shear size and beauty of it is breath taking.  As much as I tried no image can show the depth and breath of the magnificent place.

This image of the water fall was taken at a much higher vantage point then on our fist day.  If you click on the image to make it larger you can actually see the people at the very top of the water fall.

When Angie and Ben were at the water fall they were standing where these people are and said the sound of the water was deafening

Every turn is another image waiting to be taken.  This image was taken from the same vantage point as the one of the falls.  I just turned 180 degrees and was greeted with this magnificent view.

Not too far from where the water fall is there is this Osprey nest.  There was a placard detailing how many times the Osprey would frequent the nest.  It was not their mating season so we had no chance of seeing them on the nest.  I never saw one the entire trip.

Heading for the land of the Bison and came across this beautiful site of the hills, trees, and puffy clouds.  These clouds later produced a pretty decent rain storm and gave the park about a half inch of rain.

I’ll be posting some more images soon.  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day and be careful.