Male Red-winged Blackbird

I'm on a roll with these redwings!  Here is another:

All dressed up in his fancy duds!

This one was photographed at Pigeon Creek Park in Bettendorf, Iowa.  This park is unknown to many residents and is a hidden gem, tucked away is it is behind some industrial businesses.  But what a lovely place to take a walk along a relatively undisturbed stretch of the river.

Female Red-winged Blackbird

It is always a special thrill to get a good shot of a female red-winged blackbird.  They are very coy and I was so happy this picture turned out!

The females are the nest builders.  They secure their cup-shaped nests to branches and defend them against all comers.  They may be drab in color compared to their male counterparts, but they are just as fabulous on the hunt and in caring for their nestlings.

Taking Flight

Was lucky enough to see this Great Egret the other day, and took these pictures of it taking flight.  Watching it was a marvel.  No wonder mankind has always been fascinated with flight!

Evening Primrose

You have probably heard of evening primrose oil, and all of its wonderful benefits - from aiding skin conditions to lowering blood pressure to helping reduce cramping and breast tenderness in women.  Here's the source of that oil:

Visually, this wildflower really comes into its own in the fall, when its pretty yellow blossoms stand out against the dead and dying grasses around it.

It's a biennial plant, like mullein.  In its first year, it forms leaves close to the ground, in a rosette.  During the second year, the stems grow quite tall ( 6 feet or more) and the blossoms appear, as in this stand that Hyperion is examining, below:

Evening primrose has distinctive, barrel-shaped seed pods, which spiral their way up the stalk like little stair steps.

Another identifying feature is the color of the buds.   They are first green, and then take on a rusty color before blooming.

Parts of the plant are edible, but do your homework first!  Some people are allergic to compounds in the plant.  

The blossoms open in the evening, hence its common name.  The blossoms apparently give off a lemon scent but I did not notice that at the time I took these pictures.  The blossoms open in the evening, hence this plant's common name.

To see very cool videos of blossoms opening in real time, check out this website for Yosemite National Park: 

 http://www.yosemitehikes.com/wildflowers/evening-primrose/evening-primrose.htm

The scientific name Oenothera refers to wine generally.  I read that this name means everything from "wine-scented" to "wine-imbibing".  The jury is also still out on whether this is truly a native species.  Some claim it originated in Europe, but this seems unlikely.

Snakes Alive!

In all my walks and all my wanderings, since I took up photographing animals and plants, I have never seen a snake on my own.  And then yesterday - I saw two!

The first snake was swimming through the flood waters at Pigeon Creek Park, over, around and under the mass of floating debris.  It was his movement that attracted my attention, with his head just sticking out of the water and his long, narrow body trailing behind.  He pulled up on a log and rested part of his body but kept a wary eye on me:

The second snake was at Eagle's Landing, where there weren't many trees to provide shade.  As a result, you can see more of the pattern this second snake was sporting, unlike the first.

I'm not an expert on snakes, and have only done a little research on these.  There's not much to go on.  My best guess, based on the markings, is that both snakes were the fairly common Northern Water Snake.  They cruise along shorelines and in backwaters eating as they go - fish, crawfish, baby turtles and even worms.  

Northern Water Snakes are vicious, and are known to strike at and bite people repeatedly when disturbed or cornered - so keep your distance!  They are not venomous, so washing the bites is the only treatment needed, but ouch!  Snakes are not my favorite critters, but still - they do play a role in a healthy ecosystem.

Muskrat Again

I saw another muskrat in the same place as last year! 

The Mississippi is flooding and the waters have reached a walkway in one of my favorite parks.  This allows the muskrats to swim very close to the path, and has serendipitously created an opportunity - two years in a row - for me to photograph muskrats!  

Last year I just saw one swimming frantically back and forth.  This year, the muskrat I saw was swimming in a more leisurely fashion.  He even took time to climb onto a log, so I was able to get a full body shot instead of just two little pointy ears with two eyes and a snout poking out of the water.

While diving under the surface he found a plant he liked and came up smiling with it.  He proceeded to eat it up as he sat on the log, and later as he wallowed in the water up to his elbows.

Hazy Day

I scurried out for a walk yesterday morning, in spite of the lowering clouds.  I guess I thought that if I could just get out into the woods in time, the rain would hold off just for me, and I could get in a full walk.  No such luck.

When I arrived at Pigeon Creek Park, everything seemed gray and still.  Then I got out of the car.  Something about the overcast sky gave a luminosity to the changing leaves, and everything green seemed to glow with a faint inner light.

The air was filled with chirps, trills and chips.  There were sparrows, cardinals, goldfinches, red-winged blackbirds, and even crows and jays.

I spent some time trying to I.D. a new bird I heard among the dead and dying cup plants, that towered over me like a forest in their own right, but again - no luck there.  I taped the sound in hopes of identifying it later, when I got back home.

A squirrel kept running up and down the path, like a mad man.  I wondered what he was up to, but figured it had to do with seeds and nuts.

The goldfinches were as secretive as ever, dashing about in their perfect camouflaged suits.

The goldfinch is right in the center of this photo, in the angle of the center forked branches.

A black-capped chickadee came a little closer.

The woods were glooomy.

A couple of frogs who were pond-side gave me a start as they leaped away from my advancing footsteps.  I guess they were as scared of me as I was of their sudden movement in the bushy grass..

Coming out of the woods and onto the river, I took a look at the the arched shore, hoping for new waterfowl, or any waterfowl to photograph.  Not much was stirring but a couple of pairs of mallards - far down the beach.

I knew the killdeer were out there too, but I just couldn't see them.

I went out to the first point, walking into grey nothingness.  The water was the same color as the sky.  Rain began to fall.  A nuthatch tapped quietly on the tree nearest me, seeking insects under the bark.

As I turned back to the sandy shoreline, a sandpiper just couldn't stand it anymore, and burst from its cover in the marshy grasses - a blur of brown and white.

Another bird flew across my field of view, and landed on a bare branch - a northern flicker.  I love the splash of red they wear on the napes of their necks!

It was then that I heard a faint call.  It sounded like it came from out over the water.  I wasn't sure what kind of a call it was - and no birds were in sight.

The sky was bare, so I scanned the shoreline, looking for possible herons and egrets.  It didn't sound like a heron's grumpy croaking, but I don't know what kind of sound they make when they are happy or interacting with loved ones.  So I looked - but saw nothing.

After some time, I heard the call again, muffled and faint.  Then saw a big bird in the sky - making a beeline for the tree tops.  It was so far away, I couldn't tell what it was, even when I zoomed in on it with my camera.

A couple of minutes later, I heard more calling and saw two birds racing away from the tree tops.

At first I thought it might be a smaller bird mobbing a crow away from its nest, or a crow chasing a hawk.  I even wondered if it were a hawk and a vulture having a squabble, but the calls didn't match any of these birds.  That's when I guessed these might be eagles.  Eagles have that distinctive ratcheting kind of call.

It wasn't until I got home and zoomed way in on the photos that I was able to see the white heads and realized that yes, this was a pair of bald eagles.

Are  they nesting on that point off Pigeon Creek Park?  Have they just arrived from the north, or do they live here year round?

 Or, are these the ALCOA eagles, Liberty and Justice?  The plant is about a mile downriver, near the tower and smokestack pictured here:

I'll probably never know.  But here's a link to the ALCOA eagle website for your reading pleasure.  You can also get to their eagle cam from here:
 http://www.alcoa.com/locations/usa_davenport/en/info_page/eaglecam.asp

Joke's On Me

A bright splash of color in the midst of a sea of green underbrush - what could it be? Determined to find out, I left the footpath and waded into the weeds, keeping my eye on the prize.

"It must be some new, rare flower - growing all alone like that," I thought, as I ignored the fact that most of the understory weeds I was passing through had leaves-of-three.

The closer I got, the brighter the "red blossoms" became.  I couldn't imagine what kind of exotic flower was flourishing there, beckoning to me in that shady, desolate spot.  I mentally cringed at all the poison ivy around me and pressed on.

Finally I found my prize.  Here's what I saw:

The rare paintius fluorenscus!

Yes, the joke was on me.  I had seen something bright and flashy alright - surveyor's marking paint - fluorescent pink!

I went on to find a number of plants that had been spray-painted in the area - mostly isolated weeds here and there, with no rhyme or reason that I could make out.

Eventually I found a few surveyor's ribbons marking this and that.  Something's up at the park, people!  I wonder what it is?

Ironweed

Ironweed is a plant I had never seen or heard of before, until I ran into it on the banks of the Mississippi River.  I was drawn to its deep purple blossoms.

This is prairie ironweed, as opposed to the similar tall ironweed.

Ironweed apparently takes its common name from its strong stem, and perhaps also from the rusty color of its faded blooms.

Its scientific name is Veronia fasciculata.  Veronia comes from the name of noted botanist William Vernon.  Fasciculata refers to the way the flowers are clumped closely together.  In tall ironweed the blooms spread out more widely.

This is a native plant, and is sometimes used in domestic flowerbeds.

Northern Leopard Frog

Frogs always leap away from me before I even know they are there, so I don't usually run into them or have much chance to photograph them, but yesterday was different.  There were two, and one scurried away over the edge of the stream bank.  The other one didn't go quite so far.

I was delighted to get any kind of picture at all, since amphibians are not my specialty.

Once home, I found that I had photographed a leopard frog.  They are pretty common in Iowa.  Leopard frogs have roundish spots scattered across their backs, and stripes on their legs.  To a novice like me, they look a lot like the more rare pickerel frogs, but pickerels have two fairly symmetric rows of square or rectangular spots running down their backs.

The light-colored line running from his eye to his back hip is called a dorsolateral fold. They have a similar line running from under their eye to their front shoulder.

These frogs are edible, but make sure you know what you have before you eat it, as some frogs are not.

Bucket List Gold

Ever since I started this blog, I have been wanting to get a bright photo of an American Goldfinch.  I have photographed goldfinches before, but they were in their duller, non-breeding plumage at that time.  Read that post here:  http://foundonthetrail.blogspot.com/2012/10/charmed-im-sure.html .

Today the lure of gold drew me out.  I headed out to a certain park of which I know, where there is exceptional goldfinch habitat (read:  seeds, Seeds, SEEDS!).

I parked my car, and got out.  I put the camera strap around my neck and took off the lens cap.  I was ready to go hunt down some goldfinches when - surprise, surprise - one came to me!

This fellow (it's a male) landed at the top of a tree right off the parking lot!  I wasn't even sure what it was when I aimed my camera that way, but to my delight, the zoom function brought into view this bright fellow:

Weighing about 1/2 an ounce, this goldfinch doesn't even weigh down this flimsy tree top.

My smile was wider than the my display screen, which showed his lovely black and gold.  What do you know?  Sometimes it's that easy.

This goldfinch didn't stick around long.  He had territory to defend, women to woo, and seeds to eat.  But I was thrilled with my capture and went on to enjoy a long ramble, knowing I had the goods on my memory card.

Two Leaves

I think these two leaves are both masterpieces - each in their own way.

Sometimes, I just can't get enough of leaves!

Brilliant Swamp Milkweed

This brilliantly-colored swamp milkweed caught my eye the other day:

I loved the deep pinky-purpose blossoms.

This was quite a tall and robust specimen.  Must be a great swamp!

Spotted Sandipiper

I was walking along the Mississippi River yesterday, and saw a streak of movement against the muddy shoreline.

When I turned to look more closely, it wasn't there.

This happened again and again until I realized that there were some little birds dashing about who were perfectly camouflaged.

Here are the same two pictures, with the fledglings circled.

It was a nest of little spotted sandpipers.  They slipped away up the shore and I was left with just a few fleeting glimpses.

An ever watchful parent was not far away - probably the dad, since they do the raising of the little ones.

Thankfully I had a couple of clear enough shots that I could I.D. the birds.

Spotted sandpipers are one of the most easy shorebird to identify - luckily for me.  Their spotted breast (prominent during mating season) and the white and black eyelines help distinguish them from other sandpipers.