Recently the Siouxland area had another snow storm. This one dropping anywhere between 4-12 inches depending on where lucky souls happened to reside throughout the region. I felt really bad for some neighborhood residents as they tried to find food after this snow fall and made attempts during a very cold morning to get a meal.
I watched these neighbors dashing to and fro win the snow, chasing one another away from a possible food source and constantly looking. I photographed them for a while, watching the antics hopes of finding something to eat after the passing storm. Finally I had spent enough time getting fresh air and freezing my toes off. So I put my gear away and returned with nutrients that I filled feeders and spread about the ground, although the little buggers do that well enough themselves as they rush the feeders. Hopefully they got their fill for the time being before looking again in the afternoon as they always do before settling in for the night.
While watching critters, birds and other animals in Siouxland, I am sometimes amazed at the civil behavior I witness. When photographing birds feeding they will often times work to move one another out of the way so they too can get a “seat at the table” of a particular bird feeder. But watching a couple of house finches, which could actually be mates, the male watched as the female drank from a bird feeder and then helped himself. Whether planned or not or behavioral or not, this particular day the male was chivalrous to the female until they drank their fill and left.
As I began photographing more birds both near home and in parks around Siouxland I began to pay more attention to the perches these feathered folk use. Sometimes it is very sturdy and at others it seems to follow that phrase “any port in a storm” where they may situate themselves as they take stock of the surrounding area. Birds in some of the parks have sometimes more choice for perches, as often times these places also provide a kind of prairie habitat which is generally not available in neighborhoods within a community.
And photographing in these two different places create their own challenges. In a neighborhood one can sit a spell, especially near feeders and birds will come and go and possible give more opportunities to photograph them as they rest on a perch before heading to a feeder. Whereas in the park’s meadow area the birds can see you coming from some distance off and I have found one is only able to get so close necessitating the use of a long lens often times with a teleconverter to make an image of the bird “in the wild” so to speak. And of course as in so many things, timing is everything. Sometimes the act of bringing a camera to one’s eye will spook a bird so one needs to be aware and judge how close and how long one wants to hold a lens up into a position to get a photograph of a particular subject.
In the meadow areas using a tripod or monopod is just another piece of gear to carry for some distance, possibly a few miles while hiking, which is not always fun and tiring. So trade offs are made while one “enjoys” oneself out in nature with possibly the benefit of a photograph of some creature also enjoying the day.
As the winter temperatures yo-yo back and forth between warmish and downright cold in Siouxland, I thought I would pay tribute to some backyard visitors until next year when the weather will be decidedly more pleasant. Cool is not bad, downright freezing is not. I would guess some of the visitors might be regular, but still they stayed long enough for me to attempt photographs, many of them, and I hope to see them back next year as the days grow longer and warmer.
Sometimes it’s nice to have a companion when sitting down for a meal. Sharing the day’s tribulations and other goings on plus events happening around, “the feeder”. Many times I catch the feathered friends sharing a feeder and eating quickly as they gorge, fly off, and return to gorge again. The fall I haven’t seen as many passing birds it seems going through the area, at least in my neighborhood, but I know that must be flying through to new destinations. Fall is slowly progressing. Cold days and nights, warm days and nights, it’s been an unusual fall. And anticipating it will continue to be so. Can’t say I mind the slow progression.
When winter arrives all the news says it will be extremely cold and lots and lots of snow. I like the idea of lots and lots of snow, but the extreme cold is getting old and it doesn’t allow the snow to leave until sometime in March or April.
During a current hot spell in Siouxland I might poke my head out my door in the morning to see what the weather is like and sometimes sit outside enjoying the bird song as backyard visitors stop by for a snack or a meal. But these days the afternoons are insufferable with the heat and humidity so I don’t sit out there watching my “guests” come and go. I have to refill the feeders so I know they are still stopping by and am glad of it. Hoping for a cool weather interlude, if only for a day or so to start the morning with some fresh air before hibernating from the heat that surely will follow.
Many mornings when it’s pleasant enough to sit outside in the morning to enjoy that first “cup of Joe” in Siouxland I will hear a familiar reframe. Knock, knock, knock, knock in a staccato kind of fashion. And then see the visitor looking for a more reliable treat after checking the usual spots for insects. Nothing wrong with a little desert.
With the recent heat wave and high temperatures I haven’t been sitting outside much to watch my backyard friends in Siouxland. Although I keep them fed and watered and really early on those mornings when the temps are hovering in the 60’s I sit outside listening to bird song before the temperature spike to the 90’s as the day wears on.
It’s just fun to watch these creatures, some of which I think are conscious of being watched as they appear to keep checking and posing, which I guess is my cue to only capture their best side, the famous quote mentions, “Ready for my close up, Mr DeMille.”
Nature seems to always be surprising me, even when I don’t know that it is. But I keep learning even if by mistake. Spring time is filled with love in the air, even in Siouxland. Finding these two finches becoming animated a birder friend explained to me the male house finch is courting the female house finch and in the process showing its ability to be a good provider. Seems love the kind of thing that crosses the line of all species. And as the saying goes, “Watch and Learn.”
In my neck of the woods in Siouxland there seems to be a single or pair of Cooper’s Hawks that live about the area. I see one, rarely both, flying above or landing nearby, sometimes closer than I personally would like.
The weather this particular day had been off and on with a rain shower, although mostly off in the immediate area. So I was surprised when the hawk showed up looking a little ruffled and damp. Possibly getting caught in a down pout nearby and then finding a place to do a little drying off. The towel guy wasn’t available this particular day.
I live in the Siouxland area that encompasses a wide swatch of land in northwest Iowa, northeastern Nebraska and southeastern South Dakota. The people that inhabit this area are generous folk and your basic honest, Midwestern people you like to have as neighbors. I explore the area and share observations, mostly photographic, sometimes through video, and and short text. All images and video are copyrighted material of the author.
Jerry Mennenga, Sioux City, Iowa
jerrylmennenga@yahoo.com
lostinsiouxland 